“Training his attention on social problems he himself experienced growing up—street violence, poverty, racism—Rios is an important and original voice. In this patient and insightful relational ethnography, Rios shows how gang-associated Latino youth, often written off as a ‘lost generation,’ contain multitudes of identities and brim over with promise. But broken schools and justice systems far too often blunt these children’s potential and contribute to casting them on the wrong path. Critically urgent and rendered in clear prose, Human Targets is a must-read book that asks more of us.”

Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted

“How do we move beyond the cycle of criminalization, violence, and mass incarceration that American society has been stuck in for the last several decades? Rios draws upon the perspectives of youth—the very ones most likely to be labelled, incarcerated, or killed—to provide insights to lead us out of our state of paralysis. Through his probing of their perspectives and experiences, Rios develops new and original ways of thinking about how to intervene, support, and alter outcomes for marginalized youth. Written in a style that is both rich in analysis yet still packed with an emotional fervor, Human Targets never allows us to forget that real lives are at stake even as it also provides hope that it is indeed possible to move beyond the dismal reality we find ourselves in.”
 

Pedro Noguera | Distinguished Professor of Education, UCLA, and coauthor of Schooling for Resilience

“Human Targets is a gripping, disturbing, and deeply moving ethnographic account of interpersonal street violence. Told from the author’s heart, it is based on careful interviews and his own personal observation. Human Targets is a provocative yet subtle analysis of the relentless social forces that too often undermine and frustrate the everyday lives of a major segment of America’s urban population. Extraordinary and important, this book is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the culture of the city today—it needs to reach a wide audience beyond the halls of the academy.”

Elijah Anderson, author of Code of the Street and The Cosmopolitan Canopy