Preventive Interventions to Reduce Youth Involvement in Gangs and Gang Crime in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries: A Systematic Review

Abstract

This Campbell systematic review examines why the implementation of preventive interventions to reduce youth involvement in gangs and gang crime may fail or succeed low and middle‐income countries. The review summarises findings from four studies conducted in Latin America and the Caribbean. These include findings from field observations and interviews with 63 former gang members in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, 940 respondents in three Jamaican communities, 24 participants in Nicaragua and 25 participants in Peru. It is not possible to make any conclusions regarding the effectiveness of preventive interventions. Four factors may be important for intervention design and implementation: Having a range of programme components that appeal to youth such as arts and sports. Active engagement of youths and gang leaders in forming and implementing the programme. Ensuring continuity of social ties outside the gang which are fragile and may not be preserved after short‐term interventions. Ongoing violence and gang involvement limits successful implementation so needs to be addressed. Plain Language Summary BackgroundYouth gang membership and the crime that it generates is a serious problem in low‐and middle‐income countries, involving many thousands of young people and resulting in billions of dollars of crime, loss of life, and social disruption. This review assessed the evidence on preventive interventions that focus on increasing social capacity to reduce gang membership or rehabilitate gang members outside of the criminal justice system. ApproachWe conducted an extensive search of the published and unpublished academic literature, as well as government and non‐government organization reports to identify studies assessing the effects of preventive youth gang interventions in low‐and middle‐income countries. We also included studies assessing the reasons for success or failure of such interventions and conducted a thematic synthesis of overarching themes identified across the studies. ResultsWe did not identify any studies assessing the effect of preventive gang interventions in LMICs using an experimental or quasi‐experimental design. Four studies evaluating the reasons for implementation success or failure were included. The limited number of studies included in the review suggests that the findings identified here should provide a direction for future research, rather than any substantive or generalizable claim to best practice. Specifically, the synthesis of reasons for implementation success or failure identified five factors that may be important for intervention design and implementation. Preventive gang interventions may be more likely to be successfully implemented when they include: a range of program components that appeal to youth, active engagement of youth, where their agency is embraced and leadership is offered, programs that offer continuity of social ties outside of the gang, and a focus on demobilization and reconciliation. ImplicationsThe lack of evidence prevents us from making any conclusion...

Factors associated with youth gang membership in low‐ and middle‐income countries: a systematic review

“…We suggest that the identified themes are starting off points, where the relative strength of the associations can be used to inform primary, secondary or tertiary gang prevention programs. The results from our systematic review on the impact of preventive youth gang interventions demonstrate that there is currently no robust evidence to indicate which interventions work in low-and middle-income countries (Higginson et al, 2015). The current study may suggest factors that may drive gang membership, and suggest areas where interventions may prove promising.…”

“…By identifying the most important factors associated with youth gang involvement and disseminating that information to those working in the field, we aim to ensure that policy makers and implementing agencies have access to high quality research when designing their interventions. The Campbell Collaboration systematic review of the impact of preventive interventions on youth gang involvement in low-and middle-income countries highlights the dearth of robust quantitative evaluations of such interventions (Higginson et al, 2015). Despite a comprehensive search strategy, this systematic review found no impact evaluations of preventive gang interventions.…”

“…The Campbell Collaboration has previously published three systematic reviews that examine the involvement of young people in gangs (Fisher et al, 2008a(Fisher et al, , 2008bHigginson et al, 2015). The focus of the two reviews by Fisher et al (2008aFisher et al ( , 2008b) was on preventing youth gang involvement through cognitive-behavioural and opportunities provision interventions, and these two systematic reviews found no studies that met their inclusion criteria.…”

Convertirse en El Más Malo: trayectorias masculinas de violencia en las pandillas de Medellín

“…En contextos de exclusión, las polimorfas amenazas de la marginalidad han llevado a entender a las pandillas como símbolos cohesionados y poderosos de localismo, espacios cargados de valor y marcos discursivos de reproducción cultural (Fraser, 2013, p. 982;Venkatesh, 2014). El punto de vista de que los procesos de socialización son fundamentales para la formación de las pandillas también cuenta con evidencia empírica, pero mientras algunos argumentan que estas surgen a partir de una "culminación de factores y procesos estructurales interrelacionados", no se trata de un proceso sencillo (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015; Gayle & Mortis, 2010;Higginson et al, 2015). Esto se refleja en mi propia investigación.…”

“…socio-juríd., bogotá (colombia), 20(2): 9-48, julio-diciembre de 2018 • issn 0124-0579 issne 2145-4531 adam baird de pandillas se basa en los procesos de acercamiento y de vinculación a ellas. Algunos sostienen que los mayores determinantes relacionados con la vinculación son de carácter subjetivo, tales como el haber estado expuesto a la violencia doméstica y comunitaria, a la delincuencia y a las drogas (Higginson et al, 2015). Sin embargo, las explicaciones prescriptivas sobre la vinculación a las pandillas deben ser evaluadas con cautela dado que este proceso puede ocurrir de diversas maneras y bajo diferentes circunstancias.…”