Does gang membership pay? Illegal and legal earnings through emerging adulthood

Gang membership is believed to impede success in the legitimate economic market while simultaneously supporting success in the illegal market. We extend the study of the economic effects of gang membership by using a within‐ and between‐individual analytic design, decomposing gang membership into mu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Criminology (Beverly Hills) 2019-08, Vol.57 (3), p.452-480
Main Authors: Augustyn, Megan Bears, McGloin, Jean Marie, Pyrooz, David C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
criminal capital
Criminology
Drug abuse
Earnings
Economic factors
Endogenous
Gangs
Inactive
Life transitions
Membership
multilevel structural equation model
Panel data
Path analysis
Peers
Structural equation modeling
Young adults
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Summary:Gang membership is believed to impede success in the legitimate economic market while simultaneously supporting success in the illegal market. We extend the study of the economic effects of gang membership by using a within‐ and between‐individual analytic design, decomposing gang membership into multiple statuses (i.e., entering a gang, continuously in a gang, leaving a gang, and inactive gang membership), examining legal and illegal earnings simultaneously, and accounting for factors endogenous to gang membership that may contribute to economic achievement. By using panel data from 1,213 individuals who participated in the Pathways to Desistance Study to conduct a multilevel path analysis, we find that active gang membership status is unrelated to legal earnings. Alternatively, entering a gang is associated with increased illegal earnings, attributable to changes in delinquent peers and drug use, whereas leaving a gang has a direct relationship with decreased illegal earnings. Our results indicate that the positive economic effect of gang membership (i.e., illegal earnings and total earnings) is short‐lived and that, on balance, the sum of the gang membership experience does not “pay” in terms of overall earnings.
ISSN:0011-1384
1745-9125
DOI:10.1111/1745-9125.12208