Gangs in America’s Communities
Second Edition
SAGE Journal Articles
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- Scott, D.W. (2014.) Attitude is everything: Youth attitudes, gang involvement, and length of institutional gang membership. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 17, 780-798.
- Abstract: Prison gangs have been a topic of interest among scholars, but research on youth prison gangs is limited. Furthermore, violent attitudes and gang involvement have not been addressed extensively, and a better understanding of youth prison gang involvement is needed to effectively inform responses to violence in correctional facilities. This paper fills this research gap through an analysis of violent attitudes as they relate to gang involvement and length of gang membership. The data derive from interviews with 285 males conducted in a larger study on gangs and violence in California’s youth correctional facilities. The results show that gang members tend to have stronger violent and aggressive attitudes compared to nongang members, and length of institutional gang membership is statistically significant and negatively associated with violent and aggressive attitudes. Furthermore, a youth’s violent and aggressive attitudes will vary depending on if the youth has never spent time in an institutional gang, is currently in one, or is a former institutional gang member. I conclude the paper with a discussion of these findings and what they imply for gang group processes, theory, institutional policy, and programs.
- Abstract: Prison gangs have been a topic of interest among scholars, but research on youth prison gangs is limited. Furthermore, violent attitudes and gang involvement have not been addressed extensively, and a better understanding of youth prison gang involvement is needed to effectively inform responses to violence in correctional facilities. This paper fills this research gap through an analysis of violent attitudes as they relate to gang involvement and length of gang membership. The data derive from interviews with 285 males conducted in a larger study on gangs and violence in California’s youth correctional facilities. The results show that gang members tend to have stronger violent and aggressive attitudes compared to nongang members, and length of institutional gang membership is statistically significant and negatively associated with violent and aggressive attitudes. Furthermore, a youth’s violent and aggressive attitudes will vary depending on if the youth has never spent time in an institutional gang, is currently in one, or is a former institutional gang member. I conclude the paper with a discussion of these findings and what they imply for gang group processes, theory, institutional policy, and programs.
- Bjerregaard, B. (2002). Self-definitions of gang membership and involvement in delinquent activities. Youth and Society, 34, 31-54.
- Abstract: There is significant disagreement among researchers as to the appropriate conceptual and operational definitions of gang membership. One of the key issues involves the validity of allowing respondents to identify themselves as gang members. This research examines the construct validity of gang membership by examining the relationship between various methods of operationalizing gang membership and delinquent involvement. The results demonstrate that there are important consequences to the method utilized to measure gang membership. Individuals reporting membership in organized gangs were far more likely to report that their gangs possess the characteristics typically associated with traditional street gangs. Likewise, the respondent’s self-identification had a strong impact on both the group’s and the individual’s criminal behavior. Overwhelmingly, persons who considered themselves to be members of an organized gang were more apt to engage in all types of delinquent activities.