Introduction
Adam Ellis, Olga Marques, and Anthony Gunter
Part I: They Don’t Give a F**k about Us! Defanging and Decolonizing the Criminological Enterprise
1. Problematizing Traditional Criminological Perspectives on Thugs and Gangs
Olga Marques
2. The White Male Criminological Gaze as Pornography: The Quasi-Sexual Academic Obsession with Black “Gang Bangers”
Anthony Gunter
3. Writing Themselves Out of Research: “Whitemaleness” and the Study of “Gang” Active Young Women
Clare Choak
4. Somethin’ Doesn’t Seem Right: A Commentary on the “Scientific Method” and “Gang”Research
Adam Ellis and Anthony Gunter
Part II: “Getting Over” and Inside the Ivory Tower
5. I Am (Not) What You Say I Am: The Colonizers’ “Gang”
Gregory (Chris) Brown
6. A Black Scholar’s Intellectual Journey and Subsequent Perspective on the White Colonial “Gang” Project
Ian Joseph
7. Good Trouble: Creating Spaces for Criminalized Populations in the Ivory Tower
Lily Gonzalez, Javier Rodriguez, and Robert Weide
Part III: Word on the Street
8. Shook Ones: An Insider’s Perspective on Trauma, PTSD, and the Reenactment of Street-Related Violence
Adam Elis, Stephanie Belanger, and Luca Berardi
9. (De)Criminalizing the “Code of Silence" – Reflections of a Former “Gangbanger” Turned Academic
Anthony Hutchinson and Jared Millican
10. The Raid: State Violence and Traumatic Responses in the Lives of Black Women
Melissa McLetchie
11a. Letter from the Streetz: Growing Up in the Gutter
Chad Briand aka Turk
11b. Letter from the Streetz: Don’t Interrupt Me
TG
11c. Letter from the Penetentiary: The Change in Me
Alejandro Vivar
11d. Letter from the Streetz: Dear Hip Hop
Marcus Singleton aka Iomos Marad
Part IV: Decolonizing the Gang Industry
12. Crime as Disease Contagion and Control: The Public Health Perspective and Implications for Black and Other Ethnic Minority Communities
Anthony Gunter
13. A Violent Cure? Problematizing the “Cure Violence” Initiative
Malte Riemann
14. When the System Harms: An Insider’s Perspective on the Negative Socio-psychological Impact of So-Called “Gang Intervention”
Tammy Tinney
15. Fight Poverty, Fight Crime: A Justice Focused Approach for Toronto/Canada
Yafet Tewelde and Julet Allen
16. We Make the Path by Walking It: Repairing, Restoring, and Constructing Pathways
Rick Kelly
Epilogue
Adam Ellis
Contributor Biographies