Although numerous studies have relied on the notion of street culture to explain why offenders commit an array of street crimes, researchers have generally overlooked the social processes that transmit street culture within and across populations. This article examines how personal stories about violent events shape and transmit street culture among active gang members and street-oriented youth. It conceptualizes street culture as a complex system of perceptual schemas that influences how individuals understand or perceive social events. The transmission of culture entails a collective struggle to make sense of social and personal experiences through the utilization and manipulation of cultural ideas. Drawing from ethnographic recordings of conversations between active gang members on the streets of Indianapolis, this study contends that personal narratives about violent events apply and help clarify the meaning of cultural ideas. They also follow a predictable violence script that establishes expectations for when to engage in violence, the intensity of violence to be used during conflicts, and the consequences for inaction.
Weapons and violence are both real and mythic elements of gang life. Though violence is a real element of gang life, public perceptions about gangs may be exaggerated, invoking the idea of dangerous youth roaming the streets. The image of violent gang members is also embraced and used by youth on the streets to navigate their social world. Gang members often create personal and group-based myths by exaggerating their use of weapons and violence. This chapter examines the division between myth and reality in gang life. It reviews research to establish that weapons and violence are real elements of gang members' lives throughout the world. It further explores how myths emerge among gang members who have ample motivation for fictionalizing violence and weapons use. This chapter relies on the social psychological ideas of social constructionism, interpretive socialization, and identity to explain the existence of myths in gang life.
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