Pathways Out: Interventions, Supportive Relations, and Crime Desistance among Gang-Affiliated and At-Risk Young People

Session Submission Type: Pre-arranged Panel

Abstract

This panel explores applied research on crime desistance, gang processes and gang interventions, emphasizing the role of supportive relationships in fostering pathways away from gang involvement. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of desistance, each paper highlights how structural and relational supports shape violence reduction and gang exit strategies for gang-affiliated individuals and high risk youth.

Two papers focus on educational interventions, presenting empirical research on programs designed to disengage gang-involved youth and prevent gang recruitment through education-based strategies. A third paper takes a cross-national comparative approach, drawing from qualitative studies in El Salvador, Honduras, the UK, and the US. It examines the critical yet often unrecognized role of mothers—or those in mothering roles—in gang intervention and prevention. This research underscores the multifaceted, unpaid labor of caregiving figures in guiding youth away from gang life and sustaining long-term desistance. A fourth paper highlights the relational skills needed to engage young people and move them toward desistance. It discusses the unique role of credible messengers as case managers who utilize their lived experiences to help their participants sustain desistance.

A discussant will synthesize these findings, discussing structural ladders for crime desistance and the importance of gender-informed and needs-based individualized services within and across gang interventions. By centering applied research on interventions and relational supports, this panel contributes to a growing body of work that bridges theory and practice, offering insights for policy and program development in gang and crime prevention and disengagement efforts.

Subtopic

• Topic 2: Types of Offending / Gangs (Eurogang WG)

Chair

• Caterina Roman, Temple University

Individual Presentations

• Mentoring by Credible Messengers: Engaging High-School Students at Risk for Gang Recruitment - Peter Simonsson, Temple University, Lewis Katz School of Medicine; Caterina Roman, Temple University

• Credible Messengers in Action on the Street: The Skills and Strategies of Outreach Workers in High-Risk Engagement - Caterina Roman, Temple University; Peter Simonsson, Temple University, Lewis Katz School of Medicine; Jesse Brey, Temple University, Department of Criminal Justice

• Choosing Colleges and Majors: The Decision-Making Processes of Former/Inactive Gang Members to Pursue Higher Education - Adrian H. Huerta, University of Southern California

• Mothers & Gang Intervention: A Cross-National Account - Michelle Lyttle Storrod, Widener University; Ellen Van Damme, Field Research Coaching | ULB | KU Leuven

• Panel Discussion: Structural Ladders for Crime Desistance and the Importance of Gender-Informed and Individualized Services Within and Across Gang Interventions - Linnéa Österman, Gothenburg University