NCJ Number
147768
Date Published
1981
Length
252 pages
Annotation
A study was conducted on the effects of youth gang participation on subsequent adult status.
Abstract
Subjects were 26 members of a white, lower-middle-class fighting gang, the Dukes. They were interviewed as active gang members in 1960, and again 9 years later. The Dukes were low achievers academically, wore jackets as a symbol of their status, and were intensely conscious of their reputations as fearless fighters. However, unlike many gangs in New York and Los Angeles, the Dukes did not promulgate a gang culture which was passed on to new recruits. The gang disappeared when the members lost touch with one another. As adults, the former Dukes were conventional law-abiding citizens who maintained stable families and steady employment. Their past gang experiences seemed not to affect their ability to achieve. The findings of this study-- considering the Dukes as a group and the members individually--generally support control theory. In varying degrees and ways, Duke members had been delinquent because their bonds to social and moral institutions were weak; as these bonds developed, they became less delinquent and more productive. Code books of the 1960 and 1969 interviews, bibliography, 11 footnotes