"If He Keep Forcin' the Issue, We Don't Have No Choice": Understanding Modern Gang Violence in Chicago

Background and Purpose: Chicago is home to some of the nation’s oldest and largest street gangs, and these gangs are integrally involved in much of the serious violence in the city.  Street gangs and gang violence, however, are dynamic phenomena, and they are prone to wide variations over time.  Yet, despite widespread national media coverage, little research exploring changes in the nature of Chicago street gangs and the violence in which their members are involved has been conducted since the turn of the century.  As part of a broader research study exploring these dynamics, this paper focuses specifically on the nature of the violence in which Chicago gang members are currently involved.

Methods: In-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews lasting approximately 90 minutes were completed with 30 African American male gang members ages 16–32 actively involved in violence on Chicago’s South Side.  Participants were initially recruited through relationships with members of this population that the author developed as a community worker.  Additional participants were recruited via snowball sampling.  Interviews were recorded on a portable digital recording device, transcribed verbatim, and thoroughly stripped of potentially-identifying information.  Interview transcripts were then analyzed using a grounded theory process.

Findings: Study findings indicate that the hierarchical gang leadership structures that had existed in Chicago for decades have broken down among the city’s African American gangs, which have been effectively democratized, with collectivism, autonomy, and personal relationships replacing submission to the leadership hierarchy as the values upon which these gangs are fashioned.  Analysis of data from over 100 violent incidents, including physical altercations and shootings, reveal the ways in which this paradigm shift in gang structure has fundamentally altered the nature of gang violence in the city and clarify the dynamics of modern gang violence in Chicago.

Most centrally, the interorganizational drug wars that drove gang violence in Chicago during the 1990s have come to a definitive close, having been replaced with parochial conflicts largely rooted in personal animosities.  Individual gang members exercise undisputed autonomy within the context of these conflicts, although the actions of individual members ultimately produce consequences for the entire collective.  The advent of social media and the democratization of music technology, moreover, have provided new mediums by which gang members engage in conflicts and shape the ways in which violence plays out on the streets.  These dynamics have made violence within the context of current gang wars both certain and unpredictable.

Conclusions and Implications: Study findings reveal dramatic recent shifts in gang structure in Chicago and their effects on the nature of gang violence in that city.  These developments and an understanding of these issues rooted in current street dynamics, moreover, have important implications for efforts to reduce such violence.  Strategies rooted in the use of authority, coercion, or attempts to predict and interrupt violence, for example, are seriously misguided within the current street climate.  Study findings, however, suggest promising directions for policy and community practice efforts aimed at reducing violence going forward.