Gang and Non-Gang Youth: Differences in Explanatory Factors

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Abstract
An apparently common assumption about juvenile gangs is that they are composed of individuals who are substantially different from other youth that are not gang members. Little empirical evidence exists to support such an assumption. This can, in part, be attributed to the fact that most knowledge about gangs has been derived from data gathered by police gang units or from observational or case studies. Very little information has been derived from surveys or interviews with a general sample of youth. In this paper, data from the Denver Youth Survey, a longitudinal study of families, are used to examine the characteristics of gang members and to explore the extent to which gang members differ from non-gang members on key theoretical variables. Findings suggest that while gang members differ from non-offending youth on a number of social psychological variables, they do not differ from other youth involved in serious "street" level offending.

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