An exploration of factors contributing to gang membership
Attempts have been made to theoretically and empirically identify which factors drive gang-joining approaching a century, however a synthesis of the research which might guide future research is lacking, as is whether these are different to their non-gang counterparts. Perhaps more surprisingly, res...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41069/ |
| _version_ | 1848796189532618752 |
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| author | Waugh, Alison |
| author_facet | Waugh, Alison |
| author_sort | Waugh, Alison |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Attempts have been made to theoretically and empirically identify which factors drive gang-joining approaching a century, however a synthesis of the research which might guide future research is lacking, as is whether these are different to their non-gang counterparts. Perhaps more surprisingly, researchers have highlighted gender differences between gang-members but a large proportion of the research does not control for this. This thesis addresses the above points, specifically looking at individual risk factors for male gang-membership; violence, delinquency, personality, psychopathy, cognitive factors, externalizing and internalizing-behaviours, self-esteem, negative life-events, and limited opportunities. Statistical analysis evidenced factors which might be risk factors for (violence, delinquency, and externalizing-behaviours) and consequences of gang-membership (internalizing-behaviours), as well as those which may be exacerbated by gang-membership (violence and delinquency). This thesis highlights a need to shift the research focus to the negative consequences of gang-joining. A first of its kind, this thesis also examines the role of adult attachment within the gang showing that gang-members were less anxious in their friend attachments and therefore a possible protective function of the gang, which will have implications for gang-desistence strategies. Inconsistency about the role of self-esteem in gang-membership appears to still remain, however this may be attributed to differences between implicit (unconscious) and explicit (unconscious) reporting of self-esteem, lack of clarity about whether it is high or low self-esteem that is associated with violence, uncertainty about whether the gang boosts or reduces self-esteem, as well as differences in study design. Unfortunately this thesis was not able to clarify this ambiguity, an attempt to explore the use of an implicit self-esteem measure suggests that this has preceded a reliable and valid definition of implicit self-esteem and some possible areas for future research. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:44:02Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-41069 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:44:02Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-410692025-02-28T13:42:06Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41069/ An exploration of factors contributing to gang membership Waugh, Alison Attempts have been made to theoretically and empirically identify which factors drive gang-joining approaching a century, however a synthesis of the research which might guide future research is lacking, as is whether these are different to their non-gang counterparts. Perhaps more surprisingly, researchers have highlighted gender differences between gang-members but a large proportion of the research does not control for this. This thesis addresses the above points, specifically looking at individual risk factors for male gang-membership; violence, delinquency, personality, psychopathy, cognitive factors, externalizing and internalizing-behaviours, self-esteem, negative life-events, and limited opportunities. Statistical analysis evidenced factors which might be risk factors for (violence, delinquency, and externalizing-behaviours) and consequences of gang-membership (internalizing-behaviours), as well as those which may be exacerbated by gang-membership (violence and delinquency). This thesis highlights a need to shift the research focus to the negative consequences of gang-joining. A first of its kind, this thesis also examines the role of adult attachment within the gang showing that gang-members were less anxious in their friend attachments and therefore a possible protective function of the gang, which will have implications for gang-desistence strategies. Inconsistency about the role of self-esteem in gang-membership appears to still remain, however this may be attributed to differences between implicit (unconscious) and explicit (unconscious) reporting of self-esteem, lack of clarity about whether it is high or low self-esteem that is associated with violence, uncertainty about whether the gang boosts or reduces self-esteem, as well as differences in study design. Unfortunately this thesis was not able to clarify this ambiguity, an attempt to explore the use of an implicit self-esteem measure suggests that this has preceded a reliable and valid definition of implicit self-esteem and some possible areas for future research. 2017-07-14 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41069/1/Waugh%20A%20-%20An%20exploration%20of%20factors%20contributing%20to%20gang%20membership.docx.pdf Waugh, Alison (2017) An exploration of factors contributing to gang membership. DForenPsy thesis, University of Nottingham. Risk factors for gang membership Violence Delinquency Personality Substance use Psychopathy Cognitive factors Externalizing and internalizing-behaviours Self-esteem Negative life-events Limited opportunities Attachment |
| spellingShingle | Risk factors for gang membership Violence Delinquency Personality Substance use Psychopathy Cognitive factors Externalizing and internalizing-behaviours Self-esteem Negative life-events Limited opportunities Attachment Waugh, Alison An exploration of factors contributing to gang membership |
| title | An exploration of factors contributing to gang membership |
| title_full | An exploration of factors contributing to gang membership |
| title_fullStr | An exploration of factors contributing to gang membership |
| title_full_unstemmed | An exploration of factors contributing to gang membership |
| title_short | An exploration of factors contributing to gang membership |
| title_sort | exploration of factors contributing to gang membership |
| topic | Risk factors for gang membership Violence Delinquency Personality Substance use Psychopathy Cognitive factors Externalizing and internalizing-behaviours Self-esteem Negative life-events Limited opportunities Attachment |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41069/ |