The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago

many of whom were children of the newcomer minority populations. Some African-Americanand Latino youth, who were not part of established youth programs or accepting of traditionalschooling approaches, formed delinquent street groups. Youth gang delinquency, still largelyunrelated to adult criminal structures, was characterized by intergang fighting. Those in fightinggangs were perceived as a threat to civil order and to established local neighborhood or citywideinterests. Traditional youth agencies and local schools were not able to attract such youth totheir programs.A series of youth-outreach programs were established by city welfare councils, statewideyouth boards, and county probation departments, especially in New York and Los Angeles, toreach out to suspected antisocial or warring youth gangs. Detached workers (also known asstreet gang workers, street workers, or outreach workers) were recruited to establishrelationships and convert youth gangs to social groups. Mainly male detached workers operatedalone on the streets, in relative isolation from established or structured youth-agency programs.The workers were recruited from colleges and universities, a few were former gang members,most were not indigenous to the particular gang communities in which they worked (Klein 1965,1968, 1971; New York City Youth Board 1960; Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago1960). A few female workers were also assigned to female (or “deb”) groups, usually affiliatedwith male gangs.The youth outreach workers were described as independent, self-assured, charismatic,caring and socially committed. They were rebellious but benign, and identified with the personalproblems and struggles of gang youth. They had “little patience with the society and thecommunity institutions which seemed to neglect” gang youth (Bernstein 1964). At first, the1.6