Understanding the relationship between violent victimization and gang membership

Purpose

Research examining factors that precipitate gang violence has contributed substantially to our understanding of gangs and gang activity with respect to offending, yet we still know relatively little about how gangs influence members’ risk of victimization. The current study examines three hypotheses: (1) gang involvement and involvement in other risky lifestyles is related to violent victimization, (2) involvement in gang crime is associated with violent victimization, and (3) the presence of rival gangs is related to violent victimization.

Methods

The present study uses data obtained from 909 recently booked juvenile arrestees who were interviewed as part of the Arizona Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program.

Results

Our findings indicated that prevalence of violent victimization was highest among gang members, followed by former gang members, gang associates, and non-gang members. After controlling for involvement in gang crime, however, gang membership per se did not significantly influence the juveniles’ risk of serious violent victimization.

Conclusions

Our results call into question the conclusion that gang membership alone increases the likelihood of violent victimization vis-à-vis lifestyle/routine activities and/or collective liability. Instead our findings support prior research on the victim-offender overlap, that offending behaviors increase the risk of victimization.     

Prison gang integration and inmate violence

Purpose

Gang membership has been linked in a number of prior studies with inmate misconduct; known gang members are more prone than non-gang members to act violently behind bars. Theories of intergroup conflict suggest, however, there is reason to expect that broader within-prison gang dynamics, not just gang membership alone, are associated with the incidence of violence.

Methods

We collected data on inmates from a large southern state and estimated multilevel models of inmate-on-inmate violence. Included in our models were a variety of common individual-level correlates of violent misconduct, among them gang membership. Substantive prison-level correlates included the percentage of gang members and “gang integration,” the latter being a measure of gang heterogeneity.

Results

We found a modest association between both gang variables and inmate-on-inmate violence, with gang integration being the most significant of the two.

Conclusions

Gang membership is an important correlate of inmate violence, but attention to broader prison gang dynamics is clearly necessary. We discuss the implications of this finding for theories of inmate violence.     

Uncovering the Pathways Between Gang Membership and Violent Victimization

Objectives

Gang members are more likely to be victimized violently than non-gang youth, but the extent to which this relationship is confounded, direct, or mediated remains unclear. This study responds to recent calls by scholars for more methodologically sound research in this area with the goal of uncovering the pathways between gang membership and violent victimization.

Methods

Using a school-based longitudinal sample of adolescents, the current study uses Preacher and Hayes multiple mediator structural equation modeling and counterfactual methodology to test whether and which theoretical pathways—self-control, cultural orientations, routine activity, and lifestyle theory—mediate the contemporaneous and prospective effects of gang membership on violent victimization.

Results

The results indicate that 27 % of the contemporaneous effects of gang membership on victimization is attributable to selection, with the remaining 73 % endogenous to gang membership, supporting Thornberry et al.’s (J Res Crime Delinquency 30:55–87, 1993) enhancement model. Entry into a gang increases risk taking, temper, self-centeredness, negative peer commitment, neutralization of violence, aggressive conflict resolution, unstructured socializing, and delinquency, and decreases empathy and positive peer commitment. The contemporaneous gang membership-victimization link was fully mediated, due almost entirely to delinquency. Prospective models reveal a gang membership-victimization link that is fully confounded by selection, although attrition and desistance from gangs may be responsible for this finding.

Conclusions

The existing risky attitudes and behaviors of youth who select into gangs matters a great deal for understanding the gang membership-victimization link, but these very risks are exacerbated upon entry into a gang. Our mediation findings suggest that interventions targeting highly delinquent gang members should pay dual dividends of reducing delinquency and victimization.

     

Exploring the link between self-control and partner violence: Bad parenting or general criminals

Objective

This study examines the mechanisms that connect self-control and domestic violence with a specific focus given to the influence of bad parenting and general criminal behavior.

Methods

The authors used data from a community-based sample of 375 respondents. Path analysis was conducted exploring whether bad parenting (as measured by child victimization) or general criminal behavior linked self-control and partner violence together.

