Ghettoside Essay

Megan Urbanski
3/8/16
Final Book Report
Word Count: 2029 Prior to reading Ghettoside, I had originally thought that Ghettoside would look at how murder is plaguing American society; but instead the author focused primarily on the detectives of a specific ghetto in South Central Los Angeles and the types of crimes they encounter. Typically, ghettos are mostly composed of black people with low socioeconomic status and a lot of informally run by the gangs that inhabit these neighborhoods. Much of this book focused on the how the detectives fight with the community members to find out who the criminals are. These detectives find it hard to connect and gain the trust of the neighborhood because of the fear that gangs inflict on the communities

Growing up and going to high school in Baltimore, I have seen the type of living conditions that the people live in. I understand that there is a hierarchy when it comes to living in a gang- run neighborhood. Even though Ghettoside takes place in a ghetto in South Central Los Angeles, there are some parallels between the two locations. Both locations are part of a subsection of a larger area, where not as many crimes exist. It would be interesting to specifically look at the criminal activity that happens in these specific ghettos around America to see which areas have the highest criminal activity in America. Regardless of who has the highest criminal activity, there needs to be a change in order to decrease this specific type of

If detectives do no learn how to connect and build trust with the communities that they work in, there is no hope for the future of getting a handle on the level of gang violence in America. Although this is not a one-way street, in order for police officers to build trust with the different residents, the residents need to begin to trust the police officers who enforce the law in their neighborhood. While some police officers wish to make a connection with their community members, most police officers see gang violence in ghetto communities as a lost cause. These detectives do not have the resources nor the energy to close every murder and attempted murder cases that happen in these communities. The only hope that the American public can have in decreasing these types of murders is that there are still detectives who make it their life’s work to find the root cause of every case that comes through their