Juvenile Gangs

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Juvenile Gangs Violence
Multiple Influences on Risk Gangs in a Global
Perspective Cheryl Maxson Department of
Criminology, Law and Society University of
California, Irvine 2005 Summer Institute on
Youth Violence Prevention August 9, 2005
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2 Talks for Price of 1!

• Talk 1 Current research on risk factors for
  joining gangs
• Synthesis of work from last 15 years
• Cumulative risk
• Differential risk of joining by gender and
  ethnicity
• Talk 2 What we know about street gangs outside
  the US
• Gangs in Europe
• Comparative studies
• The latest hot topic
• But first, a little context about street gangs

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Why Gangs?

• Proliferation of gangs in the US since the 1980s
  law enforcement surveys, especially National
  Youth Gang Center annual surveys
• Prevalence of gang joining self-report
• Gang crime patterns recent longitudinal
  self-report studies

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NYGS 2002 National Estimates

• 731,500 gang members
• 21,500 gangs
• 2300 cities and 550 county jurisdictions
• BUT, the story here is that big cities contribute
  lots of gang members, small cities contribute
  lots of gang places

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Patterns of Gang City Proliferation

• Bigger cities onset before 1991, especially
  1986-1990
• Smaller places (lt 50K), 1991-5
• Gang desistance marked declines between 1997
  2002 in all categories except large cities.
• Gang cities is blunt instrument.

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Prevalence of Gang Joining youth self-report
studies

• 18 studies, past 15 years
• 2 dozen US cities, Canada, the Netherlands,
  Scotland Germany
• Study samples and gang definitions vary
• General population or risky area/subjects
• Group illegal activity, name, symbols, etc.
• Current membership or ever

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Study samples and definitions make a difference!

• 6-8 Restricted, current members
• 13-18 Restricted, risky population
• 19-30 Unrestricted, risky population

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Strongest message

• Even with unrestricted, risky samples
• 7 or 8 out of 10 youth DONT join gangs!
• But those that do.

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Crime Patterns Gang Membership

• Youth affiliated with gangs commit the majority
  of all serious, violent crimes in longitudinal
  study samples

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Offending Gang Membership

• Slightly elevated offending profiles (or not)
  prior to joining
• Big increase in offending during period of gang
  membership
• Big decrease after leaving
• Effect of membership on offending over and above
  having delinquent friends

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• BUT, these studies also show majority of gang
  members join and leave within one year.
• SO, there is something about the group dynamics
  in gangs that contributes to these elevated rates
• AND a lot to be gained in crime and violence
  reduction by preventing gang joining, or reducing
  length of membership

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Risk Factor Research

• Public Health Approach
• Policies, programs should focus on reducing risk
• Prevention over Suppression or Rehabilitation
• Pluses Not theory-limited, pragmatic local
  focus

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Risk Factor Research

• Neighborhood, Family, Peer, School Individual
• Risks span these arenas
• Risks are cumulative

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General Observations

• Individual, family peer characteristics more
  often studied than school or community
• Longitudinal studies confirm the more frequent
  cross-sectional studies
• More multivariate analyses needed

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Consistent or Mostly Supported

• Negative life events (I)
• Non-delinquent, problem behaviors (I)
• Delinquent beliefs, norms (I)
• Parental supervision (F)
• Characteristics of peer networks (P)
• Affective dimension of networks (P)

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Mostly not support

• Self esteem (I)
• Family poverty/disadvantage (F)
• Family structure (F)
• Family attachment (F)
• Unsafe school environment (S)
• Criminogenic neighborhood indicators (C)

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Jury still out

• Internalizing behaviors (I)
• Conventional activities (I)
• Attitudes toward the future (I)
• Parenting style/hostile environment (F)
• Family deviance (F)
• Educational commitment/aspirations (S)
• Educational attachment (S)
• Academic achievement (S)
• Area crime measures ( C)

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General Findings

• Weak evidence among school, community categories
  (need more studies)
• Confirms the import of peer networks
• Not as much support for family categories
• Individual stress, externalizing behaviors and
  delinquent norms

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A Note on Cumulative Risk 5 studies

• Gang probabilities increase as risk factors pile
  on top of one another, and from different
  domains.
• RYDS 21/40 risk factors 43 of males in this
  group are gang members.
• Predictive capability of risk factors
• Intervention on 40 risk factors?

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Risk Factor Research Problems

• Modest consensus on important risk factors
• Multivariate analyses
• Direction for program development
• Cumulative risk also limited
• Protective factors?

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Different risk factors for girls?

• Fewer identified risk factors for girls
• Most risk factors for girls also apply to boys
• Each study identifies unique risk factors for
  girlsgender-specific programming? BUT none
  emerges in more than one study
• General realm of school experience might be
  different.

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Other ? About Differential Risk

• For different ethnic groups? Nothing
• For different age groups? Nothing
• For core vs. fringe involvement? Probably
  different risk constellations not demos
• For transient vs. multiyear involvement? No

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Juvenile Gangs Violence
Gangs in a Global Perspective Part II Cheryl
Maxson Department of Criminology, Law and
Society University of California, Irvine 2005
Summer Institute on Youth Violence
Prevention August 9, 2005
24

• Talk 2 What we know about street gangs outside
  the US
• Gangs in Europe
• Comparative studies
• The latest hot topic MS-13

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Eurogang Research Definition

• Any durable, street-oriented youth group whose
  involvement in illegal activity is part of their
  group identity.

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How Different Are Gangs in Europe?

• Summarizing over accounts in several sites,
  European gangs have structures that we recognize
  in US gangs (Weitkamp, 2001)
• Comparative studies

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Denver and BremanHuizinga Schumann, 2001

• 13-14 of adolescents in both samples identify as
  a member of gang or bande over adolescence
• Both groups contribute substantially to
  delinquency, especially violence
• In Breman, few drug sales

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US and the NetherlandsEsbensen Weerman, 2005

• 6 (N) 8 (US) current members,
  cross-sectional, mean age 14 years
• Gang/nongang ratios on 8 risk factors the same
• Gang/nongang ratios on offending the same 4x
  except property in (N) nearly 7x
• Gang characteristics US larger more organized
  (symbols, rites, rules, leaders)

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Gangs in Mexico, Central America

• Latest hot topic, MS 13

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Moral Panic or Unique Gang Problem?

• MS-13 in several US locations, Canada, Mexico,
  Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador
• 18th street too
• Mostly media law enforcement sources
• Lots of agency collaborations, task forces
• Immigration policy, deportation
• Mano dura, other suppression tactics