Advancing and Testing the Interactive Gang Enhancement Model of Delinquency

• In Event: Exploring Substance Use with the Rochester Youth Development Study: Session II

Abstract

Thornberry and colleagues (1993) advanced three different models for understanding the relationship between gang membership and crime: the selection model, the facilitation model, and the enhancement model. A review of current research suggests the enhancement model as the most appropriate model to explain the relationship between gang membership and crime with evidence demonstrating a minor selection effect and a major facilitation effect (Krohn & Thornberry, 2008: 147). We build upon the enhancement model and argue that selection and facilitation effects associated with joining a gang should not be looked at as additive influences. Instead, we propose an interactive gang enhancement model which holds that the propensity to join a gang moderates the gang facilitation effect on delinquency. We use data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) and employ propensity score analytic methods to test whether gang selection conditions the effects of gang involvement on violence, property, and drug crime. Implications for both theory and policy are considered

Authors

• Jeffrey T. Ward, Temple University

• Megan Bears Augustyn, University of Texas at San Antonio