Jumped By Jorja Leap

Book Review Jumped: What Gangs Taught Me about Violence, Drugs, Love, and Redemptionn by Jorja Leap is an autobiographical book about the experiences of a UCLA professor and her struggle to understand the lifestyle of gangs, and her goal to deter gang violence. Jorja Leap is an outsider looking at these communities from an intellectual point of view of a professor, but she also has her personal biases and emotions as she reacts to the violence occurring all around the communities that she researches. She stated in the book that she is similar to an anthropologist, committing research specifically on gangs to comprehend their motivations. Her research leads her to interact with individuals that were, or are affected by gang violence. These …show more content…
In this book there are cases mentioned by individuals who seemed to have left the gang life but relapsed and returned to the violence and illegal activities. The case of gang reversion is brought by what gang members have to renounce; leaving a gang is not a simple task. The definition of gangs presented to the class was, three or more members, share name, color, or affiliation, or must exist in a geopolitical context. For individuals associated with gangs in this definition, it can include their family members, neighborhood, and all individuals that they associate with. Take for example Ronnie from the book by Jorja Leap it states,” Ronny’s role models are gangbangers. His family is a hood. His mentors are older homies in county jail” (102). Ronnie and other gang members like him do not just associate gangs with violence, or drugs, but as a group of like-minded individuals who deal with the same issue, and belong to the same community. We have in class mentioned that a lot of things can be considered a gang, fraternities, sport teams; even San Marcos can be considered a gang. Gang’s to Ronnie as we have discussed in class provide compassion and love, they become an extended family. Those mentors mentioned above are like brothers, and like brothers, Ronnie is influenced by them, and wants to follow in …show more content…
The role of street interventionist and how they are trying to deter the youth is admirable, but they are in a strange position of being seen as suspicious by both the police and the communit. The story of the interventionists and why they became interventionists is what I found the most interesting from the book, how they related their experiences and what influenced them to join gangs. Jorja Leap the author herself was an interesting figure, while I found her life story to be a little dull, it was necessary to understand why she was so empathetic to gang members, and why they trusted her with their stories. Jorja Leap’s willingness to get as close as possible to the community and work with it made her a sympathetic narrator of the story. I believe that the utmost conclusion of her research is to understand the gang community and defile them as bad people, but to understand their circumstances and the community they live. Her marriage to her husband is interesting as well since he was contrary to most of her beliefs. Their relationship played a role between two contrary views on how to deter gang violence and an equal understanding of their positions. I would have enjoyed more of his point of view in the book, not because I agreed with him, but because it provided a spokesman what the government believes is causing change (militant police)