TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding the relationship between violent victimization and gang membership
AU - Katz, Charles
AU - Webb, Vincent
AU - Talbot, Kathleen
AU - Shaffer, Jennifer N.
N1 - Funding Information:
All correspondence regarding this paper should be directed to Charles Katz. This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology in Toronto, Canada on November 18, 2005. This research was funded in part by a grant from the Motorola Great Communities Grants Program and the National Institute of Justice. The opinions expressed in the manuscript are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Motorola Corporation or the National Institute of Justice. The authors would like to thank Finn Esbensen and TJ Tayor who commented on an earlier version of this manuscript and Jody Miller who originally developed the gang addenda used as part of the ADAM program.
PY - 2011/1
Y1 - 2011/1
N2 - Purpose: Research examining factors that precipitate gang violence has contributed substantially to our understanding of gangs and gang activity with respect to offending, yet we still know relatively little about how gangs influence members' risk of victimization. The current study examines three hypotheses: (1) gang involvement and involvement in other risky lifestyles is related to violent victimization, (2) involvement in gang crime is associated with violent victimization, and (3) the presence of rival gangs is related to violent victimization. Methods: The present study uses data obtained from 909 recently booked juvenile arrestees who were interviewed as part of the Arizona Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program. Results: Our findings indicated that prevalence of violent victimization was highest among gang members, followed by former gang members, gang associates, and non-gang members. After controlling for involvement in gang crime, however, gang membership per se did not significantly influence the juveniles' risk of serious violent victimization. Conclusions: Our results call into question the conclusion that gang membership alone increases the likelihood of violent victimization vis-à-vis lifestyle/routine activities and/or collective liability. Instead our findings support prior research on the victim-offender overlap, that offending behaviors increase the risk of victimization.
AB - Purpose: Research examining factors that precipitate gang violence has contributed substantially to our understanding of gangs and gang activity with respect to offending, yet we still know relatively little about how gangs influence members' risk of victimization. The current study examines three hypotheses: (1) gang involvement and involvement in other risky lifestyles is related to violent victimization, (2) involvement in gang crime is associated with violent victimization, and (3) the presence of rival gangs is related to violent victimization. Methods: The present study uses data obtained from 909 recently booked juvenile arrestees who were interviewed as part of the Arizona Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program. Results: Our findings indicated that prevalence of violent victimization was highest among gang members, followed by former gang members, gang associates, and non-gang members. After controlling for involvement in gang crime, however, gang membership per se did not significantly influence the juveniles' risk of serious violent victimization. Conclusions: Our results call into question the conclusion that gang membership alone increases the likelihood of violent victimization vis-à-vis lifestyle/routine activities and/or collective liability. Instead our findings support prior research on the victim-offender overlap, that offending behaviors increase the risk of victimization.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.10.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.10.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79251610853
SN - 0047-2352
VL - 39
SP - 48
EP - 59
JO - Journal of Criminal Justice
JF - Journal of Criminal Justice
IS - 1
ER -