The “Cost” of Joining a Gang: Economic Consequences from Adolescence to Adulthood

• In Event: Noncriminal Life Outcomes of At-Risk Youth

Abstract

Much of what is known about the consequences of gang membership is confined to criminal offending and victimization. Drawing from developmental and life-course perspectives, an emerging literature has shown that the consequences of gang membership cascade over time and spillover into other significant life domains. National data, variants of propensity score weighting, and longitudinal modeling strategies are used to examine the impact of gang membership on work history—labor supply and job quality outcomes—from adolescence to adulthood.

Authors

• David C. Pyrooz, Sam Houston State University

• Scott Decker, Arizona State University