What are some social aspects of Robert Parker's novel Double Deuce?

There are several important social aspects to Robert Parker's novel Double Deuce.

The inciting incident for the novel is a gang-related drive by shooting of Devona Jefferson. She's a teenage mother who is shot for her involvement with a gang. These are social problems that are all too common: street violence, gang violence, and teen mothers.

Throughout the novel, race plays a major part. Spenser (Parker's main detective) gets involved because Hawk (his best friend) is asked to bring the girl's killer, and Hawk asks Spenser to help. Hawk is black; Spenser is white, and he is very much out of place in the almost completely black environment of the housing project.

Beyond race, public housing is a major social issue. Public housing is meant to address several major social problems (a need for low cost housing, poor or crime ridden neighborhoods, etc.).

In attempting to deal with this problem, Spenser consults Erin Macklin, a former nun who had dedicated herself to trying to help kids in the ghetto. Like Spenser, she is effective in part because she works outside the question.