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YOUTH GANGS.

Gangs as a social subculture. Origins of youth-gang membership. Causes. Sociology of gangs and gang participation. Linkage of youth to violent antisocial or criminal behavior. Gang dynamics. Personal support offered by gang members. Psychosocial and sociocultural theories of Latino gang membership. Cites studies on the subject.

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The purpose of this research is to evaluate reports of studies regarding the origins of youth-gang membership. The research will set forth a general statement of the sociology of gangs as a social subculture and then discuss five accounts of research into the phenomenon of gang participation. Referring to study design and methods researchers used to address and understand the variety of issues that present themselves where youth gangs are concerned, the research will also suggest a way of studying gang membership, including its causes and the content of gang dynamics.
The fact that youth gangs are linked to violent and other antisocial or criminal behavior is a commonplace of modern experience. Examples of school violence in Littleton, Colorado, and Jonesboro, Arkansas, in recent years show that gang membe

Childhood risk factors for adolescent gang membership: Results from the Seattle social development project. These are "covert" psychometrics; no direct gang-relatedquestions were asked. The majority of studies examined for this research referencedsociological theory but primarily made use of data collected from subjectsspecifically targeted for observation. The research will set fortha general statement of the sociology of gangs as a social subculture andthen discuss five accounts of research into the phenomenon of gangparticipation. Gerth & C.W. schools. Tucker (Ed.). On the other hand, the fact that Decker and Curry describeusing individual interviews to elicit reasons for gang participationsuggests that they appreciate the need for spot-checking as a control forself-nomination. (1999) was ostensiblythe simplest of the lot. As a group, the studies sought inputfrom adolescents regarding their reasons for joining or not joining a gang,participating or not participating in gang activities. All studies except one involvedsubjects interviewed and evaluated within a relatively limited time period.One of the studies (Hill, Howell, Hawkins, & Battin-Pearson, 1999) waslongitudinal and prospective in nature; that is, researchers followedsubjects included in the sample from age 1 to 18, in an attempt toidentify factors of experience that could most accurately predict thelikelihood of joining a gang during the teenage years. It is conceivable, for example, that a 12-year-old with a fertile imagination and delusions of "gang-deur," so to speak,would declare himself a gangbanger just to be included in the big studywhen in fact the worst thing he ever really did was come home late from thevideo arcade. The issueof samples did not arise with Arfaniarromo, since his objective was toidentify gang-participation patterns based on studies whose outcomes werealready known. 323-59. 133-35.Sirpal, S.K. Both Sirpal (1999) and Decker and Curry (2 ) constructed a series ofquestions about the costs and benefits of gang participation. Journal of Adolescence, 29, 279-292.Weber, M. ReferencesArfaniarromo, A. (1999, August). Although Decker and Curry cite sourcesdescribing self-nomination as a "robust technique" for establishing asample (2 , p. Designing a newstudy to refine understanding of the causes of gang membership would haveto take into account both aspects of experience. In other words, Wang's studystarted with a presumption of subjects' gang affiliation, then proceeded toattempt to identify response patterns that would explain it. Y. Arfaniarromo references studies showing that delinquent behavior,or a "deviant achievement orientation," is perceived as desirable by gangmembers, mainly on account of personal powerlessness and social marginalitythat are perceived by youth as impossible to overcome. Results were measured against gang and nongangmembership as identified by school personnel. H.H. (2 , November-December). No control foradministrators' biases was presented. Because of the antisocial and violent aspects ofgangs and the costs connected with gang-related behavior that placeindividual members in the criminal-justice system, researchers also want tounderstand--and find ways to prevent--the attractions of gang membership. The_Marx-Engels_Reader. Referring to study design and methods researchers used toaddress and understand the variety of issues that present themselves whereyouth gangs are concerned, the research will also suggest a way of studyinggang membership, including its causes and the content of gang dynamics. The fact that youth gangs are linked to violent and other antisocialor criminal behavior is a commonplace of modern experience. Journal of Criminal Justice, 28, 473-482.Hill, K.G., Howell, J.C., Hawkins, J.D., & Battin-Pearson, S.R. (1946). New York: Oxford University Press. Norton & Company. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Citing psychosocial and sociocultural theories that suggest complexfactors may explain gang membership among Latinos in the United States,Arfaniarromo (2 1) retrospectively examined a number of published studiesshowing the impact of the mainstream's social and economic marginalizationof ethnic minorities on their willingness to subsume their culturalidentities or conform to conventional behavioral norms. 474), the fact that the subjects were middle-school age(12-15) seems problematic. (1997, Winter). New York: W.W. Pride and prejudice in high school gang members. Mills (Eds.). Toward a psychosocial and sociocultural understanding of achievement motivation among Latino gang members in U.S. A more importantlimitation of Sirpal's study design would be the fact that allparticipation in the research was supposedly voluntary; however, the 3 subjects were incarcerated at the time. The data were collected, coded,and analyzed for the purpose of identifying and evaluating individual andexperiential factors tending to contribute to gang participation. Having that detailed informationon hand enabled researchers to ask subjects the two "simple" questions yearto year and to conduct statistical measurements of factors that were moreor less likely to predict whether one would join a gang between ages 13 and18. Alienation and social classes. The subject samples varied a good deal from study to study. The basic methods employed by the researchers to collect data foranalysis were interviews, questionnaires, and psychometric instrumentsdesigned to elicit information on why an individual joined, did not join,or was likely to join or not join a gang. