Youth living in violent urban neighborhoods increasingly post messages online from urban street corners. The decline of the digital divide and the proliferation of social media platforms connect youth to peer communities who may share experiences with neighborhood stress and trauma. Social media can also be used for targeted retribution when…

This paper aims to address cultural education as a method for creating a cooperative learning environment for Latino youth participants of a school-based gang and violence intervention program (GVIP). The data for this paper was collected during a 5-year longitudinal ethnographic research study conducted between 2009-2015 in California. In the…

This paper reports the findings of an eight-month ethnographic study of a small group of at-risk youths in a school of a southern coastal city in China. The process leading to the young students being marginalised by the school system and how they developed a "muddling through" subculture to counteract this marginalisation is revealed.…

Information from the National Survey on Gang Migration and other literature provides a look at the relationship between gang migration and proliferation. "Gang migration" refers to the movement of gang members from one city to another. Whether such movement has played a major role in the proliferation has been the focus of several studies,…

Explores the ways in which ethnicity is constructed by Filipino-American youths and examines the role played by generation in the formation of youth groups and identity construction within them. Findings from field observation and interviews with 20 Filipino-American males show changing gang roles from the 1960s through the present. (SLD)

The largest and most comprehensive national gang survey to date, the 1997 National Youth Gang Survey, contacted nearly 5,000 law enforcement agencies across the country. To allow for both comparative and trend analysis, the 1997 survey used the same sample as the 1996 survey. Survey results indicate that the percentage of jurisdictions reporting…

It has been the contention of researchers that the "old heads" (identified by Anderson in 1990 and Wilson in 1987) of the ghettos and barrios of America have voluntarily or involuntarily left the community, leaving behind new generations of youth without adult role models and legitimate social controllers. This absence of an adult strata…

This study examined the specific nature of the relationship between involvement in various risk-taking behaviors and levels of gang involvement. Forty-nine high school students, 24 girls and 25 boys, ages 14 to 18, from a rural Texas community, completed a gang involvement questionnaire and the Risk Inventory and Perception Scale during individual…

Challenges recent portrayals of the demonic character of female gang members by examining the life histories and social organizations of several different female gangs. Interviews with 65 female gang members from seven groups show that these young women experience potential and actual violence in different violence prone situations. (SLD)

A study was conducted to compare the criminal behavior of gang members and nongang at-risk youths in four urban and suburban communities, Denver (Colorado), Aurora (Colorado), Broward County (Florida), and Cleveland (Ohio). The first three communities were emergent, rather than chronic, gang environments, but in Cleveland, information on gangs…

The 1996 National Youth Gang Survey was the largest of its type ever conducted, and the results are representative of the United States as a whole. Almost 5,000 law enforcement agencies were surveyed, and more than 80% of the sample responded. Agencies in all large cities, and a random sample of smaller cities were included, as were suburban…

Discusses risk factors associated with sexual intercourse, gang involvement, and alcohol and drug use among adolescents. Different patterns of risk are found to predict the three problem behaviors. Discriminant analysis substantiates that delinquency was differentially associated with low problem vs. high problem urban adolescents. Results support…

Focus groups and interviews with African American youth in Los Angeles and Afro-Caribbean youth in London found gangs to be one of their five top issues; identified social, educational, and employment factors fostering gang formation; and identified psychological, social, and economic functions of gangs for their members. (Contains 95 references.)…

This ethnographic study of 50 male African-American gang members constructs a portrait of the culture in which these young men lived and points out factors that helped 11 of them begin to escape gang life, in contrast to the other 39 who lacked these supporting factors of families, teachers, and peers. (SLD)

In order to examine the phenomenon of gangs among Chinese youths in New York, interviews were conducted with members of the Chinatown community and with persons working in this community. In this document the texts of the author's discussions with eight individuals are presented. A social worker who works with delinquent Chinese youth and a former…