Where's the Gangsta's Soch Cred?

I thought the article on Venkatesh's "Gang Leader for a Day" was a really neat way to do some real micro-sociology work. As I read through it, I kept thinking, "Sudhir, you dumba**! You are an uppper-class Indian graduate student.. what the hell are you doing in the projects of Chicago?!!? This guy is naive in the gravest sense..." When they had him holed up on the stairwell as a "hostage", I was just amazed that he wasn't questioning the nature of his captors. However, once J.T. and him were all good with each other, I could tell this would make for an amazing sociological study; living the life of a gangsta in Chicago.

I think J.T. and his gang should be at the very least be given credit in the book if they weren't given such credit already, and possibly some sort of help to get them off the streets too. (Although probably not hard cash, since that would, if the past shows us anything, be spent on alcohol, cars, or "bling-bling") Then again, a lot of gangstas are on the streets because they don't want to live the normal life of working a 9-5 job, not "making bank", and not indiscriminately killing people who wear their hats differently than they do. However, J.T. without a doubt himself deserves a little extra-credit for not popping a cap in Mr. Venkatesh's backside when it seemed like Sudhir was a Mexican spy, and then showing him the ropes of being a gangsta as an outsider looking in.