Results

The results showed a link between self-control and partner violence. The results also showed that while child victimization is related to partner abuse, it does not appear to be the link between self-control and domestic violence. General criminal histories, however, appear to be a link between self-control and partner violence.

Conclusions

Efforts to treat partner abusers should focus on raising their self-control levels by focusing on general characteristics of abusers rather than specific experiences of child maltreatment. Criminal justice responses should be targeted to addressing offenders self-control levels through measures that provide an “external conscience” (Jenuwine et al., 2003) for offenders. Partner abusers should be viewed and treated as general types of criminals rather than specific types of offenders. The precise influence of bad parenting, and strategies to define bad parenting in self-control research, remain in question.     

Motives and methods for leaving the gang: Understanding the process of gang desistance

Purpose

This study examined the process of leaving the gang. Gang membership was conceptualized in a life course framework and the motives for why and methods for how one leaves the gang were analyzed.

Methods

Data were gathered from a sample of 84 juvenile arrestees in Arizona, all of whom left their gang. Motives for leaving the gang were organized into factors internal (push) and external (pull) to the gang, while methods for leaving the gang were organized into hostile and non-hostile modes of departure. Motives and methods were cross-classified and their correlates were examined, notably in relation to gang ties—persisting social and emotional attachments to the gang.

Results

Push motives and non-hostile methods were the modal responses for leaving the gang. While it was not uncommon to experience a hostile departure from the gang, most former gang members reported walking away without ritual violence or ceremony. This method was conditional on the motive for departure, however. None of the individuals leaving the gang for pull or external reasons experienced a hostile departure. While gang ties persisted regardless of motive or method, retaining such ties corresponded with serious consequences.

Conclusions

A life course framework is capable of organizing similarities between leaving the gang and desistance from other forms of crime and deviant groups. The process of gang desistance is consistent with asymmetrical causation. Due to limited attention to this process, a typology is introduced as a basis for understanding leaving the gang in relation to desisting from crime.     

Correlates and consequences of pre-incarceration gang involvement among incarcerated youthful felons

Objective

The primary aim of the study is to document the prevalence and variation in types of pre-incarceration gang membership among a sample of incarcerated felons. The second goal is to consider if and how pre-incarceration gang involvement affects institutional behavior.

Materials and Methods

This study builds on the existing literature by considering if and how different types of pre-incarceration gang involvement effect prison misconduct. This relationship is examined while controlling for attitudinal measures and pre-prison social characteristics that may condition entrance into gangs and involvement in serious prison misconduct. The study includes a sample of 504 youthful adults incarcerated in a large Midwestern state in 1996.

Results

The results highlight that there is a high degree of variation in pre-incarceration gang involvement. Moreover, involvement in different types of gangs also is a significant predictor of prison misconduct. Individuals involved in organized/criminal gangs at the point of incarceration experienced significantly more serious misconduct reports than their non-gang counterparts, but similar findings were not evident for those involved in unorganized gangs.

Conclusions

Even among a relatively serious population of youthful adult offenders, pre-incarceration gang involvement is uncommon. Pre-incarceration involvement in organized gangs represents a significant risk factor for prison misconduct.     

Groups, gangs, and delinquency: Does organization matter?

Purpose

A consistent finding of research on delinquency has been that gang members show higher levels of delinquent behavior than non-gang members. However, research attempting to understand the mechanisms underlying this finding is lacking. The basic premise of the current article is that the level of organization found in delinquent groups and gangs matters in clarifying the relationship between membership and delinquency.

Methods

This article examined the association between organization and delinquency in a sample of 523 self-reported juvenile offenders from a high school survey conducted in the province of Quebec, Canada.

Results

The results showed that 1) there is clearly something special about membership in a gang that influences delinquency beyond the more general membership in a delinquent group; 2) the key to understanding finding lies, in part, in the level of organization found in gangs. Organization emerged as the most important factor associated with general delinquency, involvement in violence, and in drug supply offences, significantly (but not completely) reducing the effect of gang membership on delinquency.

Conclusions

Even if most delinquent associations show little signs of formal structure and organization, this study demonstrates the importance of organization as a key mechanism to understand the gang effect on delinquency.     

