Hart Laurie Kain, Bourgois Philippe, Montero Fernando, Karandinos George
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Int Sociol. 2025 May;40(3):364-393. doi: 10.1177/02685809251334921. Epub 2025 May 20.
Drawing on long-term participant-observation in Philadelphia's hyper-segregated Puerto Rican retail narcotics markets, we document the gendered contours of exploding cycles of firearm violence among young males striving to dominate street sales and the grief violence generates. Mothers and sisters intervene eloquently in court (and on the streets) defusing lethal violence. They clarify entangled chains of self-blame, promoting dialogue, accountability, and forgiveness. Although ambivalent about their own outlaw pasts, their 'streetwise' credibility increases their peacekeeping effectiveness. They prompt male perpetrators to publicly hold themselves accountable, express grief, and recognize the trauma of firearm violence, chronic incarceration, and frustrated aspirations for legal employment. Meanwhile, low-income women earn below-subsistence-level legal wages to support male kin emotionally and financially during lengthy prison sentences. We analyze the biographies of mothers and perpetrator sons through the political economy of US 'necrogovernance': Puerto Rican colonialism, null gun-control, diasporic hyper-segregation, mass incarceration, and punitive state responses to poverty/unemployment/addictions.
基于对费城高度隔离的波多黎各零售毒品市场的长期参与观察，我们记录了在努力主导街头销售的年轻男性中，枪支暴力激增循环的性别化轮廓以及暴力引发的悲痛。母亲和姐妹在法庭上（以及街头）有力地进行干预，化解致命暴力。她们厘清了相互交织的自责链条，促进对话、问责和宽恕。尽管她们对自己过去的违法经历矛盾重重，但她们“街头智慧”的可信度提高了她们维持和平的效力。她们促使男性犯罪者公开承担责任、表达悲痛，并认识到枪支暴力、长期监禁以及合法就业愿望受挫所带来的创伤。与此同时，低收入女性赚取低于维持生计水平的合法工资，以便在男性亲属长期服刑期间给予他们情感和经济上的支持。我们通过美国“死亡治理”的政治经济学来分析母亲和犯罪儿子的人生经历：波多黎各殖民主义、无效的枪支管制、散居地的高度隔离、大规模监禁以及国家对贫困/失业/成瘾问题的惩罚性反应。
