Interrupting the Streets: Former Gang Members' Commitment to Neighborhood Activism

• In Event: 2429 - Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Roundtable 16

Abstract

What are the factors that encourage former gang members to commit to the role of violence “interrupter” for community-based violence prevention organizations? This paper draws on the social movements literature in sociology to enhance our understanding of individual commitment to the high-risk activism of neighborhood violence intervention. Utilizing a multi-year ethnography of street workers in a CeaseFire-type organization, this paper develops a typology of street worker commitment based on three central categories: 1) Exiters, 2) Straddlers, and 3) Loyalists. We then identify an array of organizational and social psychological factors that lead street workers to either sustain participation in, or disengage, from street intervention work.

Authors

• David W. Everson, University of Southern Maine

• Joseph D. Johnson, Rowan University