Malcolm W. Klein

Advancing knowledge about the onset of delinquency and crime.

Our main concern is to advance knowledge about the onset of delinquency and crime. When a person commits an offense for the first time, it is only future experience that can establish with certainty whether that offense was the onset of a persistent and serious criminal career or whether it was simultaneously the person’s first and last offense. However, the age at which a first offense occurs is one of the best predictors (or even the best predictor; see Blumstein, Farrington, & Moitra, 1985) of the future course of the criminal career.

Groups, Gangs, and Cohesiveness:

This paper is concerned with selected qualitative differences between juvenile gangs and other groups which have been the more traditional subject of empirical research. Two factors in particular are emphasized: gang cohesiveness and gang-related delinquent behavior. We take the position that the sources of gang cohesiveness are primarily external to the group, in contrast to the findings on most groups previously studied. Gang delin quency, in addition to being the partial consequence of gang interaction, serves as an additional reinforcer of gang cohe siveness. After a brief review of the literature, we draw the conclusions that available concepts and approaches to the meas urement of group cohesiveness are somewhat insufficient for application to gang research. With the use of data drawn from a study of 576 male Negro gang members in Los Angeles we illustrate several alternate measurement procedures. We view these procedures as a first step toward a sorely needed investiga tion of the relationship between gang cohesiveness and gang delinquency.

Street Gang Violence in Europe

Levels and descriptors of violence among European street gangs are summarized from studies reported primarily under the aegis of the Eurogang Program initiated in 1997 and continuing still. European gang violence is placed in the context of its American counterpart, of European non-gang youth violence, and of the definitional and structural components of the Eurogang Program. European gangs in over a dozen countries reveal a wide pattern of violent behaviour and levels of violence that are far greater than among non-gang youth, but largely less serious than in the USA. Some of these latter differences may be attributable to the recentness of the European gang development, the lower levels of firearms availability, and lower levels of gang territoriality in Europe.

Labeling Theory and Delinquency Policy An Experimental Test

Propositions endemic to labeling theory, and variables particularly relevant to these propositions, are combined into a guiding paradigm. Components of this labeling paradigm are then tested in an experimentally controlled police diversion project in which juvenile offenders of mid-range seriousness are randomly assigned to release, community treatment, and court petition conditions. Results provide support for some labeling propositions but not others, and are seen as specifying some of the variables that delimit the policy implications of labeling theory.

Vulnerability to Street Gang Membership: Implications for Practice

Structured interviews with 165 adolescent black males investigated the differences between gang and nongang youth. Bivariate analyses identified 46 variables that distinguished the two groups within five domains of interest‐individual, family, peer, school, and neighborhood. Logistic regression analyses reduced the number of significant differences to 14. We suggest several directions for programs to prevent youth from joining street gangs and emphasize the importance of gang prevention or very early intervention.

The Value of Comparisons in Street Gang Research

This article calls for greater attention to the use of comparative studies in street gang research. Five examples of good but noncomparative studies are reviewed to make the case. Then, a number of opportunities for comparative research are reviewed: gang member comparisons, gang members versus non-gang youth, cross-gang comparisons, comparisons across locations, historical comparisons, and methodological comparisons. For each type, selected studies are cited to illustrate the advantages of planned comparisons. The article concludes with some caveats about the difficulties associated with comparative research.

Labeling, Deterrence, and Recidivism: A Study of Police Dispositions of Juvenile Offenders

Police departments with high rates of juvenile diversion did not yield different recidivism rates than those with low diversion rates unless comparisons were made between first offenders and multiple offenders. Then, the two sets of departments differed substantially: high diversion departments had lower subsequent recidivism rates for first offenders than for multiple offenders, while low diversion departments did not exhibit such differences. The emergence of differences in multiple but not in simple recidivism and among high diversion but not among low diversion departments tentatively supports both labeling theory and a deterrence approach in interaction with departmental and offender variables. There is also a suggestion that the effects of delinquent stigmatization are cumulative with each arrest, supporting Lemerts secondary deviance conception, at least among first offenders in high diversion departments.

Gang Cohesiveness, Delinquency, and a Street-Work Program

The Group Guidance Project applied standard detached-work procedures to four large juvenile gang clusters containing approximately eight hundred youngsters over a four-year period. Project emphasis was on individual counseling and group pro graming. Research data revealed that the project was associated with a significant increase in gang delinquency, especially at the twelve- to fifteen-year age levels, and in high-companionship offenses. Analyses of inter-cluster differences and specific project events revealed positive relationships between levels of group programing, cohesiveness, and delinquency. The conclusion is that a group-work approach to gang intervention may inad vertently defeat its own purpose, at least in the absence of an active development of alternatives to gang participation.

RESOLVING THE EUROGANG PARADOX

The goal of this volume is to share knowledge and ideas about street gangs, a matter that has long been an American staple and is now beginning to take on a European flavor. We are facing what I have come to call The Eurogang Paradox. The paradox has to do with denials that there are street gangs in Europe, because the gangs patterns don’t fit the American pattern of highly structured, cohesive, violent gangs. But then neither do most American gangs fit the pattern.

Issues and Realities in Police Diversion Programs

A 1976 appraisal of police diversion programs for juvenile offenders is used to update a series of diversion issues first specified in 1971. In addition, new issues which have emerged from practical experience with diversion programs are suggested. Both the updated issues and the emergent issues suggest that police involvement in diversion, while it has increased at a very rapid rate, has been so tentative and exploratory that a withdrawal would not be difficult. The absence of objective impact data and the lack of commitment to evaluation are cited as major deficiences.