How to break the humdrum of routine existence—this is a problem for the boy. It is the problem of life generally and a great deal of human energy is expended in the flight from monotony and the pursuit of a thrill.
–Frederic Thrasher, The Gang (1927)
Abstract
In the following essay, I describe how one of the most cited but least analyzed texts in gang studies, Frederic Thrasher's The Gang (1927), has informed my approach to the analysis of gang communities. While many scholars have highlighted the limitations of Thrasher's work, I argue that one might read this text differently and, in my case, speculatively. I do this by moving away from privileging the text's most sociologically-polished elements and look instead to its many undertheorized speculations and unrealized claims which other thinkers from other disciplines have taken up in varying ways. As such, I ask how Thrasher's claim that "the gang" emerges as both an expression of and an outlet for the creative reimagination of interstitial space in the modern city is enriched by Walter Benjamin's writings on temporality, materiality, and childhood. I argue that a speculative reading of The Gang that does not discipline Thrasher's most profound insights but rather thinks with their disciplinary incompatibility and helps illuminate the generative inscrutability of The Gang, revealing it as an experiment in sociological empiricism.
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18 June 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-022-09650-z
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The original online version of this article was revised: In the sentence “analytical artlessness with which many scholars have critiqued the Chicago School.” the word “with” is replaced to “for”.
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Carter, J.H. Ludic Negation: Thrasher's The Gang and the Creative Foundations of Gang Sociality. Crit Crim 30, 29–47 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-022-09633-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-022-09633-0