From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

The way to reduce gang-related violence in America's inner cities, goes the conventional wisdom, is to persuade teenagers to quit their gangs. But that prescription seemed a little too simplistic to Chicago bureau chief Jon Hull, who had reported extensively on such groups during a stint in TIME's Los Angeles bureau. Says Jon: "When you join a gang, you make a very serious commitment. I had the sense that it wasn't so easy to leave one." So he took to the streets for three weeks, trying to find out what it takes to graduate from a gang. His frightening report appears in this issue.

It was hard finding people who were willing to be interviewed. He got the names of potential contacts from probation and anti-gang officers but, says Hull, "these guys aren't exactly looking for publicity." He showed up more than once for a street-corner meeting, then waited in vain for a source to show up -- wondering all the while whether he was about to become the target of a beating or a drive-by shooting himself. Even when he made contact, he says, "it took a long time to get them to trust me." But in the end, Jon found and interviewed dozens of current and former gang members.

What he learned bore out his suspicions. Says Hull: " 'Dropping the flag,' or quitting, is considered almost a capital offense." Every gang has a de- initiation ceremony that usually involves a vicious ritual beating -- occasionally to the point of death. Ex-members who stay in the neighborhood -- and few can afford to leave -- are subject to repeat beatings by their former comrades and by rival gang members who don't know or care that they've quit. "It takes an unbelievable amount of courage to walk out," says Hull.

Hull is no stranger to street violence. He spent 2 1/2 years in Los Angeles after coming to TIME in 1985, then moved to the magazine's Jerusalem bureau, where he reported on the Palestinian uprising, or intifadeh. Says Hull: "I spent one long night with some Palestinians who were hiding out from the Israeli army. We crawled around on the rooftops for hours, listening for gunfire."

In three years in the Middle East, though, Hull saw nothing to compare with what he sees in U.S. cities. "When Palestinians or Israelis pull the trigger, at least they can articulate a cause they're fighting for. In Chicago or L.A., you've got 13-year-olds shooting people because they're bored." That's the kind of insight reporters like Jon bring to our pages when they become dissatisfied with simple answers.