Does victimization reduce self-control? A longitudinal analysis

Purpose

To examine the effect of victimization on self-control.

Method

Five waves of data from the GREAT survey are analyzed; the effect of prior victimization on subsequent self-control is estimated using the dynamic panel generalized-method of moments.

Results

Victimization reduces subsequent self-control in the near term.

Conclusions

The findings point to another source of low self-control, help to explain why prior victimization is linked to subsequent victimization, and provide support for general strain theory - which predicts that strains such as victimization will reduce self-control.     

Marijuana But Not Alcohol Use During Adolescence Mediates the Association Between Transmissible Risk for Substance Use Disorder and Number of Lifetime Violent Offenses

Aim

This study determined the extent to which alcohol and marijuana use during adolescence mediates the relation between transmissible risk for substance use disorder (SUD) and lifetime number of different types of violent offenses.

Methods

The transmissible liability index was administered to 359 10-12 year old youths who were tracked to 22 years of age. Past year frequency of alcohol and marijuana consumption was longitudinally tracked to age 22 at which time lifetime violent offenses was recorded.

Results

Rate of increase in marijuana use mediated the association between transmissible risk and lifetime number of different types of violent offenses. No association was found between past year frequency of alcohol use and violent offenses.

Conclusions

Prevention directed at lowering the psychological characteristics associated with transmissible risk for SUD may also reduce violent offending.     

Youth violence at school and the intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity

Purpose

Research has revealed that school-based activities are related to youth violence at school; however, the intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity in this relationship remains uncertain.

Methods

This study utilizes data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and incorporates multilevel modeling techniques to examine the intersectionality of gender, race, and ethnicity in the relationship between school-based activities and youth victimization at school.

Results

Racial and ethnic minority male involvement in school sports is linked to an increase in school-based victimization, while White American male involvement in school sports is associated with a decrease in school-based victimization. On the other hand, school sports appears to be an insulating factor against victimization for girls regardless of their race or ethnicity.

Conclusions

This research underscores the importance of understanding the intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity when examining youth violence.     

Adolescent school-based sexual victimization: Exploring the role of opportunity in a gender-specific multilevel analysis

Purpose

Most research on school-based adolescent sexual victimization has lacked an explicit theoretical focus. This study examined whether an opportunity framework is appropriate for understanding adolescent school-based sexual harassment and sexual assault victimization using gender-specific multilevel analysis.

Methods

Using a sample of middle and high school adolescents, we examined the effects of individual-level indicators of opportunity on school-based sexual harassment and sexual assault victimization. In addition, we explored the relative influence of school factors on student sexual victimization, including the potential moderating influence the school environment may have on the effects of individual-level indicators of opportunity. Finally, we examined the potential differences in the correlates of sexual victimization across male and female adolescents.

Results

Several individual-level indicators of opportunity were associated with school-based sexual harassment and sexual assault for both males and females, though several important gender differences were observed. In addition, school factors directly and indirectly influenced sexual victimization.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that an opportunity framework is appropriate for understanding school-based sexual harassment and sexual assault victimization, and that important gender differences do exist. The implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.     

Serious assaults on prison staff: A descriptive analysis

Objective

The current study sought to illuminate the patterns associated with serious inmate-on-staff assaults, as well as the characteristics of perpetrators and victims.

Material and methods

This study examined 79 assaults on prison staff requiring more than first aid treatment, perpetrated by 96 inmates, in a large state correctional department during a 14-month period (September 1, 2007 through October 31, 2008).

Results

These assaults were both infrequent (53 per 100,000 inmates annually) and progressively more infrequent as the severity increased (hospitalization for non-life threatening injury or required reconstructive surgery = 2.2 per 100,000 inmates annually; hospitalization for life-threatening injury = 0.5 per 100,000 inmates annually). Among staff victims, Black and female correctional officers were underrepresented. Inmate perpetrators who were younger, Black, prison gang members, and/or serving sentences for violent offenses were disproportionately represented among assailants.

