Recruitment to a Youth Gang

Survey data on 251 young people's contacts with street gangs are utilized to test a model of gang recruitment based on both traditional & contemporary versions of social control theory. While opportunities for ganging are established by conditions of the external environment, the decision to actually join a gang is shown to be governed more by social & institutional attachments, & by self-definitions. Gang recruiting activity is found to be targeted primarily at boys who have already been in trouble with the law. 3 Tables, 26 References. HA.