To reveal how membership in adolescent street gangs influences human development, the authors examine the origins
of gang membership and the social and psychological factors that lead to joining. After demonstrating that gang
members are responsible for the major share of serious and violent delinquency, they indicate how membership facilitates
delinquent behavior and other developmental problems such as teen pregnancy and school dropout.
Demonstrates that gang membership is very strongly related to serious delinquency and violence and that the
gang itself elicits these behaviours
Unlike most other studies of gangs, this one is able to investigate true risk factors and antecedents of gang
membership
Shows that gang membership is very disruptive to normal adolescent development
Table of Contents
1. A life-course orientation to the study of gang membership;
2. Research procedures: the sample and the data;
3. Characteristics of gang members;
4. The antecedents of gang membership;
5. The origins of gang membership;
6. Gangs as a facilitating context for delinquent behavior;