Operationalizing Gang Membership

Abstract

Although an extensive amount of research in the last decade has focused on juvenile gangs and the consequences of gang involvement, there has been considerable debate in the literature concerning both the conceptualization and the operationalization of the term gang membership. This research examines the extent to which the operationalization of gang membership impacts prevalence rates of both gang membership and delinquent involvement and whether this varies by gender. The findings suggest that the type of operationalization utilized by the researcher does impact both the prevalence rates of gang membership and delinquent involvement. Further, this impact varies by gender. An unrestricted definition of gang membership compared to more restrictive definitions yields conflicting findings with regard to the impact of gender on gang membership. Whereas the unrestricted measure of gang membership yielded significant gender differences, the more restrictive measure of organized gang membership produced no significant gender differences. The findings indicate the need to further address the issue of operationalization in our empirical studies of gang membership and to be sensitive to the potential impact this may have on gender differences reported by researchers.     

Slash,Shoot, Kill: Gang Recruitment of Children and the Penalties Gangs Face

Criminal street gang recruitment of minors has proliferated through countless communities in the United States as tensions continue to rise between gangs, communities, and the police. In response, many state legislatures have proposed legislation to combat such influence. However, not only are the proposed penalties too lenient, but some states do not even have laws that prosecute criminal street gang recruitment of minors. This note proposes that all 50 states enact an anti–gang recruitment statute specifically targeting recruiters of criminal street gangs by criminalizing gang recruitment of a minor.     

CRIMINAL GROUP EMBEDDEDNESS AND THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF ARRESTING A GANG'S LEADER: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY

Although law enforcement agencies arrest criminal group leaders to dismantle organized crime, few studies have assessed whether such interventions produce adverse effects. Through a mixed‐method comparative case study of the Latin Kings and 22 Boys street gangs in Chicago, this article examines the consequences of arresting a gang's leader. Using violent crime data, I show that a spike in violent crime took place in the first month after the arrest of the 22 Boys gang leader. In contrast, the arrest of the Latin Kings gang leader produced no change in violent crime. Using several qualitative data sources, I show that the arrest of the 22 Boys gang leader temporarily led to the gang's withdrawal from its territory, which spurred violent aggression from rival gangs in adjacent territories. In contrast, the Latin Kings gang continued its operations because the gang's prison leaders quickly appointed new leadership. The results suggest that criminal group embeddedness (or the social relations between criminal groups) can contribute to adverse effects in interventions targeting gang or other criminal group leaders.     

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A POLICE GANG UNIT: AN EXAMINATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS*

Although researchers have begun to document the programs and activities performed by police gang units, little research has examined why police gang units are created and why they have responded to local gang problems in the way they have over the past 10 years. Using a multimethodological research design, the present study examines the factors that shaped a Midwestern police department's response to its community's gang problem. The results from the present study lend support for the institutional perspective. The data suggest that the gang unit was created as a consequence of pressures placed on the police department from various powerful elements within the community and that, once created, the unit's response was largely driven by its need to achieve and maintain organizational legitimacy.     

Safety demand and supply: An alternative to fear of crime

This review provides an opportunity to assess the current state of gang research and suggest directions for its future. There has been a dramatic increase in research on gangs, gang members, and gang behavior since the early 1990s, making this review especially timely. We use Short’s three-level framework of explanation to organize the findings of prior research, focusing on individual-, micro-, and macro-level research. Attention is focused on the findings of such research, but we also examine theoretical and methodological developments as well. Drawing from Short and life-course research, we introduce a cross-level temporal framework to guide future directions in gang research.     

Racial and Ethnic Heterogeneity,Economic Disadvantage,and Gangs: A Macro‐Level Study of Gang Membership in Urban America

There is a lack of macro‐level gang research. The present study addresses this shortcoming by providing a theoretically informed analysis of gang membership in large US cities. More specifically, our goal is to determine whether racial and ethnic heterogeneity conditions the relationship between economic disadvantage and gang membership. Three separate sources of data are used in this study: U.S. Census 2000, Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Services 2000, and National Youth Gang Survey 2002–2006. A series of weighted least‐squares regression models are estimated, finding that both economic disadvantage and racial and ethnic heterogeneity exhibit independent and additive effects on gang membership. In addition, the results show that racial and ethnic heterogeneity has a conditioning relationship with economic disadvantage. Furthermore, our expanded operationalization of the Blau heterogeneity measure indicates that prior research may have underestimated the effects of heterogeneity. The authors discuss these findings in the context of existing gang research and offer directions for future research.     

