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Student Becomes ‘Gang Leader for a Day’
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Sudhir Venkatesh hung with a Chicago street gang for years to complete his graduate research. His tale is the latest in a history of similar undercover exploits.
30-Second Summary
While conducting a survey on the grounds of the Robert Taylor Homes, a crime-infested housing project of 27,000 residents, University of Chicago student Sudhir Venkatesh met the “Black Kings,” a local crack-dealing gang.
Venkatesh got to know the 250-person organization so well that he was invited to become “Gang Leader for a Day,” which is now the title of Venkatesh’s account of life in the criminal underworld.
“Even though I was hanging out with drug traffickers and thieves, at heart I felt like I was just being a good sociologist,” Venkatesh told the Chicago Tribune.
Venkatesh’s research made its way into the bestselling book “Freakonomics,” which applies economic theory to the workings of many phenomena, including crack gangs, likening them to corporations.
Venkatesh is among many who have broken into crime syndicates. Former FBI operative Joe Pistone spent six years living with the mafia. The alias he used, Donnie Brasco, became famous as the title of a bestselling book and movie based on his exploits.
Yves Lavigne, another former FBI agent, tells of his time in motorcycle gang the Hell’s Angels in his book “Hell’s Angels: Into the Abyss.” An undercover operative, Lavigne managed to break into the upper echelons of the group, a feat that resulted in 42 arrests.
Writer Bill Buford ran with a band of English football hooligans and describes how they operate in his book “Among the Thugs.”
Thankfully, there are limits to how far these men will go in the pursuit of an authentic cover. As Pistone said with regard to the murder contracts that were offered to him, “Of course I didn’t actually go out and kill them, because as an FBI agent I couldn’t.”
Venkatesh got to know the 250-person organization so well that he was invited to become “Gang Leader for a Day,” which is now the title of Venkatesh’s account of life in the criminal underworld.
“Even though I was hanging out with drug traffickers and thieves, at heart I felt like I was just being a good sociologist,” Venkatesh told the Chicago Tribune.
Venkatesh’s research made its way into the bestselling book “Freakonomics,” which applies economic theory to the workings of many phenomena, including crack gangs, likening them to corporations.
Venkatesh is among many who have broken into crime syndicates. Former FBI operative Joe Pistone spent six years living with the mafia. The alias he used, Donnie Brasco, became famous as the title of a bestselling book and movie based on his exploits.
Yves Lavigne, another former FBI agent, tells of his time in motorcycle gang the Hell’s Angels in his book “Hell’s Angels: Into the Abyss.” An undercover operative, Lavigne managed to break into the upper echelons of the group, a feat that resulted in 42 arrests.
Writer Bill Buford ran with a band of English football hooligans and describes how they operate in his book “Among the Thugs.”
Thankfully, there are limits to how far these men will go in the pursuit of an authentic cover. As Pistone said with regard to the murder contracts that were offered to him, “Of course I didn’t actually go out and kill them, because as an FBI agent I couldn’t.”
Headline Link: ‘Street Learning’
Sudhir Venkatesh moved from suburban La Jolla, Calif. to the University of Chicago to study sociology. As part of his research, he headed a couple of miles from campus into the Robert Taylor Homes, a crime-infested housing project of 27,000 residents. Among them was the Black Kings, a gang with which Venkatesh learned the protocol of the street. His new book, “Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets,” documents these experiences.
Source: Chicago Tribune
Background: Going undercover with Brasco, Lavigne and Buford
Former FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone broke into the mob under the alias “Donnie Brasco,” the title of his bestselling book and a movie based on his story. He infiltrated the mafia after targeting known mob hangouts, after which he spent six years away from his family, immersed in the daily dealings of the mob. In an interview on CourtTV, he said the mafia gave him “contracts to kill people, other wiseguys that ran afoul of the family. But of course I didn’t actually go out and kill them, because as an FBI agent I couldn’t go out and kill someone.”
Source: CourtTV
According to book publisher HarperCollins, Yves Lavigne was the only FBI informant to break into motorcycle gang the Hell’s Angels. He was able to access the highest levels of the organization, an achievement that resulted in 42 arrests. The book “Hell’s Angels: Into the Abyss” details Lavigne’s time with the group.
Source: HarperCollins
Bill Buford, an American writer who lived as an expatriate in Britain, became fascinated by English soccer hooligans. He befriended “someone who was truly spectacular to look at, qualifying for that special category of human being—one of its most repellent specimens.” He gets pulled into the ultra-nationalistic, antisocial ways of hooligan life, participating in the violence and getting drunk enough not to recall his actions with the group.
Source: The New York Times
Opinion & Analysis: ‘Freakonomics’
“Freakonomics,” a 2005 New York Times bestseller, devotes much of one chapter to Venkatesh’s findings. Writer Steven Levitt likens the work of the underlings of the Black Kings to that of a fast-food burger flipper or a stocker at a discount department store. The leader of another crack gang told Venkatesh that he could afford to pay his gang members more, but it wouldn’t be a good idea. “You try to take care of them, but you know, you also have to show them you the boss. You always have to get yours first, or else you really ain't no leader,” said the gang leader.
Source: Freakonomics’ official Web site
Reference: The books
Sudhir Venkatesh’s book “Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets” is available from findingDulcinea’s bookstore.
Source: findingDulcinea’s Bookstore
“Freakonomics” argues that economic theory can be applied to seemingly unconnected events such as real estate advertisements and baby name selection. The 2005 book, written by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times writer Stephen Dubner, includes excerpts from Venkatesh’s research.
Source: findingDulcinea’s Bookstore
Joe Pistone first told the world about his undercover life as “Donnie Brasco” in the 1997 book of the same name.
Source: findingDulcinea’s Bookstore
Joe Pistone published a follow-up to his book in 2004, “Way of the Wiseguy: True Stories from the FBI’s Most Famous Undercover Agent,” which features more stories of life within the mob.
Source: findingDulcinea’s Bookstore
“Hell’s Angels: Into the Abyss,” Yves Lavigne’s account of his time with the renegade motorcyclists, is available at findingDulcinea’s bookstore.
Source: findingDulcinea’s Bookstore
Writer and journalist Bill Buford’s time with ultra-nationalistic British soccer hooligans is documented in the book “Among the Thugs.”
Source: findingDulcinea’s Bookstore
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