Crime, criminality, and gangs

Abstract

This project attempts to clarify the relationships between gang membership, crime, and criminality. It begins by introducing the distinction between crime and criminality, and analyzing criminological theory using this distinction. Next, it describes how these same theories view the role of social institutions like family, school, and peers. It also explores more substantive/methodological questions concerning gang membership. Using survey data obtained from gang and non-gang youth, the characteristics that distinguish gang from non-gang youth are discovered, along with the theoretical and policy implications of these distinctions. Measures of crime and criminality, as well as variables relating to family, school, and peers will be used to discover which traits distinguish gang from non-gang youth. Finally, a methodological concern is addressed when the reliability and validity of data provided by gang youth is compared to that provided by non-gang youth.