Risk factors associated with youth gang involvement: An exploratory criminological case study analysis

Abstract

This study explored risk factors for youth gang involvement in the South African setting. Participants were five youth male gang members (between 21 to 24 years) from Gauteng province, South Africa. We interviewed them on childhood experiences they perceived to predispose them to community gang membership, prison gang membership, and future reoffending behaviour. Four main themes emerged from the data analysis (i) push factors into gang activities, (ii) pull factors into community gang membership, (iii) prison gang membership factors, and (iv) risks for future criminality. These factors were overlapping in increasing risks for gang involvement and further offending for offenders with limited education, a life of crime and violence, substance abuse, criminal associations, disregard for conventional norms and values, and poor self-control. Findings are consistent with social control theory, which would predict risk for youth involvement and reoffending from youth gang members’ insecure and weakened bonds to conventional society, including family, peers, and the school.