Delinquency in gangs – the result of selection or socialization?

Abstract

Thornberry, Krohn, Lizotte, and Chard-Wierschem's (1993) introduced three models to account for why gangs are associated with high levels of delinquency. Existing research using Thornberry et al.’s (1993) models to explain the gang-delinquency association has been inconclusive. This paper seeks to address this gap in research by incorporating Moffitt’s (1993) developmental taxonomy of delinquency within Thornberry et al.’s (1993) explanatory models. A few proposals are put forth in this paper: (1) Support for Thornberry et al.’s (1993) models depend on developmental stage of the individual, (2) Selection model explains delinquency of life-course-persistent gang members while social facilitation model explains delinquency of adolescence-limited gang members, (3) Support for enhancement model is an artifact of assuming a homogenous gang sample.