Crips and Bloods: A Guide to an American Subculture. By Herbert C. Covey. Guides to Subcultures and Countercultures. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2015. 201 pages. Acid free $37 (ISBN 978-0-313-39929-9). Ebook available (978-0-313-39930-5), call for pricing.
The features of this slim volume include ten chapters that are arranged topically; in addition, there is a glossary, references section, and index. In the front matter, there is a very useful timeline that highlights some of the key events associated with the formation and history of the Crips and Bloods from the 1960s to 2005. In the introductory chapter, the author explains that “there is very little systematic research on the Bloods and Crips” (12), with limited and biased information being reported and published either by gang members in autobiographies or by law enforcement and government agencies. The author does a good job of offering a balanced viewpoint about these gangs (sets) by neither demonizing nor glorifying them. The author provides information about Crips’ and Bloods’ role in crime and drug dealing but rejects the notion that they are an organized criminal syndicate, due to their lack of hierarchical features.
The “Timeline” is further expanded upon in the second chapter “A History of the Crips and Bloods” and discusses the marginalization of people of color in Southern California through segregated neighborhoods, reduced job opportunities, cuts in public funding to schools and social programs, and the elimination of black political movements. Additional issues addressed in the book include: a list of individual risk factors associated with youth who join gangs; profiles of specific Crip and Blood members; a listing of gang values; identifying characteristics of Crips and Bloods, including colors and clothing styles, tattoos, and graffiti; Crip and Blood involvement in crime and violence; stereotypes and media representation of Crips and Bloods; and a list of rap artists who have been identified as a Crip or Blood. The concluding chapter focuses on the future of Crips and Bloods and discusses factors that will contribute to the continued existence of these gangs (sets). In discussing society’s reaction to the presence of these gangs (sets) in their respective communities, the author explains that there is a degree of neighborhood acceptance because “Crips and Bloods are viewed by some to be a lesser evil than racist law enforcement officers, as witnessed by acts of police brutality on Los Angeles” (9).
A similar work with a broader scope is Kontos and Brotherton’s Encyclopedia of Gangs (Greenwood, 2008) which offers a much more succinct description of the Crips and Bloods, as it focuses on numerous gangs throughout the United States. A notable difference is in the entry about the Crips, where the author provides three narratives about the origins of the gang. The third narrative “simply describes the Crips as a group of hoodlums and drug dealers who came together to victimize their own communities” (45). The idea that Crips and Bloods formed in a vacuum for the sole purpose of victimizing others is not evident in Covey’s Crips and Bloods: A Guide to an American Subculture. This work provides a look into the country’s two most notorious gangs and collects essays, reference materials and primary source information in one portable volume.
The “Series Forward” explains that the volumes in the Subcultures and Countercultures series are written for students and general readers, and this writer highly recommends adding this title to circulating collections in school libraries, public libraries and academic libraries.—Lisa Presley, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio