Risk Factors For Gang Membership Research Articles

Gang Membership Among Adolescents from Distinct Racial and Ethnic Backgrounds: The Roles of Neighborhood Conditions and Victimization.

Adolescent gang participation has been noted as a major public health concern. Therefore, researchers have placed a growing emphasis on identifying processes that propel adolescents toward gang membership. Previous studies have highlighted as relevant risk factors victimization experiences as well as neighborhood conditions, which reflect sociopolitical and socioeconomic disparities and precipitate social disorganization. However, research to date has not considered potential dynamic interrelations among these risk factors, which are suggested by an integrated trauma-informed developmental-ecological perspective. Additionally, given that minoritized youth are disproportionately represented in gangs and differentially exposed to many of the risk factors for gang membership, it is important to examine whether gang membership pathways are similar or distinct across racial and ethnic groups. In order to address these gaps, the present study examined longitudinal self-report data, including neighborhood conditions (Baseline), direct and witnessed victimization (12-month follow-up), and gang membership versus nonmembership (24-month follow-up) gathered from 1,284 adolescents identified as serious offenders (22% non-Hispanic White, 36% Latinx, and 43% African American) who participated in the Pathways to Desistance Study. Findings from structural equation modeling showed that pathways toward gang membership were similar across racial and ethnic groups. Results further demonstrated that neighborhood conditions increased the likelihood of adolescent gang participation through direct and witnessed victimization. These findings highlight the value of examining gang membership from an integrated trauma-informed developmental-ecological frameworks. Further, these findings emphasize the need for prevention and intervention initiatives at different levels of the social ecology.

Emotional processes and gang membership: A narrative review

Abstract With implementation of governmental strategies aimed at reducing gang involvement, academic interest in gang membership has rapidly increased. However, there is a dearth of knowledge relating to emotional processes of gang members (Wood & Alleyne, 2010). This review synthesizes existing literature surrounding possible risk factors for gang membership including, empathy, Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), Psychopathy, Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and Emotional Intelligence (EI). Due to the limited evidence-base, additional literature surrounding violent offending and group relations are used to provide a comprehensive account of emotional processes of gang members. It is concluded that high levels of ASPD traits and low levels of empathy and EI are potential risk factors for gang membership. However, contradictory research findings, prevent conclusions regarding the influence of psychopathy, ODD and CU-traits on gang membership. Overall, this review provides support for utilizing emotion-focused strategies in gang intervention programs and recommends that future research focuses on assessing the developmental trajectory of emotional processes throughout the cycle of gang membership (joining, maintaining and exiting).

The role of moral disengagement in street gang offending

Previous research indicates a strong association between gang membership and increased offending behaviour. Several risk factors for gang membership have been identified and incorporated into integrated and developmental theories of gang membership. Despite this, little is known about the psychological processes that underpin gang membership and enhance the rate of offending within this context. Even less is known of the differences in such psychological processes between gang offenders and those who offend in other contexts. The current study builds on previous research by exploring the role of moral disengagement as one potential process in a prison sample of 269 offenders. The first part of the study found that street gang offenders were more likely than non-street gang offenders to utilise moral disengagement strategies in order to deactivate their usual moral standards. The second part revealed that street gang offenders were more likely than individual offenders or those who have affiliated, but not offended with, street gangs to morally disengage. There was no difference in the tendency to morally disengage between street gang and group offenders. Overall, certain conditions that exist within a street gang and other group contexts may increase an individual's tendency to morally disengage and enhance offending behaviour.

Examination of Youth Gangs and Interventions in Three Contexts: American, European, and Turkish Experiences

The purpose of this article is to examine gang problem and intervention strategies in American, European, and Turkish contexts. Although there is a lack of common definition of gang and gang membership in the extant literature leading to overestimation and underestimation of the problem, research on gangs in both American and European contexts is promising. In all three contexts, there are different risk factors for gang membership and hence, interventions focused on different aspects and contexts such as suppression, community mobilization, school based interventions and so on. Gang problem and related intervention and prevention strategies are relatively new and not comprehensive partly in European and mostly in Turkish contexts. However, intervention and prevention strategies are mostly evidence-based and theory oriented in American context. This study can further our understanding for developing intervention and prevention strategies to deal with gang problem.

The problem of prediction: the efficacy of multiple marginality in cross-sectional versus prospective models

Research continues to develop theory and methods to efficiently identify youth at risk for gang membership in an attempt to intervene and reduce both the immediate and long-term consequences associated with these groups. The multiple marginality framework, developed by Vigil (1988, 2002), is one such theory for identifying youth at-risk for gang membership that has garnered tentative support. The current research investigates the ability of Vigil's multiple marginality framework to predict youth at risk for gang membership prospectively and highlights the importance of using panel methods in the context of identifying risk factors for gang membership. We find that cross sectional models regressing gang membership on indicators of multiple marginality, as operationalized by Freng and Esbensen (2007), fit the data quite well and produce results consistent with theory. When the same variables are used in prospective analyses, however, they prove inefficient at predicting gang membership. The resulting type-I and type-II errors are attributed to the likely influence of gang membership on the attitudes and behaviors often used to predict these associations.

Teaching Responsibility to Gang-Affiliated Youths

Teaching youths who affiliate with a gang can be a daunting task. Risk factors for gang membership often compound across life domains and affect pro-social connectedness, cause feelings of marginalization, and hinder life-skill development. Sports and physical activities that are structured within a positive youth-development framework provide an ideal environment to reengage youths who affiliate with gangs, and open the door to the development of life skills. This article offers suggestions for framing a curriculum, delivering content, and evaluating progress when working with gang-affiliated youths. A three-phase learning progression of responsibility development is outlined, based on Don Hellison's teaching personal and social responsibility model. This article also presents the processes and strategies that were used in one program to successfully reconnect gang-affiliated youths with their families, school, and the community; develop respect and responsibility; and facilitate withdrawal from gang affiliation.

Moving Risk Factors into Developmental Theories of Gang Membership

Several quantitative longitudinal studies of youth gang members—particularly those embedded in well-designed studies of large, representative samples of children and adolescents—have expanded interest in risk factors for gang membership. Drawing on recent research findings, this article aims to review and synthesize risk factors for gang involvement and to integrate these in a theoretical explanation of youth gang membership. Research-supported risk factors from other studies are combined with variables in Thornberry et al.’s interactional theory of gang membership to form a broader developmental theory of gang involvement. Program and policy implications are also drawn.

Childhood Risk Factors for Adolescent Gang Membership: Results from the Seattle Social Development Project

Adolescents who join gangs are more frequently involved in serious delinquency compared with those who do not, yet few studies have conducted a prospective examination of risk factors for gang membership. The present study uses longitudinal data to predict gang membership in adolescence from factors measured in childhood. Data were from the Seattle Social Development Project, an ethnically diverse, gender-balanced sample (n = 808) followed prospectively from age 10 to 18. Logistic regression was used to identify risk factors at ages 10 through 12 predictive of joining a gang between the ages of 13 and 18. Neighborhood, family, school, peer, and individual factors significantly predicted joining a gang in adolescence. Youth exposed to multiple factors were much more likely to join a gang. Implications for the development of gang prevention interventions are discussed.