Kerryn E. Bell’s article, “Gender and Gangs: A Quantitative Comparison”, discusses her investigation of the risk factors involved in gang membership. Using data taken from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) Bell seeks to answer the question: “are there gender differences in the risk factors associated with gand membership ?”. The data Bell took from the records of Add Health was collected from a national sample of children from grades 7 to 12, in the form of surveys, questionnaires, and in-home interviews. Using this data, Bell looked at neighborhood characteristics, parent-child relationship quality, family disadvantage, safety, and numerous other characteristics to see if they influenced the gang involvement of boys and girls differently. As a whole, she found little variation between how risk factors affected each gender. Interestingly, however, Bell did find differences for Hispanics and immigrants. Hispanic girls are far more likely to join a gang than boys, while first generation girls tend to be less likely than their male counterparts. It should also be noted that this quantitative research differed from qualitative work on the same subject in that it indicates neighborhood disadvantage has a minimal affect on gang membership.

As a whole, I found the article to be interesting and thorough. I was impressed that Bell was carful to use data taken from a national sample, and appreciated how she discussed minor variance between genders and gang-members vs non-members while still emphasizing that these differences were not pronounced enough to be concluded as the results of the study. However, she does admit that because the data is taken from schools, it does not include serious gang youth, meaning that the research must be considered in the light that it is based on incomplete data.

crime and Delinquency, Vol. 55, #3, July 2009, SAGE Publications