This exploratory study compares the differences between 43 Mexican American gang members and 43 Mexican American adolescents who are not members of a gang on several demographic, educational, familial, cultural, and psychological variables. Differences were analyzed using "t" tests and chi-square analyses. discussion focuses on implications for…

This study investigated public middle school students' opinions on the benefits of wearing a school uniform. A review of related literature is provided along with results of the opinions obtained from 604 seventh- and eighth-grade middle school students attending a public school in Nevada that had recently initiated a school uniform policy.…

Schools are basically safe places for children. School violence and disruption, although in decline through the mid- to late 1990s, remains a concern. National surveys that inform research, policy, and practice have been designed for different purposes and can present conflicting findings. Common standards of risk and harm that could advance…

In this study I examine the critical factors and themes that are identified as salient influencers of overt and relational aggression among youth. Sex differences and similarities associated with such adolescent perceptions are assessed. Forty-eight ethnically diverse youth between the ages of 14 and 16 years participated in sex-specific focus…

A central theme of research on human development and psychopathology is whether a therapeutic intervention or a turning-point event, such as a family break-up, alters the trajectory of the behavior under study. This article describes and applies a method for using observational longitudinal data to make more transparent causal inferences about the…

The link between prior sexual abuse and female offending is one of the most consistent findings within the etiology of female offending. It is not, however, part of every female offender's life history. Working from research on the impact of abuse on individuals, the current article examines the individual and relationship factors that…

This paper explores the ways in which Indigenous young people experience gang activity as stemming from family membership and family obligations. Based on recent gang research in Australia, the paper provides firsthand accounts of what "life in the gang/life in the family" means for Indigenous young people.

On March 15, 2007, Santa Barbara residents were shocked when a baby-faced 15-year-old high school student was stabbed to death in the heart of the city's fashionable State Street shopping district. His assailant, just 14, was a member of a rival street gang and a student at the local junior high. "It was a wakeup call for the entire…

Hobbema, Alberta, Canada is a community comprised of four First Nations. As with many of Canada's Aboriginal communities, Hobbema's population is young. High rates of socio-economic disadvantage, violence, family dysfunction, and substance abuse are linked to colonization, residential school policies, and discrimination. Crime rates, including…

Youths in gang-ridden neighborhoods are at risk for trauma-related mental health disorders, which are early indicators of likely school failure and delinquency. Such youths rarely seek out services for these problems. The Juvenile Intervention and Prevention Program (JIPP), a school-based gang intervention and prevention program in Los Angeles,…

This study determines the relative strength of predictors of school violence among a sample of 229 girls enrolled in a single middle school. The four-part questionnaire, comprising sociodemographic items, a school violence inventory, a self-esteem scale, and an attitudes toward violence scale, measured school violence in terms of suspendable…

This article illustrates the application of critical literacy (Freire & Macedo, 1987; Gutierrez, 2008; Morrell, 2007) pedagogies that draw from young people's funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992) to actively nurture personally, authentically, and culturally caring relationships (Howard, 2002; Noddings, 1992;…

This article describes a qualitative research study that examined the educational experiences of refugee students who have immigrated to Canada. Many children from war-affected countries have been denied basic human entitlements, and their immigration to Canada represents hope for their futures. Evidence suggests that these students are further…

This work presents different lines of intervention in the local, group, family and educational contexts aimed at prevention of some deviant behaviors--such as violence, theft and certain patterns of trafficking and use of legal and illegal substances--as practiced by a minority of young people and youth sub-culture groups. These interventions are…

This study explores community-level risk and protective factors for youth violence in Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince's most violent slum. The youth of Cite Soleil have often been mobilized to violence by powerful actors as tools for achieving political or financial gain. Drawing on a formal survey (N=1,575) and ethnographic data collected between…