Would be ‘gangster guru’ explores the roots of gang culture

Thomas Ward, associate professor (teaching) of anthropology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, kicks off his summer course in “Cross-Cultural Research on Urban Gangs” (ANTH 371mg) with a joke.

“Have you heard about the Beverly Hills Crips?” he quips, creating an unlikely juxtaposition in his students’ imaginations between one of the most feared gangs in Los Angeles and one of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods.

Obviously, it’s an oxymoron. But why?

“Well,” Ward says, “as soon as you start unraveling that cord — no poverty, the level of policing in the area — it becomes clear that the environment wouldn’t support that kind of subcultural grouping.”

So, where do you find gangs? In poor, immigrant and minority communities, Ward says, where people struggle to survive. The desperate need for some kind of social support is a key reason many get involved in gangs. Others join for excitement, to appear cool or to be accepted, to be part of a group. Indeed, the common analogy, Ward notes, is that street gangs are a surrogate family — if a highly dysfunctional one.

“Being a gang member is a fallback. It’s something you do because of the environment you’re growing up in — usually because there is some social dysfunction in your family, school, community or neighborhood.”

Ward knows what he’s talking about. He has spent more than 20 years studying street gangs, particularly the notorious Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha gang, commonly known as MS-13. For 16 of those years, he tracked gang members, recording his research in his book Gangsters Without Borders: An Ethnography of a Salvadoran Street Gang (Oxford University Press, 2012).

“Are you trying to get me killed?”

Ward became interested in gang culture after volunteering at El Rescate (The Rescue), a social services agency for Central American refugees in downtown L.A. After completing his doctoral dissertation on “The Psychological and Social Adaptation of Salvadoran Refugees” at UCLA, Ward was looking for a new research project when his advisor suggested he check out what was then a little-known gang, MS-13.

“I said, ‘Bob, are you trying to get me killed?’” Ward recalls. “At that point, I knew zero about street gangs.”

However, he was intrigued and started asking his Salvadoran contacts.

“I was flabbergasted because not only did they know a lot about the gang, many of the people that I knew had family or friends who were in the gang or were former gang members.”

Two men Ward had known for seven years admitted they were former gang members.

“They said, ‘If you’re serious, we’ll take you into the barrio and introduce you to our fellow gang members.’ Then it was up to me to establish rapport. That was much harder. I knew it was going be difficult, but if I had known how difficult, I might not have done the research.”

Ward says it took over a year of persistent effort to finally get the gang members to accept him.

“Not only was I twice their age, but I was a gringo, white, male adult, and they just assumed that I was an undercover cop. Even though I knew people in the community who vouched for me, it took me a long time to get them to trust and accept me.”

Now, Ward’s research focus has switched to gang prevention and intervention. In 2017, he launched a pilot program to teach meditation to aspiring gang members through the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development.

“If it were not for the [COVID-19] quarantine, I might be in El Salvador interviewing gang members or studying with Tibetan Buddhist Monks on a meditation retreat in Nepal,” Ward says of his twin passions for street gangs and meditation, adding that he hopes his gang intervention work will enable him to one day become a guru to gangsters, helping them find positive alternatives to the street life and peace of mind.

Seeing gang culture through many eyes 

Thomas Ward, associate professor (teaching) of anthropology, has spent more than 20 years studying street gangs. (Photo: Eddie North-Hager.)

Ward’s five-week online summer course offered 20 students an intensive version of his Spring semester course, which usually has an enrollment of upwards of 100 students.

In the United States, urban gangs are often associated with L.A., particularly through movies and television. “So, this is an ideal location, in a sense,” says Ward of the popularity of his course. “Not only are students learning about gang subculture, they’re also learning about the city where they’re living.”

Ward provides historical context on the evolution of gangs in the U.S. Invited guest speakers to the class include former gang members, L.A. Police and L.A. County Sheriff’s Department officers, prosecutors, social workers, and Father Greg Boyle, a Jesuit priest who is the founder and director of Homeboy Industries, a gang intervention and rehabilitation program. Ward also provides students with contact details for former gang members who are willing to be interviewed about their gang experiences.

“The idea is to give them not only the point of view of these former gang members, but also access to them,” Ward says.

“I want students to have not just the perspectives of law enforcement or social workers, but multiple points of view so that they can triangulate information to get the bigger picture and can make up their own minds about what gang subculture is about.”

Shattering stereotypes

Ward says the most important aspect of his class is to inform students about the reality of gang life and to disabuse them of numerous misconceptions about street gangs they have picked up from television shows, movies, news reports and documentaries. He says these inaccurate representations perpetuate stereotypes by portraying gangs in the most dramatic light possible in order to drive up viewership.

In particular, Ward denounces Hollywood’s portrayal of gangs.

“All these movies are terrible because they perpetuate the stereotype that all gang members are the same: They’re all criminals, they’re all violent, they’re all cold-blooded killers.”

The reality is much more nuanced — and much more boring, Ward says.

“Most gang members are not violent. The most common activity is hanging out on a street corner doing nothing, just sitting around talking, drinking beer.”

Ward also stresses that most gang members are not life-long gangsters. Most only remain active in the gang for a year or two.

“It’s only the hardcore gang members who make a career out of it and are actively dedicated to the gang, spending years participating in crime and violence. They represent only 5% to 10% of gang members. More than 90% of gang members are actually not doing very much.”

Don’t believe the hype

Ward says if there’s one thing he wants his students to take away from his course, it would be the fact that street gang subculture is extremely complex, that no two gangs are alike and also that no two gang members are exactly alike.

“There’s a lot of diversity and heritage in a gang,” he says. “Just because you see a report on the news about one particular gang member, don’t extrapolate from that story and think it represents a large swathe of what’s happening.”

Alumna Alicia Cass is one of the guest speakers in Ward’s course who defies many of the stereotypes. Cass is a former Crips member who joined the gang when she was just 13.

“I had experienced trauma by the time I was 4,” Cass says. “Being in and out of the foster care system, I was looking for protection, belonging and a family. I found that in the gang.”

Cass left the Crips at age 26 after a close friend was killed and signed up for classes at Long Beach City College, obtained her high school diploma and was accepted as an undergraduate at USC. At the time, she was raising her six children.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology from USC Dornsife in 2004 and a master’s degree in social work from USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work in 2007 — by which time she was mother to eight children — she is now planning to resume her pursuit of a Ph.D. at the latter.

She is the founder of The Metamorphosis Experience, a nonprofit that assists women, girls and youth with trauma loss and grief, and the author of the self-published Metamorphosis: The Butterfly Experience (SEP, 2016).

Cass got involved with Ward’s course initially as a student and says she became a guest speaker because “a woman’s voice was always missing when it came to gang involvement.”

Her key message to students, she says, is that trauma and more underlying trauma is the backdrop to life in a gang and that gangs mirror society.

Mirna Solorzano, who was in a gang for eight years after joining when she was just 11, also speaks to Ward’s class.

“My cousin and other people I knew were part of a gang and they treated me like their own family, and that’s where I decided to join. I had two families, my blood family and the hood family.”

She met Ward while working in gang intervention and prevention.

“We are not those monsters or hoodlums who are portrayed on the news. We have families, kids, and we also want to achieve more than what we have in our lives,” says Solorzano, who is now a freelance paralegal and provides human resources support.

“We are smart, very resourceful, passionate, and we love and protect our families.”