Randol Contreras
Biographic Data
| ID | 3685651 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Randol Contreras |
| GIVEN NAMES | Randol |
| FAMILY NAME | Contreras |
| SIGNATURE | CONTRERAS R |
| AFFILIATIONS | California State University, Fullerton |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4408-4835 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 123 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
A Man of his Times: Using Historical Periods to Understand an Aging Gang Member’s Life
Not Bowing Down: Gang Resistance to Prison Co-governance in Southern California
In the United States, some prison gangs control not only inmates, but also what happens on the street. Since most gang members eventually get detained and incarcerated, prison gangs will victimize or kill any resistors in jail and prison. In this paper, I examine such a case between the California prison gang, La Eme, and the rebel Maravilla gangs of East Los Angeles. La Eme controls almost all the Latino gangs in Southern California and enforces…
Is the Crack Era Really Misunderstood? The Need to Go in New Directions
When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era. Donovan X. Ramsey. New York: One World, 2023. It has been about 40 years since crack-cocaine made its first appearance in the United States. For the people who experienced the crack era, the drug meant different things: it was a chance at riches; it was a chance at escape; it was a time of drug addiction and doing crime. The crack era, which occurred roughly between 1984 and 1996, im…
Forrest Stuart, Ballad of the Bullet: Gangs, Drill Music, and the Power of Online Infamy
Transparency and Unmasking Issues in Ethnographic Crime Research: Methodological Considerations
A transparency movement has begun urging researchers to publicize their data in order to ease replication and accountability. Some ethnographers have also begun arguing that researchers should unmask, or fully disclose, field sites and participant identities in order to replicate studies, verify accounts, and monitor social phenomena over time. However, for ethnographers studying violence and crime, full transparency or unmasking can get an ethno…
The Gang Paradox: Inequalities and Miracles on the U.S.-Mexico Border
The Broken Ethnography: Lessons from an Almost Hero
From Nowhere: Space, Race, and Time in How Young Minority Men Understand Encounters with Gangs
There's no sunshine: Spatial anguish, deflections, and intersectionality in Compton and South Central
Research on "territorial stigmatization" analyzes how residents of stigmatized spaces negotiate their blemished reputations. It reveals their distress, despondency, and resistance as they encounter the space's negative imagery. Building on this research, this paper introduces the concept of spatial anguish to capture the shame and embarrassment residents feel because of their stigmatized space. To do so, it uses an intersectional analysis to show…
You Win Some, You Lose Some: The Struggle to Understand Black Baltimore
"The Need for More "Carnal
The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence, and the American Dream
Randol Contreras came of age in the South Bronx during the 1980s, a time when the community was devastated by cuts in social services, a rise in arson and abandonment, and the rise of crack-cocaine. For this riveting book, he returns to the South Bronx with a sociological eye and provides an unprecedented insider’s look at the workings of a group of Dominican drug robbers. Known on the streets as "Stickup Kids," these men raided and brutally tort…
When a Heart Turns Rock Solid
Working Hard to “Get Known”: Black Youth Labor and the Myth of the Natural Black Athlete
Damn, Yo-Who's That Girl: An Ethnographic Analysis of Masculinity in Drug Robberies
Previous street crime research has shown that female robbers manipulate their sexuality to secure male victims. Also, the larger ethnographic drug market literature has shown how male criminals construct masculinity through the sexual and economic manipulation of women. However, both accounts miss how male criminals manipulate the masculinity of other men to victimize them. This article fills that gap, showing how male drug robbers play on the ma…
Product Review: The Truce: Lesson from an L.A. Gang War
The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence, and the American Dream
Randol Contreras came of age in the South Bronx during the 1980s, a time when the community was devastated by cuts in social services, a rise in arson and abandonment, and the rise of crack-cocaine. For this riveting book, he returns to the South Bronx with a sociological eye and provides an unprecedented insider’s look at the workings of a group of Dominican drug robbers. Known on the streets as "Stickup Kids," these men raided and brutally tort…
There's no sunshine: Spatial anguish, deflections, and intersectionality in Compton and South Central
Research on "territorial stigmatization" analyzes how residents of stigmatized spaces negotiate their blemished reputations. It reveals their distress, despondency, and resistance as they encounter the space's negative imagery. Building on this research, this paper introduces the concept of spatial anguish to capture the shame and embarrassment residents feel because of their stigmatized space. To do so, it uses an intersectional analysis to show…
The Broken Ethnography: Lessons from an Almost Hero