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 36, 3 -322.Marx, K. Examples ofschool violence in Littleton, Colorado, and Jonesboro, Arkansas, in recentyears show that gang membership is not the only index of antisocial youth;however, a significant body of research explores youth gangs as asociological phenomenon around which boys (mostly, though there are ganggirls) organize, through which they express social and psychologicalexperience, and from which they derive social and personal support evenwhen gang membership overlaps and converges with penalties attached tocriminal behavior. However, there was no uniformity of sample size or selectionacross the other studies. Addressing key features of gang membership: Measuring the involvement of young members. The studies examined for this research reflect what appears to be asocial-science consensus that gang membership is a function of personal andsocial factors that have varying force in individual cases. The advantage ofusing sociological theory as the starting point is that it provides anexplanatory framework for understanding the big picture of social analysis.The framework enables the author to collect studies that support his viewof Latino gangs as alternative ethnic cultures; however, the study leavesunanswered to what extent the literature provides evidence that delinquentbehavior does not proceed from social marginalization or low self-esteem. (2 1, September). Gang culture boostsmembers' self-esteem in ways that the mainstream does not. With reference tosocial theories of the connection between culture and identity formation,the influence of hierarchical family and community dynamics on thedevelopment of attitudes toward "delinquent" behavior, and the positivesocial and psychological reinforcement provided by gangs but withheld bymainstream society, Arfaniarromo cites research supporting his view thatgang members view gang activity as a social achievement, not socialdeviance. R. C. Wang (1994) was obliged byschool administrators not to confine his sample to gang members alreadyenrolled in a behavior-modification program but to include nongangstudents, which yielded a sample of 155 juniors and seniors. However, the prospective study designappears to have been otherwise complex. Groupquestionnaires completed by fifth-grade student subjects, detailedindividual interviews with parents/guardians conducted annually for thenext eight years, plus information from school personnel and publicrecords, also formed part of the data set. Journal of Gang Research, 4, 13-21.Wang, A. Wang(1994) gave classes of high school subjects a Racial Attitude AdjectiveChecklist, which included questions about favorite role models, and a self-esteem scale. Citingresearch findings that show the complexities of marginal as well asmainstream mores, he makes a case that understanding the dynamics ofmainstream and marginal cultures can inform intervention and preventionstrategies for discouraging gang membership among youth. (1994, Summer). Religious rejections of the world and their directions. Decker and Curry began with 533preliminary interviews and from that pool selected the 96 self-nominatedgang members that became the focus of study. The lack of sample uniformity from study to study demonstrates eitherthe wide discretion that researchers have in designing their investigationsor the limitations imposed by the circumstances of a specific project. The purpose of this research is to evaluate reports of studiesregarding the origins of youth-gang membership. Assembling highly detailed demographic information on the children inthe longitudinal study appears to have been an important aspect of thestudy inasmuch as the researchers emphasize that factors historically saidto predict teenage gang membership (family chaos, poor academics, etc.)kick in as early as age 1 . The big picture of research into gangs is that theexperts desire to understand where and how gangs fit into the largerstructure of mainstream society, what gangs offer members that mainstreamsociety either cannot or will not, and what motivates individuals to join agang in the first place. Causes of gang participation and strategies for prevention in gang members' own words. and What is its name? Thus it is impossible to determine(a) whether volunteers experienced institutional coercion to participate or(b) whether participants' inputs were reliable. However,whereas Sirpal's subjects numbered only 3 , all designated as gang membersby the juvenile justice system, those of Decker and Curry were "self-nominated" current and former gang members in middle school. The key to Arfaniarromo's study is the fact that he conceptualizesgang membership as response to--and rebellion against--unacceptablyinsensitive and inequitable social conditions presented by the socialmainstream. As someone who has becomeintrigued by Marx's and Weber's analyses of social alienation andhopelessness experienced by those in the lowest social class (Marx, 1978;Weber, 1946), I would use questionnaires and individual interviews toidentify and measure the linkage between gang membership and the search forsocial identity, worth, and belonging that subjects perceive as beingfrustrated by poverty, educational policies that yield dropping out insteadof graduation, and persistent social and economic marginalization. With regard to the study byDecker and Curry, a possible limitation on the reliability of researchtechnique is the fact that subjects were "self-nominated" as current,associate, or former gangbangers. From year to year, starting at age 13 andcontinuing to age 18, subjects were asked only two questions: Do you belongto a gang? Failing to gainaccess to the social goods of mainstream society, the gangs develop asocial culture with a life of its own, in which petty illegal activitybecomes the norm and successful criminal behavior an achievement. The sample size ranged from a low of 3 (Sirpal,1999) to 8 8 (Hill, et al., 1999). Inother words, other aspects of the study may compensate for the limitationson generalizing from specific cases caused by small sample size. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 28, 123-36.Decker, S., & Curry, D. That would help explain why gang members partake in activitiesthat they consciously know are morally wrong and illegal. (1978). The questionnaire constructed by Hill, et al. Researchers initially selectedstudy participants from elementary schools located in high-crimeneighborhoods with substandard socioeconomic demographics. The factthat Sirpal followed only 3 subjects to choose from must be set beside thefact that he conducted "in-depth, open-ended interviews" with eachindividual that were designed to elicit a wide range of information about asubject's background, family, motivation for joining (leaving) a gang, aswell as a general evaluation of gangs pro and con. The studies posed gang-membership questions in a variety of ways. One study (Sirpal, 1997)focused exclusively on "adjudicated delinquents" who had entered thejustice system involuntarily and had been identified as gang members.Otherwise, study subjects consisted of adolescents either self-identified(self-nominated) or identified by school personnel as current or formergang members, or as nongang participants. The studies were notconfined to a single ethnic group but covered Caucasians, AfricanAmericans, and Latinos to one degree or another.

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