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Dead End Kids: Gang Girls and the Boys They Know
Dead End Kids exposes both the depravity and the humanity in gang life through the eyes of a teenaged girl named Cara, a member of a Kansas City gang. In this shocking yet compassionate account, Mark Fleisher shows how gang girls’ lives are shaped by poverty, family disorganization, and parental neglect.
- GenresNonfiction
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 28, 2023
This book gets off to a bad start with the author’s criticisms of the safe, prosperous suburbs of Johnson County, Kansas: “a collection of chain stores sustained by an interminable queue of balding men with bulging bellies, wearing tasseled loafers and weekend dockers…the vans are driven by aging, tanned women who have had so much facial cosmetic surgery that the skin on their cheeks resembles potato chips."
Fortunately, the writing got better. Unfortunately, the author’s pompous tone only got worse. The author is the main character in this ethnography, and he makes sure we know just how heroic he is with scolding proclamations like this: “The citizens of America let it happen as though they didn't know about horrific households like that one. Now they know."
Thank you, Professor Fleisher, for swooping in as our moral superior, but I’m pretty sure citizens were not ignorant of these problems before you came along to enlighten us. Fleisher also makes sure we know that some of his subjects found him to be “the coolest white man” they had ever met, and that even at his comparatively advanced age, his physical prowess was such that he could beat these youngsters in push-up contests.
“Gang” seems an exaggeration for what the Fremont Hustlers were. Fleisher explains: “Fremont wasn’t a cohesive organization…with a chain of command and formal rules of appropriate an inappropriate behavior. Fremont was a haphazardly assembled social unit composed of deviant adolescents who shared social and economic needs and the propensity for resolving those needs in a similar way.”
This is not to say that the Fremont Hustlers don’t qualify as a gang on some level, but anyone hoping for an ethnography of a hardcore street gang - with attendant implications and subcultural complexities - will be disappointed. There are no initiations, rituals, ranks, colors, codes, or alliances here. There is a little turf, though, and Fleisher’s account of the Fremont neighborhood and the ghetto within it is descriptive and captivating. His book offers a raw, unfiltered ethnography of a group of ghetto kids in Kansas City.
As for Kansas City, Fleisher has mostly scorn and disapproval. Chiefs fans are more interested in beer and hot dogs than they are helping ghetto kids. Institutions are described as apathetic: “seeing drug-numbed kids, pregnant 15-year-olds, boys in jail, and babies whose lives depend on drug addicted mothers made me weary and angry at KC for doing nothing but arresting these kids.” He reserves his harshest criticisms for the KCPD, who he believes - without evidence - “would be likely to shake down, or harass the kids if there weren’t adult citizens nearby who might witness it." I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the KCPD is more invested in the kids and neighborhoods of Kansas City than an Illinois professor who carpetbags in only to retreat to his own safe and prosperous area that, based on his own descriptions, seems not much different than the Johnson County he looks down his nose at.
Fleisher found himself in the midst of controversy after failing to promptly report evidence of child abuse in a household that later, after Fleisher’s project was finished, became the subject of what one investigator described as the worst case of child abuse he’d ever seen. According to Fleisher, he had one of his colleague’s report what he’d witnessed. Why he didn’t report it himself I’m not sure, but apparently it had something to do with maintaining the integrity of his project combined with doubts that social services would effectively respond to the situation anyway. I’m not sure if he could’ve made a difference had he responded more appropriately, but his apparent failure to do so seems hypocritical in light of his harsh criticisms of the city and its institutions for not doing enough to combat the social ills of ghetto life in KC.
Fortunately, the writing got better. Unfortunately, the author’s pompous tone only got worse. The author is the main character in this ethnography, and he makes sure we know just how heroic he is with scolding proclamations like this: “The citizens of America let it happen as though they didn't know about horrific households like that one. Now they know."
