Monday Map: Missing Opportunities in South Central L.A.

by Matt Kelley · 2009-06-01 03:46:00 UTC
Topics:

The Crips and Bloods are still at war in South Los Angeles, and this map - from PBS Independent Lens - goes a long way toward explaining the causes of that war. People in disadvantaged neighborhoods join gangs because other opportunities simply aren't available.

Click here to check out the interactive map, where you'll find that south Los Angeles dwarfs the rest of the city is such undesirable statistics as unemployment (14 percent), available jobs (0.5 jobs per worker), health services, school dropout rate and the number of parolees living on each block. When poverty is concentrated in this way and opportunities are few and far between, gangs thrive.

The map is offered by Independent Lens as part of a recent documentary by Stacy Peralta: "Crips and Bloods: Made in America" - which examines the history and current state of gang culture in South Los Angeles and considers new methods to address the underlying problems of gang membership and violence.

Watch a preview of the film below.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Police, Race and Friendly Fire
NEXT STORY:
DJJ Won't Let Youth Into Meeting about Prison Conditions

COMMENTS (1)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.