Transparency and Unmasking Issues in Ethnographic Crime Research: Methodological Considerations
A transparency movement has begun urging researchers to publicize their data in order to ease replication and accountability. Some ethnographers have also begun arguing that researchers should unmask, or fully disclose, field sites and participant identities in order to replicate studies, verify accounts, and monitor social phenomena over time. However, for ethnographers studying violence and crime, full transparency or unmasking can get an ethno…
Damn, Yo-Who's That Girl: An Ethnographic Analysis of Masculinity in Drug Robberies
Previous street crime research has shown that female robbers manipulate their sexuality to secure male victims. Also, the larger ethnographic drug market literature has shown how male criminals construct masculinity through the sexual and economic manipulation of women. However, both accounts miss how male criminals manipulate the masculinity of other men to victimize them. This article fills that gap, showing how male drug robbers play on the ma…
From Nowhere: Space, Race, and Time in How Young Minority Men Understand Encounters with Gangs
When a Heart Turns Rock Solid
"The Need for More "Carnal
Working Hard to “Get Known”: Black Youth Labor and the Myth of the Natural Black Athlete
Product Review: The Truce: Lesson from an L.A. Gang War
Damn, Yo-Who's That Girl: An Ethnographic Analysis of Masculinity in Drug Robberies
Previous street crime research has shown that female robbers manipulate their sexuality to secure male victims. Also, the larger ethnographic drug market literature has shown how male criminals construct masculinity through the sexual and economic manipulation of women. However, both accounts miss how male criminals manipulate the masculinity of other men to victimize them. This article fills that gap, showing how male drug robbers play on the ma…
Working Hard to “Get Known”: Black Youth Labor and the Myth of the Natural Black Athlete
The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence, and the American Dream
Randol Contreras came of age in the South Bronx during the 1980s, a time when the community was devastated by cuts in social services, a rise in arson and abandonment, and the rise of crack-cocaine. For this riveting book, he returns to the South Bronx with a sociological eye and provides an unprecedented insider’s look at the workings of a group of Dominican drug robbers. Known on the streets as "Stickup Kids," these men raided and brutally tort…
When a Heart Turns Rock Solid
"The Need for More "Carnal
You Win Some, You Lose Some: The Struggle to Understand Black Baltimore
There's no sunshine: Spatial anguish, deflections, and intersectionality in Compton and South Central
Research on "territorial stigmatization" analyzes how residents of stigmatized spaces negotiate their blemished reputations. It reveals their distress, despondency, and resistance as they encounter the space's negative imagery. Building on this research, this paper introduces the concept of spatial anguish to capture the shame and embarrassment residents feel because of their stigmatized space. To do so, it uses an intersectional analysis to show…
From Nowhere: Space, Race, and Time in How Young Minority Men Understand Encounters with Gangs
Transparency and Unmasking Issues in Ethnographic Crime Research: Methodological Considerations
A transparency movement has begun urging researchers to publicize their data in order to ease replication and accountability. Some ethnographers have also begun arguing that researchers should unmask, or fully disclose, field sites and participant identities in order to replicate studies, verify accounts, and monitor social phenomena over time. However, for ethnographers studying violence and crime, full transparency or unmasking can get an ethno…
The Gang Paradox: Inequalities and Miracles on the U.S.-Mexico Border
The Broken Ethnography: Lessons from an Almost Hero
Forrest Stuart, Ballad of the Bullet: Gangs, Drill Music, and the Power of Online Infamy
Is the Crack Era Really Misunderstood? The Need to Go in New Directions
When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era. Donovan X. Ramsey. New York: One World, 2023. It has been about 40 years since crack-cocaine made its first appearance in the United States. For the people who experienced the crack era, the drug meant different things: it was a chance at riches; it was a chance at escape; it was a time of drug addiction and doing crime. The crack era, which occurred roughly between 1984 and 1996, im…
Not Bowing Down: Gang Resistance to Prison Co-governance in Southern California
In the United States, some prison gangs control not only inmates, but also what happens on the street. Since most gang members eventually get detained and incarcerated, prison gangs will victimize or kill any resistors in jail and prison. In this paper, I examine such a case between the California prison gang, La Eme, and the rebel Maravilla gangs of East Los Angeles. La Eme controls almost all the Latino gangs in Southern California and enforces…
A Man of his Times: Using Historical Periods to Understand an Aging Gang Member’s Life
Sociology (12 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Criminology (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Anthropology (5 works) · Ethnography (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Citation (3 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (3 works) · Cross-cultural psychology (3 works)