Thank you, Professor Fleisher, for swooping in as our moral superior, but I’m pretty sure citizens were not ignorant of these problems before you came along to enlighten us. Fleisher also makes sure we know that some of his subjects found him to be “the coolest white man” they had ever met, and that even at his comparatively advanced age, his physical prowess was such that he could beat these youngsters in push-up contests.
“Gang” seems an exaggeration for what the Fremont Hustlers were. Fleisher explains: “Fremont wasn’t a cohesive organization…with a chain of command and formal rules of appropriate an inappropriate behavior. Fremont was a haphazardly assembled social unit composed of deviant adolescents who shared social and economic needs and the propensity for resolving those needs in a similar way.”
This is not to say that the Fremont Hustlers don’t qualify as a gang on some level, but anyone hoping for an ethnography of a hardcore street gang - with attendant implications and subcultural complexities - will be disappointed. There are no initiations, rituals, ranks, colors, codes, or alliances here. There is a little turf, though, and Fleisher’s account of the Fremont neighborhood and the ghetto within it is descriptive and captivating. His book offers a raw, unfiltered ethnography of a group of ghetto kids in Kansas City.
As for Kansas City, Fleisher has mostly scorn and disapproval. Chiefs fans are more interested in beer and hot dogs than they are helping ghetto kids. Institutions are described as apathetic: “seeing drug-numbed kids, pregnant 15-year-olds, boys in jail, and babies whose lives depend on drug addicted mothers made me weary and angry at KC for doing nothing but arresting these kids.” He reserves his harshest criticisms for the KCPD, who he believes - without evidence - “would be likely to shake down, or harass the kids if there weren’t adult citizens nearby who might witness it." I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the KCPD is more invested in the kids and neighborhoods of Kansas City than an Illinois professor who carpetbags in only to retreat to his own safe and prosperous area that, based on his own descriptions, seems not much different than the Johnson County he looks down his nose at.
Fleisher found himself in the midst of controversy after failing to promptly report evidence of child abuse in a household that later, after Fleisher’s project was finished, became the subject of what one investigator described as the worst case of child abuse he’d ever seen. According to Fleisher, he had one of his colleague’s report what he’d witnessed. Why he didn’t report it himself I’m not sure, but apparently it had something to do with maintaining the integrity of his project combined with doubts that social services would effectively respond to the situation anyway. I’m not sure if he could’ve made a difference had he responded more appropriately, but his apparent failure to do so seems hypocritical in light of his harsh criticisms of the city and its institutions for not doing enough to combat the social ills of ghetto life in KC.
December 31, 2010
This is actually a research study, but it is a very interesting read. If you want to know more about gangs and street youth you should pick up this book.
April 2, 2026
This ethnography would have been significantly better and more valuable had the research been done by a woman, a person of color, or better yet, a woman of color instead of a cis-het white man.
It is abundantly clear throughout Fleisher's research that he is the main character in his retelling of the experience of youth gangs in KC. The researcher could have seriously benefited from some kind of critical race theory and/or feminist theory in his interpretations. There's virtually no discussion of how race impacts the situations these teenagers are in. I would think that would be a major part of street research!
I was put off by many things in this book, but one thing that I cannot get over is how much Fleisher projected his perception of love and sex for female gang members on Cara and Wendy. He frequently says that the are players in their own victimization and fantasize about the abusive relationships they pursue. While this could potentially be true, I personally would have dug much deeper into the co-dependency, loneliness, and overall need for resources that girls and young women in gangs experience with sexual partners. Fleisher does discuss socioeconomic factors, but not to the extent I feel is necessary for this type of research.
Thinking about the ethics discussion in the final street ethnography chapter, the author did nothing to fix my concerns throughout the rest of the book. Ethical challenges are written off as simply a part of ethnographic research, the price of being honest, or not worth trying to fix anyways. The fact that abuse of toddlers was observed and used as research data, but the researcher did not report the situation himself is reprehensible. Having a friend report instead of doing it himself is likely why no action was initially taken for Amy and RoniRo. I would bet that numerous people likely reported this family, but if they say "I've heard of abuse happening there" or "I suspect abuse happening there", that's much less impactful than "I witnessed child abuse that requires immediate attention while conducting research."
