The ANNOTICO Report
Thanks to H-ITAM/AIHA, Dominic Candeloro

Chicago Tribune
By Patrick Rucker
Tribune staff reporter
April 25, 2005

Growing up in the 1930s, Tony Sorrentino knew something was ailing his West
Side community.

The area's new Italian immigrants were out of work, and their children were
running amok. Poverty reigned, and the press had stigmatized his local
countrymen as indolent and shiftless.

Those troubles weighed on Mr. Sorrentino until, as a teenager, he attended
a lecture at Hull House that changed his life.

There, prominent sociologist Clifford R. Shaw explained his theory that the
crime that plagued many Chicago neighborhoods was a natural result of
social disorder. Give a young man the structure of a job or a hobby, he
said, and he would be more likely to remain lawful.

That lesson stayed with Mr. Sorrentino through his career as a scholar and
social worker trying to give young people a sense of direction.

Anthony C. Sorrentino, 91, died on Thursday, April 21, of heart failure at
his home in Hinsdale.

Born in Sicily, Mr. Sorrentino moved to Chicago with his family when he was
6. Like many newcomers at the time, the family settled in the blighted
tenement slums of the 20th Ward on the Near West Side.

A thoughtful student concerned about the fate of fellow Italian immigrants,
Mr. Sorrentino was drawn to study sociology. He earned his bachelor of
science degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology and continued his
studies at the University of Chicago, his family said. In 1939 Mr.
Sorrentino married Anne Sodaro, his wife of 57 years, whom he met in the
old neighborhood.

In the nomenclature of the time, Mr. Sorrentino was a specialist in the
study of delinquency. His preoccupation was giving constructive outlets to
young people in the city's most crime-prone neighborhoods.

"Today, we would call it community development and crime prevention," said
his daughter Dolores Sennebogen.

For many years, he lectured on the subject at the University of Chicago and
DePaul University while he wrote books such as "Organizing Against Crime"
and "How to Organize the Neighborhood for Delinquency Prevention."

Mr. Sorrentino was also a leader and activist with the Chicago Area
Project, which followed Shaw's model positing that young people needed
constructive outlets to beat the temptation of crime.

Mr. Sorrentino was a respected researcher on youth issues. He managed many
community service efforts with agencies such as the Illinois Youth
Commission. He retired from full-time social work in 1978 and devoted
himself to another longtime interest: promoting Italian heritage in the
Chicago area.

Mr. Sorrentino had been an active member of the Joint Civic Committee of
Italian-Americans since its inception in 1952 and once was its executive
director, family said.

In 1990 Mr. Sorrentino helped open the DuPage County Area Project for
at-risk children. He remained on its board of directors until his death.

Mr. Sorrentino is also survived by a son, Robert; another daughter,
Patricia Dedek; and four grandchildren. Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Monday
in St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church, 4th and Clay Streets, Hinsdale.

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