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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this study by Erlanger was to examine the connection between machismo and violence among Hispanic gang members. The subculture of violence thesis was the perspective used to improve understanding of how cultural values such as machismo can determine violent and nonviolent behavior.
METHODOLOGY:
A non-experimental, case study was employed using data taken from more than 35 open-ended interviews. Two-thirds of the respondents used in the survey were Chicano males aged 15-30, had lived in one of the barrios of East Los Angeles, and had participated extensively in gang activity at some time. The age range of the Chicano's was 15-30. This age range allowed an assessment to be made of both the contemporary community situation at hand and the one found during the middle and late 1960's. The remaining respondents in the survey were police and probation officials, community program directors, and political figures with a comprehensive knowledge of the community and events discussed in this paper. Two questions from the subculture of violence thesis were examined in order to develop an explanation that offers a different understanding of the role of values in determining outcomes. 1) Can the hypothesized value differences between dominant and subculture be demonstrated, and 2) assuming that the value differences do exist, should they be regarded as the product of a semiautonomous subculture or should they be regarded as adaptation to situational context induced by social structure.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Chicano culture placed a strong emphasis on values such as courage and dignity for males, but how these values were manifested in behavior depended heavily on the broader context in which people function. In an estranged setting, these values were found to possibly lead to a high level of physical violence, but in a non-estranged setting, the evidence from this case study suggested that they do not. The core values of the Chicano gangs were not directly concerned with violence but rather with defense of self. Violence resulted from the blocking of alternative avenues to the maintenance of dignity. This stemmed from the Chicano's bombardment with the message that his language, culture, food, and habits were inferior and should be changed to conform to those of the Anglo society. The Chicano community felt that they were living in an environment controlled by an Anglo structure that they could not affect. These feelings of powerlessness, exclusion and absence of control over the conditions of one's existence could be summed up as estrangement. The youth in the barrio were rejected by Anglo society, and that society was rejected, in turn, for it demanded that they surrender their cultural identity in order to gain positive recognition. Thus most young Chicanos came to rely on the peer group for recognition because they provided status based on attributes of machismo such as courage, dignity and readiness to fight. It was more important for the young Chicano to have the willingness to fight rather than physical prowess. The most frequent cause of gang fights were violations of barrio turf, either physically or symbolically. The gang established control over the physical territory that constituted the barrio because this control over the physical space of the barrio seemed to convey a sense power for the gang. During 1967 to early 1972, a Chicano political movement emerged demanding control of the schools, social and law enforcement agencies, development of economic independence through governmental assistance, and the development of an independent local economic base. At the center of all of these issues was the notion of Chicano pride and a quest for unity and power. During this time there was an observed decline in the amount of fighting between gangs. The movement affected the level of gang-related violence primarily by changing the ideas of those youths affiliated with it and by changing the environment of the barrio for those not affiliated with the movement. The reduction in fighting came from all the gangs heightened sense of efficacy and from a commitment to the principle that all Chicanos are brothers and should not fight each other. This feeling was called carnalismo and usually connoted the feeling of pride and unity among the individual barrio gangs and often led to fighting among rival gangs. However, during the movement, carnalismo extended to the whole community and violence levels fell due to the new sense of courage and dignity that was achieved by all participants in the movement. In expanding their identity from the barrio to the broader Chicano community, several hundred gang members joined groups that maintained some of the characteristics of the gang but that were community rather than barrio based. During this period there was a decrease in interpersonal violence during the period of gang activism in the barrio, due to the increase in political consciousness and the feeling that Chicanos were going to change their life conditions for the better. When the movement disbanded, estrangement returned, and violence went on the upswing.
AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
The author believed that research on the relationship between violence and values needs to be broadened to include the possibility that violence may not flow from values that directly encourage it but may occur when structural circumstances prevent achievement of related values. A need for linking theories of deviance to theories of power and its distribution was identified. It was argued that a focus of attention on the relationship between estrangement and gang behavior is needed.
EVALUATION:
The subculture of violence thesis, as outlined in early studies, argues that there is a belief system among particular racial, ethnic, and socio-economic subcultures that condones violence. This study challenges this assumption that the values themselves produce violence. Instead, this author shows that strain between the need to express non-violent cultural values such as self and limited opportunities to do so is likely the mechanism of violence. Such findings suggest that the dominant culture has some influence on the expression of subcultural violence--a responsibility that the dominant culture usually will not recognize. The qualitative nature of this study creates a lack of generalizability which needs to be remedied by further study, both qualitative and quantitative, to more fully explore these implications. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) |