BARRIO GANGS Street Life and Identity in Southern California <i> by James Diego Vigil (University of Texas Press: $22.50, cloth; $8.95, paper) </i>

This book probably will get a reception no warmer than the cholo (Chicano gang member) who finds himself on rival territory, for James Vigil’s liberal analysis of these “victims of society” arrives at a time when sympathy for gangs is at an all-time low. News coverage of drive-by shootings and other random, senseless violence has hardened even bleeding hearts, suggesting a need for more prisons and police patrols, not more “counseling in the community.” “Barrio Gangs” does remind us, however, that calls for tougher sentencing and enforcement usually comfort the victimized more than they discourage the victimizers. The only truly effective ways of deterring the growth of dangerous gangs, Vigil suggests, are counseling, housing and recreational programs in low-income communities. His central theory of “multiple marginality” holds that the more people are at the margin of society, the more likely they are to turn to surrogates, such as gangs, for family, law and education.

While Vigil clearly has a personal stake in this story--he dedicates this book, for one, to his brother, “who shared many street experiences with me”--”Barrio Gangs” is written mostly in a wooden academic tone that distances us from barrio life. Vigil’s focus becomes more intimate in chapters profiling gang members, however, and though not all profiles enlist our sympathy, most are moving, showing why gang members become trapped in destructive behavior patterns. We meet second- and third-generation immigrants who are Americanized but alienated from America, kids in correctional camps who stay in gangs (and thus get their terms extended) because they fear for their lives, and a young man named Wizard who feels respected and accepted for the first time--when he commits armed robbery.