Daniel Monti is Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston University. He has written extensively on ethnic
relations, educational reform, violence, and urban affairs.
Review
"This is a book that generates rich insights into a disturbing societal problem bedevilling our entire
nation. People who deal with children but who have little personal knowledge about the neighborhoods and streets
where children live their private lives ... will gain a new outlook on the emotional scarring that children suffer
in gangs, a new appreciation of the scope and extent of the destructive dilemma gangs pose for our way of life,
and a new understanding of how best to approach the challenge of formulating constructive efforts of prevention
and rehabilitation in local urban, suburban, and rural communities across the United States."
--Thomas Shannon, National School Boards Association, USA
"Wannabe is a poignant reminder of just how difficult it will be to develop public policy designed to control
the 'youth gangs' which so terrorize both urban and suburban neighborhoods. Dan Monti's contribution is the brutal
honesty of his work. The words, however, are not his own. He lets the gang-bangers and wannabes tell their stories.
Chilling stories, 'out of the mouths of babes', about children and young adults who moonlight as organized criminals
and contract killers. God help us! We will need it."
--Robert Destro, Catholic University School of Law, Former member United States Commission on Civil Rights
"Dan Monti's study of the Fairview School District was in-depth and a revealing description of the impact
of gangs on school-age youth and the school environment .... Read and take heed, this is happening in your school
district."
--Superintendent, Fairview School District
"Wannabe is very well written, very interesting, and certainly of great importance in understanding how our
society is to deal with some of its most intractable problems. I was struck by the fact that gangs serve as a focus
of identity for those who join them, not because it is a new idea, but because our schools have been systematically
stripped of any affective qualities - anything that might provide an alternative sense of identity."
--Diane Ravitch, The Brookings Institution
Blackwell Publishers Web Site, February, 2001
Summary
Wannabe is the first book written about youth gangs in suburbs and schools. Based on interviews with over 400
boys and girls between the ages of ten and twenty, the author offers a vivid portrayal of their lives in and around
gangs. It chronicles the way in which suburban youths become involved with gangs, learn about committing crimes
and violent acts, and gradually begin to question their loyalty to gang life.
Contrary to the popular view of gang members as thoughtless thugs, Monti describes the difficult choices they make
and explores the youngsters' ambivalence toward dealing in illegal narcotics and taking up arms against neighbors
and their fellow students. Youngsters use gangs to express their disdain for an adult world that provides them
with few effective ways to become a conventional person and, at the same time, as a means to negotiate an entrance
into that very world.
Surburban Gnags are seen to be different from innercity gangs in some important ways. What young persons find in
their families, neighbourhoods, and schools clearly has an impact on the making and unmaking of gang members. Existing
theories and intervention strategies intended to suppress gangs or lure youngsters from gangs are found to be ineffective.
Far more important, Monti argues, are explanations of gang behaviour that focus on the power of conventional institutions
to make human beings that move from gangs into the larger world as the youngsters grow older. An ambitious plan
to rebuild a middle-class population of residents and business owners in cities is advanced as a way to help young
persons make their way into the conventional adult world that has heretofore been denied.
Table of Contents
Foreword: Edwin J Delattre.
1. Introductions.
2. Gangs in the World of Children.
3. Coming of Age.
4. Going Along with the Program.
5. Learning to Ride a Bicycle.