Conclusions

The low overall rate of serious staff assaults attests to the level of professionalism and training in modern corrections departments. Nonetheless, situational factors uncovered in the current analysis suggest that particular circumstances increase the likelihood of staff assaults, hence the need for continued training and vigilance on the part of correctional staff that come in direct contact with inmates.     

Is stalking a learned phenomenon? An empirical test of social learning theory

Purpose

We examine the extent to which components of social learning theory (i.e., definitions, differential reinforcement, and differential association/modeling) predict stalking victimization and perpetration using survey data from a large sample of college students.

Methods

Among a sample of 2,766 college students, logistic regression models were estimated to analyze the relationships between social learning theory and stalking perpetration and victimization.

Results

Results suggest that victimization and perpetration are functions of social learning. The findings also indicated that females were significantly more likely to be both stalking victims and perpetrators.

Conclusions

Regarding stalking perpetration and victimization, our results suggest that there may be responses, attitudes, and behaviors that are learned, modified, or reinforced primarily through interaction with peers. Overall, social learning theory concepts appear to be important predictors of stalking perpetration and victimization that help to develop theoretical explanations for stalking.     

Child and adolescent psychopathy: A state-of-the-art reflection on the construct and etiological theories

Purpose

There is a growing interest in the identification of psychopathic traits in infancy and adolescence. This effort will enable the development of predictive models of aggressive and violent behavior, in order to intervene effectively both in preventive and therapeutic levels. Several authors have suggested that the presence or absence of psychopathic traits, together with the factors that sustain, maximize or minimize them, can help in the identification of the etiology and developmental trajectories of anti-social individuals.

Materials and Methods

Meta-narrative review of the child and adolescent psychopathy construct.

Results

This state-of-the-art review discusses the concept of child and adolescent psychopathy, taking into account historical and conceptual issues.

Conclusion

Evolutionary Theories can add a major contribution to the understanding of the origins of psychopathic traits.     

Does prison strain lead to prison misbehavior? An application of general strain theory to inmate misconduct

Purpose

This paper applies macro-micro General Strain Theory (GST) to predict prisoner misconduct. It is hypothesized that prison-based strain will adversely affect inmates and increase their misconduct.

Methods

Data from a large southern state are used to examine how environmental strain measured at the prison level influence inmates’ violent misconduct. Analyses will include a group-based trajectory model on monthly counts of violent misconduct for the first three years of incarceration and assess whether the strain of the environment (using a latent measure of prison deprivation as a proxy for environmental strain) distinguishes between trajectories. The analysis will employ finite multilevel mixture modeling with environmental strain as both a within- and between-class predictor, but at the prison level.

Results

Findings suggest that prison strain is positively associated with prison misconduct; however, the magnitude of the effect varies across distinct inmate trajectories.

Conclusions

Theoretical and practical implications are highlighted as are directions for future research.     

Sugar and spice and everything nice? Exploring institutional misconduct among serious and violent female delinquents

Purpose

Despite an emerging body of research on the institutional behavior and adjustment of delinquent males, there exists little information on the incarceration experiences of female delinquents. The present study explored the incidence, prevalence, and determinants of institutional misconduct among a sample of 139 serious and violent delinquent females sentenced to state juvenile incarceration.

Methods

Secondary data analysis was used for the present study. Data utilized were derived from information originally gathered by correctional staff during intake at a state Youth Correctional System (a pseudonym) and during an offender's entire incarceration through on-site diagnostic processes, staff observations, official records, and offender self-reports.

Results

Members of the study sample engaged in roughly 700 incidents of major misconduct and more than 12,000 instances of minor institutional misconduct during their incarceration. Results from negative binomial regression models examining four different types of institutional misconduct revealed that age at commitment, offense type, mental health status, and gang affiliation were related to the expected rate of misconduct, although this varied by misconduct type.

Conclusions

Institutionalization is not necessarily a period of desistance from offending for all delinquent girls. As institutional misconduct may impact post-release recidivism, it is important to identify and intervene with at-risk juveniles during periods of incarceration.     

Gangs and Violence: Disentangling the Impact of Gang Membership on the Level and Nature of Offending

Objectives

To determine whether membership in youth gangs provides a unique social forum for violence amplification. This study examines whether gang membership increases the odds of violent offending over and above involvement in general delinquent and criminal behavior.

