Gangs and Neighborhoods

My research explores how street gangs adapt to changing neighborhood conditions, offering new insights into long-standing questions about crime, place, and identity in urban spaces.

Historically, gang research has focused on Black and Latino street gangs within the context of urban decline—examining how white flight, deindustrialization, and disinvestment gave rise to tightly organized, place-based gang structures. But today, neighborhoods are transforming in new ways. Forces like increased surveillance, targeted policing, and gentrification are reshaping historically segregated areas and raising new questions about how gangs respond to shifting social and physical environments.

One line of my work examines how policing and surveillance are absorbed into gang culture, rather than simply deterring it. Using original data from 15 years of Chicago gang mixtapes, CDs, and DVDs, I developed the concept of the status of the surveilled—a way to understand how visibility under police scrutiny becomes a marker of status. In this context, everyday actions like loitering in public spaces take on added meaning, because the risks involved heighten their symbolic power. Surveillance, in other words, becomes part of the performance.

Another thread of this research focuses on gentrification and neighborhood change. Drawing on both quantitative data and life-history interviews with former gang members, I examine how gangs persist in gentrifying neighborhoods—though often in quieter, less visible ways. I introduce the concept of gang retreatism to describe this process: a shift not toward disappearance, but toward adaptation and redefinition. Even as their visibility fades, many gangs retain deep local ties and continue to resist displacement, asserting their presence through subtle but persistent practices.

Together, these projects challenge the assumption that gangs simply vanish as neighborhoods evolve. Instead, they reveal the complex ways gangs adjust to structural change—maintaining identity, territory, and influence under new social conditions. By examining the intersection of policing, place, and resistance, my work reframes how we understand gang persistence in an era of urban transformation.

Work in progress

Leverso, John and Sou Lee. (2025) “The Status of The Surveilled: Hyper Surveillance and Status Attainment Among Gangs.” Social Problems.

Hess, Chris and John Leverso. (2025) “The gang’s not out there anymore: Gentrification, neighborhood change and gang retreatism in Chicago.” International Criminology.