The Sociology, Heuristic Navigation, and Evolution of Step Ups in Two Life Course Phases

• In Event: 30860 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 5. Gender, Sexuality, and Aging

Abstract

I analyze the sociology, heuristic navigation, and evolution of Step Ups in two life course phases, as study participants moved from their mid-to-late-teen/early adulthood (roughly age 16-mid-20s), into and partly through established adulthood (mid-20s/30s-age 45). A Step Up is an encounter between Mexican youth who: 1) know each other as gang members, or 2) are trying to determine the other’s gang status and establish dominance. Step Ups were a central, recurrent, factor in how study participants talked about choosing their high schools and their experiences in high school and as established adults, and correlated strongly with adult outcomes. Study participants who routinely escalated Step Ups into potential conflicts made an average of $17,000 less per year and had three fewer years of education at age 28 than those who deescalated step ups.
We contribute to research on masculinity, Latinos, and gangs by 1) analyzing how step ups work, including how gang members enacted the step ups in ways that upheld their understanding of themselves as moral agents and as professional gang members with developed expertise, as enacted in their methods for discerning who is a rival gang member who could be attacked, versus civilians who merited a pass; and 2) analyzing some gang members changed their navigation of step ups as they moved from teens/early adults into established adulthood. These changes reflected their evolving underlying concept or model of masculinity that moves away from guarding against offence towards one of finding honor in their roles as fathers and husbands (as per Ed Flores’ God’s Gangs).

Author

• Robert Courtney Smith, Baruch College, CUNY