Gangs Research Working Group Meeting

• NCJ Number: 242259
• Date Published: February 2011
• Length: 0 pages
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Conference Material

Annotation

A summary of the Gangs Research Working Group Meeting held on February 22-23, 2011.

Abstract

The meeting brought together expert gang researchers and practitioners to consider the issues and gaps in basic gang research and anti-gang programs. Participants spent the first day of the meeting discussing the issues and gaps in basic gang research. The gaps include lack of a common definition of "gangs;" little research on the role of gang dynamics and gang affiliation; lack of research on the methods and processes of why kids join, participate in, and leave gangs; and a lack of understanding on the transition between street and prison gangs, and the relationship between immigration and gang membership. Other topics covered on the first day of the meeting were researcher-practitioner partnerships, joining gangs, desistance from gang life, and secondary analysis of data. The topic on the second day of the meeting focused on anti-gang programs such as the Blueprints Program, the Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative, Chicago Ceasefire, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Gang Diversion Team, GREAT (Gang Resistance Education and Training, and Homeboy Industries. The discussion on the second day also focused on selecting sites for programs and identifying populations, and implementation of anti-gang programs. The Web pages also contain a list of meeting participants.