I suspect Mark S. Fleisher feels he is an experienced enough ethnographer that he doesn't need to deeply evaluate his methods anymore at the time of writing Dead End Kids. But as a researcher myself, I feel that is a poor way to conduct yourself as a researcher. I am new to qualitative research, and I was assigned this book for class, so I understand that I have things to learn from this ethnography. But what I am learning is how to identify what is wrong and what is right when conducting an ethnography.
At the very least, thanks for that, Mark.
It is abundantly clear throughout Fleisher's research that he is the main character in his retelling of the experience of youth gangs in KC. The researcher could have seriously benefited from some kind of critical race theory and/or feminist theory in his interpretations. There's virtually no discussion of how race impacts the situations these teenagers are in. I would think that would be a major part of street research!
I was put off by many things in this book, but one thing that I cannot get over is how much Fleisher projected his perception of love and sex for female gang members on Cara and Wendy. He frequently says that the are players in their own victimization and fantasize about the abusive relationships they pursue. While this could potentially be true, I personally would have dug much deeper into the co-dependency, loneliness, and overall need for resources that girls and young women in gangs experience with sexual partners. Fleisher does discuss socioeconomic factors, but not to the extent I feel is necessary for this type of research.
Thinking about the ethics discussion in the final street ethnography chapter, the author did nothing to fix my concerns throughout the rest of the book. Ethical challenges are written off as simply a part of ethnographic research, the price of being honest, or not worth trying to fix anyways. The fact that abuse of toddlers was observed and used as research data, but the researcher did not report the situation himself is reprehensible. Having a friend report instead of doing it himself is likely why no action was initially taken for Amy and RoniRo. I would bet that numerous people likely reported this family, but if they say "I've heard of abuse happening there" or "I suspect abuse happening there", that's much less impactful than "I witnessed child abuse that requires immediate attention while conducting research."
I suspect Mark S. Fleisher feels he is an experienced enough ethnographer that he doesn't need to deeply evaluate his methods anymore at the time of writing Dead End Kids. But as a researcher myself, I feel that is a poor way to conduct yourself as a researcher. I am new to qualitative research, and I was assigned this book for class, so I understand that I have things to learn from this ethnography. But what I am learning is how to identify what is wrong and what is right when conducting an ethnography.
At the very least, thanks for that, Mark.
May 19, 2022
Most of society has given up on these girls, and if you are wondering what girls we are talking about it would be the Gang Girls. Gang Girls are females' involvement in street gangs and how their lives are shaped by poverty, family, and parental neglect. We can see how these gangs affect the people's lives around them and the future of these young adults. One of these victims is a teenage girl named Cara, a member of a Kansas City gang.
“She's a fucking hoe. You know She's fucked every guy up here, and she's only 15. White Trash. That is Wendy's, always ready to fight, scream and howl, and protect her territory, which she drags around with her.” *Wendy's her friend* (pg. 20) They are involved in activities such as drugs, gun violence, assaults, pregnancy, and much more. I rate this book a 3/5 because you can see real involvement and the things they do just like teens.
“She's a fucking hoe. You know She's fucked every guy up here, and she's only 15. White Trash. That is Wendy's, always ready to fight, scream and howl, and protect her territory, which she drags around with her.” *Wendy's her friend* (pg. 20) They are involved in activities such as drugs, gun violence, assaults, pregnancy, and much more. I rate this book a 3/5 because you can see real involvement and the things they do just like teens.
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April 23, 2024It was for school but it counts as a read book
October 30, 2012
This is actually an ethnography, the author (doing field work) lived in the community for an extended period of time... but yes, very eye-opening... definitely recommend.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews