Gang Membership: Links to Violence Exposure, Paranoia, PTSD, Anxiety, and Forced Control of Behavior in Prison

Abstract

Objective: Gang membership inherently links to violence, and violent experiences strongly relate to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and paranoia. Yet to date, gang members’ mental health has received little attention, and their paranoia has not been examined. This study, using established measures, assessed street gang and nongang prisoners’ levels of violence exposure, symptoms of PTSD, paranoia, and anxiety, forced behavioral control, and segregation in prison. Method: Participants were 65 (32 gang and 33 nongang) prisoners, recruited using opportunity sampling. Participants provided informed consent and were interviewed individually. Interviews were anonymized to maintain confidentiality. Chi-square and discriminant function analyses were used to compare participants’ demographics, segregation levels, mental health symptoms, and to identify predictors of street gang membership. Results: As compared to nongang prisoners, street gang prisoners have higher levels of exposure to violence, symptoms of paranoia, PTSD, anxiety, and forced control of their behavior in prison. Street gang prisoners were not more likely to be segregated, but they were more likely to belong to ethnic minorities. Street gang prisoners were only found to be younger than nongang prisoners, when other variables were controlled for. Conclusions: Mental health deserves more attention in gang research. The implications of findings are that gang membership may undermine members’ mental health, and/or that individuals with existing mental health problems may be those attracted to gang membership. Moreover, justice responses, via policies and intervention strategies, need to identify and address the mental health needs in gang member prisoners, if successful rehabilitation of gang members is to be achieved.