New In The Phoenix -- Boston Violence

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print and online today -- I take a look at Boston's violence, via the insights in a new academic book about Boston's black youth.

The topic, which I have written about often, is back in the news with the recent murders of a couple of 14-year-old boys. As it happens, I had just read the new book, "Living the Drama," by David J. Harding, a sociologist I have interviewed in the past.

Harding conducted lengthy interviews with black teenage boys in Boston, back when he was studying at Harvard. The book is the result of that field work. In it, he describes how the boys living in violence-plagued neighborhoods structure their lives around that fear of violence -- often in ways that are detrimental to their long-term success in life.

The article is here:

Dead Kids: Startling sociological findings about violence and Boston's inner-city youth

If you're interested in the book, you can get it from Amazon here.

Elsewhere in the new issue, you may be interested in Chris Faraone's look at Mission Hill's town-gown rancor; and the editorial, looking first at Deval Patrick's visit to the Roxbury mosque, and then at George W. Bush's waterboarding admission.