Criminal thinking and gang affiliation: antecedents and consequences

Criminal thinking and gang affiliation: antecedents and consequences Glenn D. Walters Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between gang affiliation and criminal thinking. A sample of 1,354 youth (1,170 males, 184 females) from the Pathways to Desistance Study served as participants in this study, and a causal mediation path analysis was performed on proactive and reactive criminal thinking, gang affiliation and subsequent offending. Using three waves of data, it was determined that the pathway running from reactive criminal thinking to gang affiliation to proactive criminal thinking was significant, whereas the pathway running from proactive criminal thinking to gang affiliation to reactive criminal thinking was not. A four-wave model, in which violent and income offending were appended to the three-wave model, disclosed similar results. Two separate targets for intervention with youth at risk for gang involvement: proactive and reactive criminal thinking. The impulsive, irresponsible, reckless and disinhibited nature of reactive criminal thinking may best be managed with a secondary prevention approach and cognitive-behavioral skills training; the planned, cold, calculating and amoral nature of proactive criminal thinking may best be managed with a tertiary prevention approach and moral retraining. Trauma therap...
Source: Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice - Category: Criminology Authors: Source Type: research