Adjustments to gang exposure in early adolescence

Abstract

The article investigates how exposure to gang-affiliated peers affects social behaviors and attitudes of early adolescents. Much of the literature finds that exposure to gangs contributes to adolescents’ antisocial behaviors. According to other studies, however, gang exposure can also promote prosocial behaviors. The present article re-examines this contradictory evidence, exploring potential complementarity of both reactions to gangs. Using a survey of 1,782 adolescents aged ten to 13 from rural Colombia, I compare adolescents who are and are not in a school class with members of youth gangs. I exploit the fact that schools in rural Colombia are unsegregated. Moreover, the presence of youth gangs across these schools is linked to incidence of historic armed conflict rather than typical forms of social disadvantage. This comparative setting thus allows me to establish an unconfounded relationship between exposure to gang-affiliated classmates and social outcomes. The analysis reveals gender differences in the effect of youth gang exposure. I find that girls react to male gang classmate by increased involvement in prosocial organizations. Boys, by contrast, adjust to male gangs by expressing more antisocial attitudes. There are no gender differences in the effect of gang classmates on alcohol consumption (an indicator of antisocial behavior). The article shows that the well-documented antisocial adjustments to gangs are – population-wide – complemented by prosocial adjustments, with gender being a key moderator. I discuss the implications of these findings for theories of violence and social change after conflict.

The “Dark Side” of Community Ties: Collective Action and Lynching in Mexico

“…Fears about the negative effects of community ties are justified, as Putnam (2002 :11) recognized when he warned that communities with excessive bonding social capital may pursue “sinister ends.” Several authors writing on lynching have warned about the dangers of tightly-knit communities without systematically examining their suspicion ( Godoy 2006 ; Goldstein et al 2007 ). Previous studies have shown aggregate-level connections between bonding social capital and collective violence, including terrorism, gangs, and genocide ( Alcorta et al 2020 ; Krakowski 2021 ; McDoom 2014 ), but the present study provides robust evidence. Lynching often involves perpetrators who reside in the same location, making it an ideal form of violence to examine the “dark side” of community ties.…”

“…However, critical voices have warned about the “dark side,” or negative social effects, of social ties ( Cooney 1998 ; Levi 1996 ; Ostrom 2000 ; Portes and Landolt 1996 ; Putzel 1997 ). Prior research shows that social capital can contribute to diverse forms of anti-social behavior and violence ( Alcorta et al 2020 ; Cooney 1998 ; Krakowski 2021 ; McDoom 2014 ; Nussio and Oppenheim 2014 ; Satyanath, Voigtländer, and Voth 2017 ; Scacco 2012 ). The study of lynching provides particularly strong evidence of this effect.…”