Life as a teenager can be difficult for anyone, whether they are from an affluent city neighborhood, an average-income family in suburbia, or a poor farming community. Peer pressure to experiment with drugs, alcohol, and sex, vices that eagerly await new initiates, is commonplace. But life as a teenager on the streets of a poverty-stricken, aging metropolis can lend new meaning to the word "difficult," as crime, random violence, and death are added to the pressures of adolescence.

Destructive forces like those outlined above marked the life of Owen Kirby, a young white youth who ran afoul of the law after he was attacked in an alleyway by three teenaged gang members because he ventured onto their "turf." After stabbing the others in his defense, Kirby was given a chance to reform, being placed in a progressive work camp in the woods, away from the clutches of city...