Methods

Five waves of data from a multi-site (seven cities) panel study of over 3,700 youth originally nested within 31 schools are analyzed. We estimate four level repeated measures item response theory models, which include a parameter to differentiate the difference in the log of the expected event-rate for violent offense items to the log of the expected event-rate for nonviolent offense items.

Results

Depending on the comparison group (gang youth, overall sample), periods of active gang membership were associated with a 10 or 21% increase in the odds of involvement in violent incidents. When the sample is restricted to youth who report gang membership during the study, the proportionate increase in the odds of violence associated with gangs is statistically similar for males and females. After youth reported leaving the gang their propensity for violence was not significantly different than comparison group observations, although levels of general offending remain elevated.

Conclusions

While results are limited by the school-based sampling strategy, the importance of gang prevention and intervention programming for violence reduction is highlighted. Preventing youth from gang membership or shortening the length of gang careers through interventions may reduce absolute levels of violence.     

Population heterogeneity, state dependence and sexual offender recidivism: The aging process and the lost predictive impact of prior criminal charges over time

Purpose

Two competing theories explain the link between past and future criminal behavior: population heterogeneity and state dependence. Actuarial models of risk prediction emphasize static variables, akin to population heterogeneity. State dependence, has never been tested with similar populations.

Methods

Using survival modeling this study examines both population heterogeneity and state dependence using a sample of adult sex offenders incarcerated in Quebec, Canada from 1994-2000. Analyses were conducted on offenders age 36 and over (n = 242). Official criminal activity was measured at: (a) 18-23 years; (b) 24-29 years; (c) 30-35 years; and, (d) 36 + years.

Results

Cox proportional hazards modeling shows stronger evidence for state dependence, suggesting changeability in risk over time.

Conclusions

Support was found for both offending continuity and discontinuity, or a mixed model of offending. Current actuarial risk assessment tools for adult sex offenders do not accommodate for the inclusion of state dependent and life-course processes, which could have implications for the potential overestimation of offender risk.     

The effect of prison gang membership on recidivism

Purpose

How does prison gang membership affect recidivism? In this paper, we use a unique dataset of all releasees from prisons operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections during the month of November 2000, which includes demographic information and data on gang participation. We attempt to control for confounding factors that are traditionally associated with both prison gang membership and rearrest.

Methods

We develop a potential-outcomes framework and describe the conditions under which a counterfactual can be estimated when gang membership is not randomly assigned. We combine regression analysis with Coarsened Exact Matching, which has several advantages over the more popular propensity score matching, to estimate the effect of gang membership on recidivism.

Results

Prison gang membership results in a six percentage point increase in recidivism.

Conclusions

Despite the strengths of the data, unobserved heterogeneity among inmates could still bias estimates. However, there are probably important subtleties to the gang participation decision such that experimental or quasi-experimental data are unlikely to increase our understanding of the relationship between gang-membership and post-release outcomes. We recommend incorporating ethnography with survey data collection, because ethnographers are able to document otherwise unobservable contextual information concerning the selection process which could be used to identify causal relationships.     

The genetic origins of psychopathic personality traits in adult males and females: Results from an adoption-based study

Purpose

Research has consistently revealed that measures of psychopathy and psychopathic personality traits represent some of the most consistent predictors of violent criminal involvement. As a result, there has been a considerable amount of interest in trying to identify the various etiological factors related to psychopathy. The current study builds on this existing body of literature by examining the genetic foundations to psychopathic personality traits.

Methods

An adoption-based research design is used to estimate genetic effects on psychopathic personality traits. Adoptees are drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Results

Analyses revealed that having a biological criminal father was related to psychopathic personality traits for male adoptees, but not for female adoptees. For males, having a criminal biological father increased the odds of scoring in the extreme of the psychopathic personality trait scale by a factor ranging between 4.3 and 8.5. However, there was no association between having a biological criminal mother and psychopathic personality traits for adoptees.

Conclusions

Psychopathic personality traits are transmitted from father-to-offspring due to genetic reasons.