Comparing the Effects of Treatment on Female Juvenile Gang and Non-Gang Members

Abstract

Most research indicates that males comprise the greatest proportion of gang members. Since the 1990s, however, there has been an increasing interest in female gangs and gang members. The current study builds on this research interest by examining differences between female gang members and non-gang members who participated in a juvenile probation program designed to identify and intervene with youth considered to be high risk for subsequent criminal and delinquent activity. The results of a logistic regression analysis revealed that two factors significantly influenced a female offender's likelihood of being rearrested: she did not complete the program, and she did not live with her natural parent(s). We conclude that the significant results do support findings from previous research in this area; we also discuss possible explanations as to why other factors were not significantly related to rearrests.     

Community organization and gang policy response

Analysis of agency response networks in 21 urban areas reveals that the adoption of policy responses is significantly related to social network location. In the 1988 National Youth Gang Intervention and Suppression Program survey, agency representatives were asked to list agencies with which regular contact was maintained in the process of dealing with the youth gang problem. Policy response is measured by the adoption of four policy responses: (1) making staff training available, (2) having a policy for dealing with youth gang problems, (3) having a policy in writing, and (4) attempting to influence legislation on the youth gang problem. Rasch modeling supports the scalability of the four items. The STRUCTURE program is used to identify elements of network structure within each community-specifically cliques and equivalence structures. A generalized linear model analysis of variance of the policy response scale reveals that structural equivalence and clique membership account for 54% of the variation in policy response. An examination of clique means indicates that network structure may retard as well as enhance policy response adaptations. In policy terms, this finding suggests that network structure should be mobilized by those who wish to develop a unified, national-level response to youth gang problems at the local level.     

The End of an Era: California's First Attempt to Manage Its Groundwater Resources Through Its Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and Its Impact on Almond Farmers

California is currently in its fourth year of one of the state's most lengthy droughts. This drought has had an enormous impact on the state's residents, particularly its almond farmers. To meet the rising demand in almonds during these difficult drought years, many farmers have decided to tap into the state's previously unregulated groundwater reserves. In an attempt to preserve the state's groundwater resources for future generations, California recently enacted three groundwater management bills into law, which collectively constitute the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. This article discusses and analyzes the adequacy of the act and how it will impact the state's almond farmers.     

Arrest and the Amplification of Deviance: Does Gang Membership Moderate the Relationship?

Although research has found that gang suppression efforts are largely ineffective, these policies have been responsible for the arrests of many gang youth. Prior research indicates that arrest is associated with deleterious consequences, but we know less about how arrest uniquely affects gang members. Using longitudinal data from a school-based sample, this study explores the effects of arrest for both gang and nongang youth. Propensity score matching and matched outcome analyses allow us to determine whether gang membership moderates the effect of arrest on later deviant outcomes. Our results indicate that the consequences of arrest are inconsistent with the goals of suppression tactics, with gang members reporting little to no change in deviant attitudes and peers and modest increases in delinquency. Meanwhile, nongang youth experience a range of consequences associated with arrest, including increased odds of gang-joining.     

A MULTISITE EXAMINATION OF YOUTH GANG MEMBERSHIP: DOES GENDER MATTER?*

The nature and extent of female involvement in gangs has been a relatively neglected area of criminological inquiry. Even more rare have been investigations of explanations of female gang participation. This neglect can be attributed, in large part, to a perception that the phenomenon is statistically rare and the behavior substantively unimportant. Our objectives in this research are twofold: to describe gang membership in a general survey of eighth-grade students in a cross section of the United States and to examine differences between boys' and girls' attitudes associated with gang membership     

Native American Youth Gangs

ABSTRACT

The number of Native American youth gangs has increased dramatically since the 1990s. These gangs bring increases in crime and pose unique challenges to tribal leaders and local police departments. Using an integrated theoretical perspective, this article connects cultural and historical factors to explain the emergence of gangs in Indian country, identify risk factors for gang involvement, and outline important considerations for effective prevention and intervention strategies. It is expected that an improved understanding of Native American culture and experiences combined with the implementation of culturally-appropriate prevention and intervention programs will lead to more positive outcomes.     

