Cross National Validation of the Code of the Street Scale Among Gang Members and University Students in El Salvador and Mexico

Background:It has been demonstrated that the Street Code Attitudinal Scale (SCAS) is a valid and reliable instrument used to measure an individual’s adherence to violence, known as Code of the Street (CotS; Stewart & Simons, 2006, 2010). Within communities plagued by poverty, discrimination, and mistrust of law enforcement, CotS has been theorized as a set of unspoken rules that dictate how and whether individuals earn and maintain respect through acts of violence. SCAS has yet to be validated in Spanish within the context of Latin American communities, specifically in countries with severe gang and drug-related problems. This study validated and compared factor structures of the SCAS within gang members (n=365) and university students (n=473) from San Salvador, El Salvador and university students from (n=320) Colima, Mexico, two of the most violent countries in the Americas.

Methods:The nine-item SCAS was translated into Spanish using a multistep method recommended by Rothgeb, Willis, and Forsyth (2005). Responses to the SCAS by males between the ages of 18 and 25 were retrieved from datasets associated with two larger studies. Initial descriptive statistics and reliability analyses were conducted to examine the behavior of individual items. Using MPlus, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was then used to explore the psychometric properties of the SCAS. The best model for each group was found using the recommended procedure, robust weighted least squares estimator (WLSMV), independently for each group. The configural model for the gang members differed to the model of university students. So, for the two university student samples, it was found the same model when the samples were analyzed separate. Since both samples of university students have the same variables and correlation errors, invariance test comparing both groups was conducted, and then analyzed together in a one group model.

Results:Reliability analysis revealed that inclusion of the reverse coded item in the SCAS reduced the reliability of the overall scale in both populations and had low item-to-total correlation. This item was left out of the subsequent CFAs. Two configural models were found, one for youth gang members and another for university students from both countries. Since these two models have different structure, it is not possible to compare means across these groups. The university student’s model is invariant across groups and meets the fit the criteria according to CFA, TLI, and WRMR.

Conclusions & Implications: This study supported that two modified versions of the SCAS are valid and reliable for use within two different Spanish speaker groups. Since they have different psychometric properties, it is not possible to compare means or run hypothesis testing with this latent variable across these different groups. This is an important warning for criminal justice scholars and practitioners when employ different measures that have been validated only among university students or easy access populations. The SCAS can be used to advance the examination of the relationships across the multiple constructs that together make up the CotS theory. Comparison across the groups are provided, highlighting the reality of violence in these contexts.