Serious Delinquency and Gang Involvement among Justice-Referred Youth in Treatment

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

There is an extensive body of research describing risk factors for gang involvement during adolescence (e.g., Barnes et al., 2010; Thornberry et al., 2003). However, much of this literature examines gang-involved youth identified in normative community population samples, with comparatively little attention to gang-involved youth selected from high-risk antisocial populations. Examining factors that differentiate gang-involved youth from uninvolved but otherwise similarly high-risk youth could aid in developing targeted interventions and contribute to refining theory on how and why youth enter and persist in gang activity.
In this study we examined data collected from 421 youth (ages 11‐18; 70% male; 66% nonwhite) referred by justice agencies for intensive home and community based intervention services. At service intake, youth reported their involvement in 16 different behaviors ranging from minor to serious forms of delinquency (Esbensen & Osgood, 1999). Gang involvement was determined through self- and therapist-rated indicators. Analyses showed that gang-involved youth did not differ from uninvolved youth in minor delinquency (e.g., theft; p =.061) but were significantly more likely to engage in serious delinquency (e.g., assault with weapon; p = .000). This presentation will report further analyses and discuss findings with respect to understanding and intervening with gang-affiliated youth.

Authors

• Paul Boxer, Rutgers University

• Meagan Docherty, Rutgers University

• Joanna Kubik, Rutgers University

• Ashley Schappell, Rutgers University

• Erika Niwa, Rutgers University

• Bonita Veysey, Rutgers University

• Michael Ostermann, Rutgers University