YOUTH GANGS AND THE NEW 2ND-GENERATION - A REVIEW-ESSAY

Changes in American immigration law in 1965 led to an enormous increas e in the number of immigrants arriving in the United States and to a s hift in the countries of origin of American immigrants from Europe to Central and South America and Asia. The children of this new wave of i mmigrants have been labeled ''the new second generation.'' At the same time that these children have grown to adolescence and young adulthoo d, violent youth gangs have become a prominent aspect of American life . While the children of immigrants are not only participants in gang a ctivity, many gangs have appeared in neighborhoods where immigrants ha ve settled, and these gangs are often based on the ethnic identities o f post-1965 immigrant groups. This essay discusses general theoretical trends in the literature relating to youth gangs in the post-1965 imm igrant ethnic groups. It suggests that these trends may be classified as opportunity structure approaches, cultural approaches, and social d isorganization approaches. The essay points out some of the major ques tions this literature raises or fails to address, and it suggests dire ctions for the conceptualization of new ethnic gangs and for empirical research in this area. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.