Video: How a Utah gang member became a college prof

| The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Feb 07 2013 09:09 am • Last Updated Feb 07 2013 12:36 pm

At age 16, Robert J. Durán joined a street gang in Ogden.

For many, such a choice means eventually going to prison or dying an early death. But Durán stopped participating in gangs and began studying them and the police and societal response to gangs.

Durán, now an associate professor of criminal justice at New Mexico State University, has written a book that is part memoir and part academic journal. The book from Columbia University Press is called "Gang Life in Two Cities: An Insider’s Journey."

Durán participated in a video chat with Tribune crime co-editor Nate Carlisle to discuss his book and gangs in Utah. Some of what he says reflects worse upon the police and Utah culture than it does the gang members.

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