In search of masculinity. Violence, respect and sexuality among Puerto Rican Crack Dealers in East Harlem

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted while residing next to a crack house in El Barrio, New York, for almost five years, this article analyses how the social and economic marginalization of second- and third-generation Puerto Rican immigrants in the inner city has polarized violence and sexuali...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bourgois, Philippe I. (Author)
Format: Print Article
Language:English
Published: 1996
In: The British journal of criminology
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Availability in Tübingen:Present in Tübingen.
IFK: In: Z 7
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Keywords:
Crack-Dealer
Crack-Subkultur
Ethnographie
Familiengewalt
Gruppenvergewaltigung
Initiationsriten
Jugendgangs
New York
Puerto Rico
USA
Description
Summary:Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted while residing next to a crack house in El Barrio, New York, for almost five years, this article analyses how the social and economic marginalization of second- and third-generation Puerto Rican immigrants in the inner city has polarized violence and sexuality against women and children, both within the family and on the street. Traditional workingclass patriarchy has been thrown into crisis by the restructuring of the global economy and the expansion of women's rights. Unable to replicate the rural-based models of masculinity and family structure of their grandfathers' generation, a growing cohort of marginalized men in the de-industrialized urban economy takes refuge in the drug economy and celebrates a misogynist, predatory street culture that normalizes gang rape, sexual conquest, and paternal abandonment. Marginalized men lash out against the women and children they can no longer support economically nor control patriarchally
ISSN:0007-0955