Taking it to the streets

Rene Denfeld, author of a new book on the violent subculture of street families, talks about why these young nomads are every bit as dangerous as the Bloods and the Crips.

By Helaine Olen

Read more: Drugs, Foster Care, Life

Feb. 12, 2007 | You see them downtown: teenagers with punk haircuts and chains, hanging out in parks and under highway overpasses. They scowl at each other and sometimes at you. But you take for granted that though young and troubled, they're likely harmless.

Rene Denfeld begs to differ. A feminist writer and the mother of three adopted children from the Oregon foster care system, Denfeld began to investigate the world of street kids after the widely publicized 2003 murder of a developmentally disabled young adult named Jessica Williams by members of a Portland street family. Her latest book, "All God's Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families," is the result of that research. Using the Williams case as a prism, Denfeld crafts a chilling portrait of street culture -- one that will turn your assumptions about these kids and their lives inside out.

While reporting, Denfeld immersed herself in street culture. She discovered that since the 1990s, organized groups with names like Nihilistic Gutter Punks and the Sick Boys have risen to rule the homeless youth communities of America's urban centers. Controlled by self-appointed "moms" and "dads," these "families" are often far more rigid, controlling and violent than those the kids fled. Members commit muggings, deal drugs and participate in gay-bashing incidents. Still, police in many cities pay them little attention, instead focusing their energies on more traditional gangs.

While estimates of their number vary, most child welfare advocates estimate that there are approximately 1.5 million street kids in the United States and that the majority belong to a street family. Denfeld believes the social causes behind the growth of such groups are numerous -- ranging from the economic breakdown of blue-collar America to the influence of fantasy games on youth culture. Crackdowns on teenage prostitution are also implicated, since by making the streets safer, municipalities may have unwittingly created an environment conducive to the development of proto-adolescent societies. "The cleaned-up streets offered a new playground" for these kids, Denfeld explains. "Isolated from other influences, they create a fantasy world all of their own."

Salon spoke to Denfeld by phone about the role that racism plays in street violence, the influence of the Internet and fantasy games on street kids, and why we should take their threats seriously.

What is a street family?

We all know street kids. They're the kids that hang out in Tompkins Square Park or the university area of Seattle or in downtown Portland. What a lot of people don't realize is that these street kids have created their own subculture. They've organized into tight-knit groups that have a lot in common with gangs. They have group affiliations. They have street names. They have their own language. It is a society with a lot of rules and codes, a great deal of secrecy. And often, they're frankly just incomprehensibly violent.

When did individual street kids begin to form street families?

The shift began happening in the late 1980s when a lot of cities began taking child prostitution very seriously. There was a focus on giving homeless youth services, whether it was showers or food or job programs. But they didn't eradicate the presence of young people in the street. Instead it enabled a different kind of subculture to grow. The youth weren't reliant on prostitution anymore. Instead they were fed and clothed and remained unsupervised. They began kind of creating their own subculture.

What impels these kids to live on the streets?

There are a lot of genuinely homeless youth. A couple of the kids involved in the assault on Jessica Williams had terrible histories. But when I first began researching, I expected that most of the youth involved in the murder of Jessica Williams would have backgrounds of foster care, abuse and neglect. In fact, the opposite was the case. Many of them came from very adequate families, even very loving homes. One was a college student who walked out of her dorm room and a scholarship. Another young man had a mother who had been a police officer. I think a lot of them hit the streets because it sounds romantic.

How old are these kids?

In the 1980s, 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds were on the street. That's our perception of what we call street kids: They're actual kids. But in reality, the majority of these youths are now adults. Ages have risen to the point where in one shelter review I found, the majority of the youth intakes were ages 18 to 20. They aren't minors. A street kid is a defined social identity. It's the same as saying, "I'm a Crip" or "I'm a Blood" or "I'm a Skinhead who belongs to the Aryan Nation."

So, you see similarities between gangs and street families?

Both gangs and street families are organized groups with a strong group affiliation. Street kids in families are very loyal to their leaders. Their leaders are identified as Mom and Dad. The youths identify each other as Brother and Sister. There are very strict codes of conduct, a highly developed hierarchal system. Like gangs, these kids have a very strong identity just to that particular group. And there are very savage punishments if you break their code.

The difference is that a lot of African-American and Mexican gangs tend to still have strong ties with a particular community. They might still go home to Grandma's house or be living with their mom. But the street-family culture really encourages the youth to completely severe all ties with their original families and their communities. I think that has profound psychological impact on them. The street family becomes their reality.

Still, the police don't seem to take street families as seriously as gangs. Why?

Historically the focus with drug dealing and criminal activity has been on African-American and Mexican gangs. Here in Portland, the gang task force -- like other city gang task forces -- has overlooked the role of street kids. Part of it is a public-perception problem. People have a very romantic notion of street kids. In some cases, when police did crack down on the crimes of these street families, they were criticized for doing so. People aren't generally aware that street families exist or that they commit a lot of crimes and violence.

Does racism influence our perception of street families?

I wouldn't say it's overt racism. But perhaps partially because these youths are Caucasian, we just think that they're teenagers in mohawks hanging out in the street. I think if African-American youth were hanging out in our square or in the East Village or any of these cities and had formed into packs and given themselves names and organized a very elaborate, often brutal subculture, we would say, "That's a gang," and would rush to intervene.

Is it just a few bad players who give street families a bad reputation?

I found an amazing amount of violence within this subculture. A lot of the youth are armed. They carry knives or what they call smiley chains, which are chains that are linked into a circle. If you actually talk to them, they speak with ease about the violence they commit. It wasn't just the one particular street family I followed. I documented hundreds of crimes that other street families in the area had committed, often very violent crimes like muggings and hate crimes against gays. They call it "rolling trolls," which is their term for mugging gay men.

Next page: The influence of prisons, meth and fantasy games