Gang Membership as a Risk Factor for Adolescent Violent Victimization

Abstract

Youth gangs and violence have received substantial scholarly and public attention during the past two decades. While most of the extant research on youth gang members has focused on their offending behaviors, few quantitative studies have been conducted to examine the link between gang membership and violent victimization. The current study uses data from a multi-site study of youth to explore potential factors related to this increased risk. These findings suggest that gang members are more likely to experience violent victimization, as well as greater frequency of victimization, than do non-gang members. Furthermore, gang membership remains a significant correlate of the annual prevalence of victimization net other individual, family, peer, school, and situational factors. The relationship, however, is complex and dependent upon the type of victimization examined.