The Legacy of John M. Hagedorn

Abstract

Abstract John M. Hagedorn has left an indelible legacy in the field of gang research. His first book, People and Folks: Gangs, Crime and the Underclass in a Rustbelt City, published in 1988, is arguably the founding document in the domain of critical gang studies. In the decades that followed, his research exploded in manifold directions, illuminating empirically and theoretically neglected dimensions of street gangs as a social phenomenon and their connections to the broader contexts in which they are embedded. Each epoch of Hagedorn’s work has been characterized by a steadfast commitment to inductive discovery and a willingness to question not only received criminological wisdom, but his own earlier conclusions as well. Hagedorn’s oeuvre stands as a remarkable testament to his personal motto, “research, not stereotypes,” and to the capacity of committed researchers to render gang members as human beings no less complex than those who might study them.