Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Access Criminology and Criminal Justice journals now

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Criminal Justice and Behavior
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by DeLisi, M.
Right arrow Articles by Gibson, C. L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Delinquent Gangs and Adolescent Victimization Revisited

A Propensity Score Matching Approach

Matt DeLisi

Iowa State University, delisi{at}iastate.edu

J.C. Barnes

Florida State University

Kevin M. Beaver

Florida State University

Chris L. Gibson

University of Florida

Adolescents in delinquent gangs are at risk for multiple forms of antisocial behavior and related negative outcomes, including victimization. Theoretical attempts to explain the delinquency-gang nexus include selection, facilitation, and enhancement models, but each has limitations in terms of selection biases. To redress this, the current study used propensity score matching (PSM) to evaluate the effects of gang membership on victimization at two time points using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The most antisocial youths and those with more delinquency victimization were more likely to join gangs, which supports the selection model. In support of the enhancement model, the authors found that after controlling for selection effects using PSM, gang membership maintained a significant predictive relationship with victimization measured contemporaneously and longitudinally. Membership in a gang increases youths' chances of being victimized above and beyond personal characteristics, and the deleterious gang effect does not weaken over time.

Key Words: gangs • victimization • propensity score matching • delinquency • crime

Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 36, No. 8, 808-823 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0093854809337703
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?