Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses Fall 1-4-2017 Out in "The Numbers": Youth and Gang Violence Initiatives and Uneven Development in Portland's Periphery Dirk Kinsey Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Geography Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Kinsey, Dirk, "Out in "The Numbers": Youth and Gang Violence Initiatives and Uneven Development in Portland's Periphery" (2017). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 3365. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.5256 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible:
[email protected]. Out in “The Numbers”: Youth and Gang Violence Initiatives and Uneven Development in Portland’s Periphery by Dirk Kinsey A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Geography Thesis Committee: Barbara Brower, Chair Hunter Shobe Nathan McClintock Portland State University 2016 © 2016 Dirk Kinsey Abstract Incidence of youth and gang violence in the Portland, Oregon metro area has increased dramatically over the past five years. This violence has recently become more spatially diffuse, shifting outwards from gentrified, inner city neighborhoods, towards the city’s periphery. These incidents exist within the context of a shifting regional political economy, characterized by a process of gentrification associated displacement and growing, and distinctly racicalized and spatialized, inequalities. While gang researchers have long argued a corollary between the emergence of gangs and economically and culturally polarized urban landscapes, the ongoing suburbanization of poverty in American cities suggests a new landscape of uneven power differentials playing out between disenfranchised youth and those seeking to police and prevent violence.