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Abstract
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Social learning theory has been applied to a wide variety of criminal, delinquent, and deviant behavior. The current study examines the utility of applying selected elements of the theory to the examination of youth gangs. The subjects consist of a stratified random sample of male and female 9th-grade public school students living in a southwestern state. Following the logic of Akers' variant of social learning theory, we ask the following question: To what extent are attitudes toward gangs and gang activity, social reinforcers and punishers, and differential associations linked to self-reported gang involvement and gang-related delinquency? We found that the social learning perspective provided considerable insights into gang membership. Our analysis of group-context offending was related to both social learning theory and gang membership. Other forms of self-reported delinquency, however, while linked to social learning theory, were unrelated to gang membership. These findings portend significant theoretical and policy implications for future studies of youth gangs.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this study by Winfree et al. was to determine the extent to which social learning processes affect gang membership and gang activity. The authors drew upon Aker's version of social learning theory to guide the analysis.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors employed a quasi-experimental survey design. Researchers surveyed students from schools in two independent public school districts in a New Mexico county. A stratified random sample was drawn from ninth graders in these schools. Males were oversampled. Three hundred and forty students were drawn from the attendance lists. Of these, 50 were absent from school on the designated day, 40 did not report to the site where questionnaires were administered, 2 did not receive parental approval, 14 were eliminated because of incomplete responses on the questionnaire, and 37 were dropped because they were over 16 years of age. The total sample was 197.
Researchers used a 22 item self-report delinquency inventory to measure delinquency involvement. These items formed 5 indices: theft (i.e., taken property valued under $2, between $2 and $50, and over $50), other property crime (i.e., destroyed property and borrowed car without permission), general personal crime (i.e., had fist fight, beat up on kids, hurt someone else to see them squirm), drug-related crime (i.e., bought or drank alcohol, used illegal drugs, sold illegal drugs), and group-context personal crimes (i.e., taken part in a fight involving more than two people where only fists were used, taken part in a fight involving more than two people where weapons were used, shot at someone because someone told you to). Cronbach's alpha was used to test the reliability. The results of the reliability tests was as follows: theft (.68), property crime (.79), personal crime (.60), drug-related crime (.54), and group-context crime (.72).
A combination of self-definitional and criterion methods were used to identify gang membership. Groups were designated gangs if they had a name with either an initiation ritual, leader, or nicknames; had colors, tattoos, hand signs, or jewelry, and if the group engaged in illegal activities. Social learning variables were measured as follows: differential association (e.g., how many of your best friends are gang members?), perceived attitudes of significant others (e.g., attitude toward gang members of adults and/or teenagers most important to you), differential reinforcement (e.g., identify the good and bad consequences of gang membership, what would parents and/or peers think if you were a gang member), and differential definitions (e.g., whether approve of being in a gang, friends as gang members, gangs engaging in illegal activities, and members doing what leaders of gang say). Cronbach's alpha tested the reliability of the differential reinforcers index at .62 and the differential definitions index at .84.
The authors hypothesized that 1) individuals who associated with more gang members than non-gang members would be more likely to be gang members, 2) individuals whose significant others would think badly of them for being a gang member would be less likely to be a gang member, 3) individuals who perceived more good than bad consequences from gang membership would be more likely to be a gang member, and 4) individuals with pro-gang attitudes would be more likely to be gang members. The authors also intended to describe the effects of personal characteristics on gang membership as well as the effects of social learning processes on the level of involvement in illegal gang activity.
Logistic regression techniques were used to analyze gang membership. Ordinary Least Square regression techniques were used to analyze the level of gang involvement.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Results of the logistic analyses showed that hispanics and males were significantly more likely to be gang members, although the authors deemphasized this result. They argued that the relatively small Somers' d statistic showed that this model was a poor predictor of gang membership. The results also showed that individuals who associated with gang members more than non-gang members were more likely to be gang members themselves. And lastly, the results showed that individuals with pro-gang attitudes were significantly more likely to be gang members. All of the above findings supported the basic social learning hypotheses. However, contrary to expectations, the reactions of peers and parents to gang membership, i.e., differential reinforcement, was not a significant predictor of gang membership. According to their analysis, pro-gang attitudes were the strongest predictor of gang membership.
Analysis of the level of crime involvement showed that males, individuals living in urban areas, and individuals with pro-gang attitudes were significantly more likely to commit theft. Similar findings were reported for property crimes. Results also showed that males, hispanics, and individuals with pro-gang attitudes were significantly more likely to commit personal crimes, i.e., violent crimes. The authors reported that individuals with pro-gang attitudes and individuals living in urban areas were more likely to commit drug-related crimes. The authors reported one curious finding, however -- one that is not expected according to social learning theory. Results showed that adult disapproval of gang activity was positively and significantly associated with the commission of drug-related crimes. In other words, increased parental disapproval of gang activity was associated with in increase in the commission of drug-related crimes. This finding contradicted their hypothesis and the tenets of social learning theory. The authors concluded, however, that this finding was likely an artifact of their sampling design. The authors found the most support for social learning theory when they examined group-context crimes. Results showed that pro-gang attitudes, differential association, and gang membership were significantly and positively associated with group-context crime. Although the authors found support for many of their hypotheses, they acknowledged that the overall explanatory power of their model was relatively weak.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors made several recommendations based on their findings. First, the authors suggested that their results showed the viability of social learning theory as a tool to better understand gangs. Hence, they advocated additional research into the social learning processes manifest in gang activity. Second, on the basis of their results, the authors claimed that intervention strategies that targeted gangs to reduce property crime or personal crimes would find limited success. They said that a better strategy, according to their results would be to reduce the number of gangs themselves. The authors contended that this would not only reduce gang-related criminal activity by limiting the number of gang members but would lower incidences of non-gang related crime by diminishing pro-gang attitudes among non-gang members.
EVALUATION:
There are a number of problems with this study -- all of which the authors' acknowledged. The sample is relatively small, regionally biased, and ethnically biased (i.e. largely hispanic). All of these problems threaten to damage the generalizability of the findings. In addition, the study was limited to examining cross-sectional correlations only. No causal connections were established because the temporal priority of the independent variables was not insured. Hence, its ability to construct more meaningful models of social learning processes was severely limited. However, the detail used to operationalize social learning processes is admirable. For this reason alone, researchers planning to examine social learning theory and gang activity in the future would do well to build upon what has been accomplished here.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Social Learning Theory
Juvenile Offender
Juvenile Delinquency
Juvenile Gang
Juvenile Crime
Crime Causes
Delinquency Causes
Self Report Studies
Gang Crime
Gang Membership Causes
Late Adolescence
Early Adolescence
New Mexico
Juvenile Violence
Gang Violence
Violence Causes
Language: en |