Prison as a “Social School of Crime”? Network Trajectories of Prison Gang Members

• In Event: Recent Advances in Network Approaches to Study Gangs and Criminal Organizations

Abstract

Prison has been found to be a major turning point in the trajectories of gang members; however, the prison experience as the main focus of inquiry has been largely neglected. Prison provides a unique opportunity for gang members to further develop their offending networks, which may impact offending trajectories after release. The current study fills this gap by mapping the personal networks of seven incarcerated adolescents who came together to create a prison gang. Specifically, the personal network ties for the seven youth were coded before, during, and after each adolescent’s prison stay, allowing for comparisons between their community and prison networks. This also provided an opportunity to examine whether community-based networks changed following the gang’s formation in prison. The aim of this study was twofold: 1) what did the personal networks of the seven youth look like prior to custody (pre-gang network)?; and 2) what happened to their networks after incarceration (post-gang network)? These aims were addressed to understand how the status of gang member influenced the acquisition of additional network ties both inside and outside of custody, ultimately influencing the criminal trajectory of each youth.

Authors

• Krysta Dawson, Simon Fraser University

• Martin Bouchard, Simon Fraser University

• Evan McCuish, Simon Fraser University

• Raymond Corrado, Simon Fraser University