web extra: Juvenile Gang Member
In the recent story “The Young & The Reckless,” Backdrop and its readers caught a glimpse into the reckless life of a juvenile gang member, “Josh.” The majority of the story delves into Josh’s personal trials (and in his opinion, tribulations). However, he is only a small pawn in the larger game of gangs. During my investigation into gang life, I spent time researching the motives of gang members, hoping to breakdown Josh’s occasional bullshit lines that arose in our interviews.
One of my resources was Thomas Vander Ven, associate professor within Ohio University’s department of Sociology and Anthropology. He specializes in the areas of crime and delinquency; work, family and crime; criminological theory; and sociology of social problems.
This Q&A with Professor Vander Ven aims to uncover some of the psychology behind gangs:
Backdrop: Why do youth get involved with gangs?
Vander Ven: Gangs are a cultural adaptation to structural conditions. While we see gangs throughout the U.S. and the class system, a rigidly defined street gang is unique.
Backdrop: What is the most common reason a youth joins a gang?
Vander Ven: People join gangs generally in socially disadvantaged, economically depressed areas. Gangs step in where other social institutions fail. In sociology, we think of these as family, religion, the economy and the educational system. So an adolescent who grows up in one of these areas, institutions (in his or her perceptions) have failed them. The gang steps in and takes the place of those institutions. In other words, the gang becomes family, a source of income and identity.
Backdrop: Is there a typical age of youth in a gang?
Vander Ven: The most crime prone age is 15-24. That age range is representing the age at which individuals are most vulnerable to joining gangs.
Backdrop: What is the likelihood one “cancels” his gang membership; thus, removing that aspect from his life?
Vander Ven: People do age out gangs. People age out of all criminal activity. Mostly they’ve made a connection to a pro-social social institution. They get a legitimate job, they go to school or they start a family. Those are pathways out of the gang. It’s the reverse (of the process into the gang).
Backdrop: What role do gangs play in society?
Vander Ven: Gangs often organize communities. There is some empirical data that suggests gangs have been found to organize and mobilize communities and represent an important source of informal social control, though it may be negative.
Direct link: http://backdropmag.com/features/web-extra-juvenile-gang-member/