Deterring Gangs: Criminal Justice Approaches and Psychological Perspectives

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to examine the effectiveness of deterring gang members from their gang lifestyles. The issue of exactly what constitutes a gang is fraught with debate and lack of consensus across researchers and policy makers. However, the Eurogang network has captured the elements broadly agreed by many researchers and policy makers by stating that, "a street gang (or troublesome youth group corresponding to a street gang elsewhere) is any durable, street-oriented youth group whose identity includes involvement in illegal activity". The important elements of this definition are that gangs generally consist of young people who are collectively involved in illegal activities on the streets which create problems for communities and authorities. To address the problems that gangs create, a whole host of strategies have been developed to focus on, for example, prevention, intervention and suppression of gangs and their activities. The problem remains, however, that despite the concerted efforts of justice systems, gangs appear to be flourishing. This leaves criminal justice systems struggling to devise effective programs that will contain the disturbing menace that gangs pose in communities, schools, and prisons and the threat that they pose to individual gang members-on both a physical and psychological level. The current discussion considers programs that aim to deter existing gang activity and the political policies that underpin them: Gang prevention programs, although perhaps including elements of deterrence, will not be included since deterring current gang membership is not their key feature. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overall evaluation of deterrence strategies and to examine more closely the psychological effects that group processes may have in insulating gang members against the intended effects of legal deterrence efforts. Although gang membership is a worldwide phenomenon, the focus in this chapter will be on programs and policies that have been devised and implemented in the U.S. and the UK. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)