Recruitment through Rule-Breaking: Establishing Social Ties with Gang Members

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 17. Policing and Crime

Abstract

How do outreach workers build relationships with young people deemed likely to commit gun violence? Under what conditions do those relationship building strategies fail in urban communities? This ethnographic study hones in on outreach workers interacting directly with gang members and asks how collective efficacy is achieved in urban communities plagued by guns and gang violence. The study draws on three primary sources of data: (1) participant observation of 68 daily roll call meetings; (2) content analysis of 1260 daily reports submitted by the outreach workers; and (3) semi-structured and informal interviews with all eight of the organizations key staff members. The study finds three key mechanisms of network tie formation between outreach workers and gang members: 1) identifying the package of social ties beyond the (potential) gang member, 2) incorporating those social ties when making transfers to the target (in the form of gifts, support, and advice); and 3) performing the code of the street by breaking organizational rules in order to show sincere care. In doing so, this case of outreach provides a qualitative account of the dynamics of male-gendered relationship building between a group of predominantly male workers and majority male target population. This study calls for a relationally-oriented approach to social interventions involving hard-to-reach groups whose pre-existing social networks are critical in inducing behavior change.

Author

• Tony Cheng, Yale University