Criminal Behavior of Gangs in Aurora and Denver, Colorado, and Broward County, Florida: 1993-1994
Description
This study was undertaken to measure the criminal behavior
of gangs, including their involvement in delinquent behavior such as
drug use and drug trafficking activities, and to compare gang behavior
with that of youth who were at risk, but who had not yet become active
in gangs. The project assessed the role that gangs play in the lives
of youth whose living conditions are otherwise comparable. In order to
study the criminal behavior of gangs, investigators sought to
interview 50 gang members and 50 non-gang, at-risk youth at two sites
in Colorado and one site in Florida. A large portion of the interview
questions asked in both the gang member interview and the at-risk
youth interview were parallel. The following variables appear in both
the gang member and at-risk youth files (Parts 1 and 2 respectively)
created for this data collection: gang popularity variables
(respondents' perceptions of the positive and negative attributes of a
gang, and why gangs endure over time), drug involvement variables
(whether respondents or fellow members/friends sold various types of
drugs, why selling drugs increases a person's "juice", the drug source
organization, and where they traveled to get the drugs), criminal
history variables (the reasons why respondents believed they were able
to get away with crimes, their first arrest age, and their most
serious arrest charge), personal activity variables (whether
respondents or fellow members/friends participated in dances, sporting
events, fighting, drug use or selling, shoplifting, assaulting people,
or burglarizing homes), variables concerning the future (whether
respondents would join a gang again/join a gang today, why some gangs
survive and others don't, and how respondents see their future), and
demographic variables (respondents' age, sex, race, city,
neighborhood, school, school status, type of work, marital status, and
relationship with parent(s)). In addition, Part 1, the Gang Member
Data, contains gang status variables (gang symbols, gang nickname,
gang turf, and how members define a gang) and gang membership
variables (roles of the respondents within the gang, why members join
a gang, what the most important gang rule is, and what happens to
those who refuse the gang). Part 2, At-Risk Youth Data, contains
additional variables on gang contact (the names of gangs who had
approached the respondents, methods used to try to get the youths to
join, how the youths refused the gang, and what happened as a result
of refusing) and prevention (how at-risk youth would advise a young
person to react if approached by a gang, and what the youths felt was
the best way to prepare children to deal with gangs).