Title: The Value of Comparisons in Street Gang Research

Author: Malcom W. Klein

Klein, Malcom W. 2005. “The Value of Comparisons in Street Gang Research.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 21 (2): 135-152. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1043986204272911

This is a research proposal lays out the foundation for a research project that wants to compare studies in street gang research. Some of the studies the author lays out that he wants to compare are gang member’s vs non-gang youth, cross gang-comparisons, comparisons across locations, and historical comparisons.  The research question for this proposal I believe is “Is gang research more productive if it has comparisons to other research?”  The author believes that gang research is much more productive when you can compare different researches. The type of data that Malcom will be using Expert Knowledge, Hidden Social Patterns, Acts Behaviors and Events, and Demographic data. He will use all these types so of data because he is comparing different studies and those studies have different types of data. His colleagues wrote articles about gang members and non-gang youth, this would be considered expert knowledge. He used Demographic data to look comparisons across gang locations. Meaning that he looked at gangs from different locations like Los Angeles and Boston. The different data collection methods that he used is Ethnography, Public and Private records, and In-depth interviews. The author has already found these methods for his sources. He has This proposal is useful because it gives me an idea on how to do the proposal myself. The author of this proposal starts out with his research question and what he is going to try and accomplish. Then he lays out the five topics that he will discuss and underneath those topics he puts the resources that he will use to support his ideas. Once he does the actual research it will be easy for him to do because he has a path that he has planned.