What Is Thornberry's Involvement In Youth Gangs?

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In chapter 19 of Membership in Youth Gangs and involvement in Serious and violent offending, Terence P. Thornberry examines the correlation between youth gang membership and their participation in serious crimes. Throughout the reading, Thornberry highlight’s what he believes to be the three most important findings in his research. First, our author provides research exhibiting just how youth gang members are responsible for a majority of serious and violent crimes committed by the general youth. According to the reading, prior studies have determined that gang members are significantly more involved in serious delinquency than non-gang members. For example, Fagan (1990) study of a general adolescent sample revealed that only 23 percent of the participants of the study where a part of a gang, but accounted for 67 percent of felony assaults, 66 percent of minor assaults and 66 percent of robberies. This study suggests that gang members account for a disproportionate share of the violent and serious crimes …show more content…

Studies show that youth have a higher rate of serious and violent offending while they are actively taking part in the gang than before or after gang affiliation. Thornberry suggest that the Facilitation effect on gang membership is a model that can be used to study this relationship between gang involvement and crime. He suggests that the norms and the group processes of the gang are thought to facilitate involvement in delinquency and violence. For example, Esbensen and Huizinga (1996) reported that “Prevalence rates are highest during the gang member’s years of actual membership.” This finding reinforce the model Thornberry provided earlier in the reading; that gang members take part in crimes because of the norms and lifestyle put in place by the