YOUTH MALTREATMENT AND GANG INVOLVEMENT

Although childhood maltreatment has been found to contribute to a vari ety of youth problem behaviors, the implications of being maltreated o n gang involvement remain unclear This research examines whether physi cal and sexual maltreatment raises the risk of gang involvement among secondary school students. Findings show that being maltreated increas es the probability of gang involvement, independent of demographic fac tors. When youth are subjected to extreme levels of maltreatment their odds of participating in gang activities differ only slightly from yo uth who report occasional maltreatment, suggesting that prevalence mea sures may be better predictors of gang involvement than incidence meas ures. When youth are beaten physically and molested sexually, their od ds of gang involvement are four times higher than youth who do not exp erience maltreatment. Finally, being maltreated is a much more robust correlate of gang involvement than the level of support, communication , educational interest, and supervision youth receive from their paren ts.