Seeing Like an Islamic State: Shari‘a and Political Power in Sudan

Islamic law, or shari‘a, has been incorporated into the legal systems of many states. In much of the existing literature, this process is understood as part of the colonial and postcolonial state's attempt to render law legible—that is, codified, standardized, and abstract. In this article, I show how some state actors chose to move in the opposite direction, actively discouraging the transformation of shari‘a into a formal and codified system of law. Using the case of colonial and postcolonial Sudan, I argue that these actors viewed legal legibility as a threat to state power, recognizing the jurisgenerative potential of an informal and uncodified law.     

Food Security and Agri‐Foreign Direct Investment in Weak States: Finding the Governance Gap to Avoid ‘Land Grab’

Food security is important. A rising world population coupled with climate change creates growing pressure on global world food supplies. States alleviate this pressure domestically by attracting agri‐foreign direct investment (agri‐FDI). This is a high‐risk strategy for weak states: the state may gain valuable foreign currency, technology and debt‐free growth; but equally, investors may fail to deliver on their commitments and exploit weak domestic legal infrastructure to ‘grab’ large areas of prime agricultural land, leaving only marginal land for domestic production. A net loss to local food security and to the national economy results. This is problematic because the state must continue to guarantee its citizens' right to food and property. Agri‐FDI needs close regulation to maximise its benefit. This article maps the multilevel system of governance covering agri‐FDI. We show how this system creates asymmetric rights in favour of the investor to the detriment of the host state's food security and how these problems might be alleviated.     

Loosening the ties that bind: the hidden harms of civil gang injunctions in San Diego County

Civil gang injunctions (CGIs) are court-ordered restraining orders that are being utilized in the name of controlling the daily routine of alleged gang members, reducing crime, and eliminating ‘public nuisances’ in working-class neighborhoods of color. In this study, we draw upon interviews and court observations conducted between 2009 and 2014 in San Diego County to examine the perceptions of a subset of those who have been listed on CGIs or other gang suppression methods, and those who work closely with them, about their individual and collective impacts. We find that the men and women in our study experience several hidden harms of gang enforcement measures that damage their ability to connect with others in the community, including their own family members and friends; and reduce their ability to pursue opportunities related to education, housing, and employment. We demonstrate that the loss of these bonds to community and opportunities, leads to perceptions of injustice and, in some instances, a transformation in gang activity, rather than its elimination. Ultimately, these exploratory findings raise questions about the logic and justice of gang suppression.     

CERVICAL CANCER PREVENTION: MANDATING THE HPV VACCINE AS A CONDITION OF SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

This Note advocates that states require all females entering the sixth grade to be vaccinated with the HPV vaccine Gardasil, as a means of preventing cervical cancer deaths in the United States. States that do pass such a mandate would receive federal funding to help disperse the cost of the expensive three‐dose vaccine, especially to those females most in need. Subject to each individual state's mandate, parents would be allowed to opt their children out of such a mandate for religious, medical, and/or philosophical reasons.     

Gang Membership,Drug Selling,and Violence in Neighborhood Context

A prominent perspective in the gang literature suggests that gang member involvement in drug selling does not necessarily increase violent behavior. In addition it is unclear from previous research whether neighborhood disadvantage strengthens that relationship. We address these issues by testing hypotheses regarding the confluence of neighborhood disadvantage, gang membership, drug selling, and violent behavior. A three‐level hierarchical model is estimated from the first five waves of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, matched with block‐group characteristics from the 2000 U.S. Census. Results indicate that (1) gang members who sell drugs are significantly more violent than gang members that don’t sell drugs and drug sellers that don’t belong to gangs; (2) drug sellers that don’t belong to gangs and gang members who don’t sell drugs engage in comparable levels of violence; and (3) an increase in neighborhood disadvantaged intensifies the effect of gang membership on violence, especially among gang members that sell drugs.