HUAS97020 - A Most Violent Year in Chicago Crossfire

Course Description

With more than 750 murders and 4,300 shootings in 2016, Chicago witnessed its most violent year in almost two decades, suffering more bloodshed than New York City and Los Angeles combined.  While the political outcry surrounding the year’s 50% increase in homicides has centered on inner-city black youths and Chicago’s so-called “gang problem,” there has been strikingly little investigation into how gangs actually work, how they have changed, and how they fit into Chicago’s larger history of racially concentrated poverty.  This course will undertake an exploration of violent crime and gang activity in Chicago to examine the causes of the 2016 upsurge and some of the policy solutions that may help curb the cycle of violence in the future.

HUAS97020