Gang Involvement - Collateral Follow-up
This measure appears in the following time-points: Collat12, Collat24, Collat36.
Related Construct
Description of Measure
This measure includes a series of questions that assess the youth's gang involvement over the past year based on the collateral report. The questions are taken mainly from Thornberry, Lizotte, Krohn, Farnworth, and Jang, (1994) and Elliott (1990). If gang involvement is endorsed, additional items explore the collateral reporter's perception of the youth's subjective experience of the gang (i.e. youth's position in the gang, the importance of the gang to the youth) and the cohesiveness of the gang (i.e. presence of identifying colors, rules of socialization).
The following items are available for this measure:
- Was the subject a member of a gang in the past year [C#Gang1]
- Unique ID associated with the gang in which the subject was involved [C#GangCode_PastYear]
- Number of members in this gang [C#Gang5]
- Age of the oldest member [C#Gang6]
- Does the gang have any colors [C#Gang7]
- Does the gang have any rules [C#Gang8]
- Does the gang share money [C#Gang9]
- Does the gang share drugs [C#Gang10]
- Does the gang have punishments for breaking the rules [C#Gang11]
- In the past year frequency of contact the subject had with this gang [C#Gang12]
- Whether the subject is still a member [C#GngNow]
- Subject's position in the gang [C#Gang13]
- How important the gang is to the subject [C#Gang16]
- How many of the subject's friends are NOT members [C#Gang17]
- Will the subject be a member when he/she is released from placement [C#Gang18]
- If not a member during the past year, has the subject ever been a member [C#Gang19]
- Unique ID associated with the last gang the subject was in [C#GangCode_Ever]
- Number of members in this gang [C#Gang21]
- Subject's position in this gang [C#Gang22]
- Subject's age when they joined this gang [C#Gang24]
- Length of time (in days) the subject belonged to this gang [C#Gang25_NDay]
Data Issues
In order to protect the confidential nature of the subject responses, the specific gang names have been converted to a unique number. In instances where the same gang name appears in both sites (e.g., Bloods), the same unique number is assigned to the gang, with PA codes ending with a 1, and AZ codes ending with a 2 to distinguish the sites.
References
- Thornberry, T.P., Lizotte, A.J., Krohn, M.D., Farnworth, M. & Jang, S.J. (1994). Delinquent peers, beliefs, and delinquent behavior: A longitudinal test of interactional theory. Criminology, 32: 47-83.
- Esbensen, F.A. and Huizinga, D. (1993). Gangs, Drugs, and Delinquency in a Survey of Urban Youth. Criminology, 31(4): 565-89.