People: Carl Taylor
Three years ago, he was featured in Time magazine for his ground-breaking study of gangs, Dangerous Society (MSU Press, 1990). And now, Carl S. Taylor, '71, M.A. '76, Ph.D. '80, former MSU assistant professor of criminal justice, has made yet another sociological breakthrough with Girls, Gangs, Women And Drugs (MSU Press, 1993).
As Time noted, Taylor, currently director of the Center for Urban Youth Studies, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, does not conduct his research in an office punching numbers from a computer. Instead, for more than a decade, he has spent $50,000 of his own money and six years actually living in a dangerous Detroit neighborhood associating with two violent street gangs. What he calls 'radical research' sometimes involved unorthodox practices, like giving his subjects advice. But the result is that no one in academia has more intimate knowledge of gang culture.
As teenage street violence escalates out of control, the media is giving Carl increasing attention, quoting from his books, tapping his expertise, and so on. His most intriguing finding was that many of today's gang members are sophisticated entrepreneurs who develop corporate-style organizations in the drug business. It's a frightening netherworld where 14-year- olds use Uzis. And, as his latest book documents, more and more girls are taking part in these predatory activities. Although Carl calls them 'the leading destroyers of their own selves and futures,' he adds that 'every one of these women is worth more than society believes.'
As he told the Detroit Free Press in an interview, 'I applaud on the sidelines when they say, 'I refuse to be a victim like my mother, and I refuse to let men or anyone else abuse me.' I am appalled at what they select. Of course, they have no good choice. Which is the real point.'
