Homeboys Forever: The Lifetime Consequences of Gang Membership

Author/Contributor(s):	Valdez, Avelardo
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Date:	06/04/2026
Binding:	Paperback
Condition:	NEW

"We don't have to look far or hard to see the negative consequences of gang involvement. Violence, drug use, and imprisonment are all part and parcel of organized crime. But what does it really look like to spend a life--from adolescence to death, whether sooner or later--involved in gangs? In this book, Avelardo Valdez follows Mexican American men living in San Antonio, Texas, through their formative years into adulthood, watching and listening as they joined gangs and got caught up in the prison system, as they transformed from wiry, cocky adolescents to defeated and overweight middle-aged men. When gang affiliation suddenly exploded in the 1990s, Valdez was quick to begin investigating how street violence, drugs, and gangs interacted to pull in adolescents. The research didn't stop when the kids got older; Valdez continued to follow these young people as they moved in and out of prison. Over the course of twenty years, he uncovers the factors that push young people into gang life and the cascading and heartbreaking consequences of their involvement"-- Provided by publisher.