Youth Gang Involvement and Long-Term Offending: An Examination into the Role of Psychopathic Traits

Abstract

Most policies to combat gang criminal behavior are rooted in deterrence and punitive strategies. This is fueled by moral panic, a get tough on crime rhetoric, and a lack of understanding for the psychological factors that may influence this behavior. Further, the extant literature has consistently observed that gang membership is associated with increased criminal behavior. In an effort to promote and shift away from punitive approaches in response to gang delinquency, the current study investigates the role psychopathic traits have in violent and property offending, longitudinally, in a sample of gang-involved youth. The study implemented count mixed effect models to investigate the topic longitudinally in waves 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, while controlling for other variables with violent and property offending frequency. The current study found that some psychopathic traits are associated with offending behavior, longitudinally, in gang members and youth with a history of gang involvement. The findings suggest that gang intervention strategies should include empirically supported programs for treating psychopathic traits in gang identified youth to reduce involvement in delinquent behavior. Further, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers should collaborate to develop more empirically supported strategies to reduce and prevent gang delinquent behavior from an empathetic lens.