Ghettoside

The book focuses on one Bryant Tenelle, a young 18 year old boy gunned down mere blocks from his home. It serves as a microcosm of the larger issue of murder in this contentious neighbourhood. After covering homicide and being embedded with the 77th Street precinct in South Central Los Angeles for over a decade Jill Leovy has a unique insight into this problem.

She argues it's the absence of law that is the primary cause of the high homicide rate in predominantly black neighbourhoods. As she puts it “where the criminal justice system fails to respond vigorously to violent injury and death - homicide becomes endemic.”

This absence leads to criminals being emboldened, bystanders living in fear and a cycle of violence where violent acts may be the only way to settle a dispute or exact revenge. Pair that with the crackdown on minor crimes fuelled by the “Broken Windows” theory and you have growing resentment as citizens feel that police are looking for control, not justice.

It's an incredibly readable book and Leovy is an evocative writer.