NCJ Number
186975
Journal
Criminology Volume: 38 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2000 Pages: 1253-1274
Date Published
November 2000
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the usefulness of police statistics on gang activity linked the results of a self-report survey of gang involvement in early adolescence with data on delinquent offending as recorded by the Chicago Police Department over a 5-year period.
Abstract
The research used a data set called the Socialization to Gangs (STG) data set constructed in 1987 and 1988 by surveying all male students attending sixth through eighth grades at four middle schools from a low-income neighborhood in the near northwest area of Chicago. The original survey data included 129 Hispanic students and 300 black students. The research compared survey findings with official records from law enforcement and schools for 429 of the youths through the fall of 1991. Results revealed that only 20 youths reported that they were gang members in 1987. In addition, police records revealed 662 police incident reports were for 189 of the youths between 1982 and 1992. The police identified 162 of the offenses as gang-related. They also identified 94 youths as gang members and attributed 511 (77.2 percent) of the 662 offenses to the 94 gang members. Findings indicated that self-reported gang involvement was a significant correlate of the probability of officially recorded delinquency, even when controlling for ethnicity, prior self-reported offending, and prior officially recorded offending. The analysis concluded that although survey and official records do not perfectly coincide as data sources, together they can enhance the understanding of gang involvement. Tables, figures, footnotes, and 28 references (Author abstract modified)