Sudhir Venkatesh

Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh is an Indian sociologist and urban ethnographer. Born in India, he is a professor of sociology and African-American studies at Columbia University. He is also the director of the Charles H. Revson Fellowship. In his work, Venkatesh has documented criminal gangs and the drug trade, and has written about the dynamics of the underground economy including street prostitution, contributing his findings to the research of economics professor Steven Levitt.

Venkatesh moved with his family to Southern California suburb of Irvine. There he was active in sports and excelled in his academic studies while attending University High School.

He attended graduate school at the University of Chicago with William Julius Wilson and studied the Robert Taylor Homes, a housing project in Chicago about which he wrote a book, American Project. Venkatesh also authored a 2008 book titled, Gang Leader For A Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes To The Streets. The book chronicles the life of urban poor in Chicago, particularly the Robert Taylor Homes and the gang, Black Kings, whose leader J.T. he befriended. He found that most foot soldiers in drug gangs make only $5.30 an hour.

In a separate research project with Steven Levitt, he hired former sex workers to track working street prostitutes in Chicago, finding that they make about $35-$30 an hour, with those working with pimps making more and suffering fewer arrests. A street prostitute was arrested about once per 450 tricks, while 3% of the tricks were given for free to police officers to avoid arrest. Condoms were used in only 20% of the contacts.

Books

• American Project. The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto, Harvard University Press, 2000
• Off the Books. The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, Harvard University Press, 2006
• Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets , Penguin Press HC, 2008

He has also contributed to Steven Levitt's Freakonomics in a chapter entitled, "Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms?"

Documentaries

• "Dislocation." In February 2002, families living in the Robert Taylor Homes public housing development were given a 180 day notice of eviction. In six months, the community that had been their home for generations would be demolished. Dislocation chronicles the lives of tenants in one building as they move through the six-month relocation process. [1]
• "At-Risk." This book highlights both the experiences of individuals who are operating under conditions of risk and the efforts of organizations who are providing assistance to them. The film will focus on the role of the United States as a place of refuge and a base for advocacy. [2]
• "Abhidya" This narrative feature film examines one South Asian-American woman’s exposure to the post-9/11 effects on her community. [3]
• At the Top of My Voice - a 2009 documentary about events in Georgia in late 2007 and early 2008.

See also

• Illegal drug trade

External links

• Venkatesh's official website
• Venkatesh's faculty homepage
• Researcher Studies Gangs by Leading one on NPR website
• Sudhir Venkatesh opinion page at Freakonomics blog
• Everything you always wanted to know about street gangs but didn't know whom to ask Venkatesh answering questions by readers of the Freakonomics blog
• Steven Levitt: the Freakonomics of inner-city gangs (video) Steven Levitt discusses the economics of street gangs and Venkatesh's findings (TED 2004)
• SAJAforum web radio interview with Venkatesh (one hour) - a conversation about his books, his work and academia with Sree Sreenivasan of SAJAforum.org