He is a South Bronx native and received his Ph.D. from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His multiple award-winning book, The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence, and the American Dream, is based on field research he conducted on violent drug robbers, who robbed upper-level dealers storing large amounts of drugs and cash. His larger goal is to use ethnography to reveal and explain the human pain and suffering prevalent in marginal urban areas.