Are Gang Youth Really That Different from Their High Risk Peers? – Examining Group Differences on Treatment Needs and Service Referrals in a Community-Based Violence Prevention Setting

Background and Purpose: Violence prevention efforts are increasingly emphasizing the need for the development of research and programming to help youth who are at-risk of joining gangs, yet our knowledge around the degree to which gang youth differ from their high risk peers is severely limited. Specifically, little is known about how treatment needs differ for gang and non-gang youth, whether high risk classification is due to gang membership itself or other risks/needs that are comorbid with gang involvement, and whether service referrals for high risk youth primarily focus on gang involvement or other treatment needs. The purpose of this study is to increase our understanding of how, if at all, treatment need and service provision differs for gang and non-gang youth. Study aims include 1) examining whether gang and non-gang youth are distinct on domains of risk and need despite a similar high risk classification for violence, and 2) examining whether gang membership increases the odds of referral to services tailored to high risk youth compared to other domains of need.

 

Methods:  Data was obtained from a community-based violence prevention initiative in Seattle, WA. Youth are assessed by initiative providers using a locally-tailored, empirically-validated risk and needs assessment tool used to inform case planning and treatment management, in addition to identifying youths general level of risk for violent offending. Eight domains of the tool were analyzed in this study, including: school, use of free time, family, substance use, antisocial attitudes, aggression, criminal history, and mental health. To address study aims, descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, and logistic regressions were used.

 

Results:  Ninety-eight youth were categorized as high-risk based on risk scores in six of the domains analyzed. Of this sample, 26% self-reported active gang membership. We found no significant differences for gang and non-gang youth across the high risk/needs domains. However, significant group differences were found for domains of treatment need at the low to moderate need levels. Gang youth had slightly elevated risk based on their use of free time, higher substance use, and lower reported mental health needs. Despite limited evidence that gang youth are different in risk/need domains that would warrant referrals to traditionally high needs services, gang membership was the second strongest predictor of referral to street outreach services (OR = 3.49, p < .05), preceded by substance use issues (OR = 4.23, p < .01). We found no significant predictors of referral to case management services.

 

Conclusions and Implications: Gang and non-gang youth categorized as high risk for offending may not have significantly different risk and needs profiles. However, involvement in other activities, such as alcohol and drug use, may serve as proximal risks for offending for gang youth and not their high risk peers. Given this, violence prevention efforts in the research and practice contexts should consider a reduced focus on gang membership as an additional indicator of risk within already high risk samples; rather, focus should be paid to identifying and addressing those needs that differentiate gang youth from their non-gang peers.