Constructing Social Networks from the Boston Special Youth Project Data

• In Event: Revisiting Roxbury: Crime, Gang Networks and the Life Course

Abstract

The Boston Special Youth Project included a detached-worker component that followed over 200 youth in 7 gangs over a three-year period. A key feature of the program was the recording of “contact cards” by project workers describing the social activities of group members. This paper describes the construction of social network data from nearly 80,000 contact cards during a 5-year period.

Author

• Jacob T.N. Young, Arizona State University