NCJ Number
177254
Date Published
1998
Length
256 pages
Annotation
Five chapters examine gangs in the school environment, and four chapters discuss effective interventions to counter the problem.
Abstract
The introductory chapter discusses the complexity involved in reaching a consensus on the definition of "gang," gang-member demographics, and a history of gang intervention efforts over the past 50 years. This is followed by a chapter that identifies the factors in communities and schools that promote gang membership as well as those influences that inhibit gang membership. The next chapter examines the process of joining a gang, the types of juveniles prone to gang affiliation, ways they are recruited and initiated, categories of membership, and the codes of member behavior. Chapter four considers the dynamics within marginalized ethnic groups that promote the rise and spread of youth gangs. Schools are portrayed as a primary institution for educating and preparing these at-risk youth for involvement in mainstream society. A separate chapter provides an overview of the nature and sources of gang violence, its diversity of expression, and its serious impact on society. The first chapter in the section on effective interventions identifies the essential variables of a successful gang program: prevention, prosocial focus, comprehensiveness, coordination, youth input, prescriptiveness, program integrity, program intensity, evaluation, specific outcomes, standards, timeliness, monitoring of progress, external review, validity, and attention to cultural bias. Other chapters in this section discuss control of the school environment and in- school and community enrichment solutions. A future perspective on approaches to the gang problem in schools and communities is presented in the concluding chapter. 168 references and name and subject indexes