A Cross-National Comparison of Gangs in the United States and Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

This study compares the scope and nature of the gang problem in two communities: one in the United States and one in Trinidad and Tobago, a small-island developing state in the eastern Caribbean that has experienced a serious outbreak of violence over the past decade. Data drawn from surveys of adult arrestees reveal that among respondents, 3.2% of those in the U.S. sample and 5.1% of those in the Trinidad sample reported being a member of a gang. While there were a number of similarities between the two samples, significant differences were found between gang members in both countries. Most notably, gang members in Trinidad reported substantially more violence than gang members in the United States.

Keywords

gangs United States Caribbean Violence

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arthur

Marenin

(1995). Explaining crime in developing countries. Crime, Law, & Social Change, 23, 191–214.

Battin

S. R.

Hill

K. G.

Abbott

R. D.

Catalano

R. F.

Hawkins

J. D.

(1998). The contribution of gang membership to delinquency beyond delinquent friends. Criminology, 36, 93–115.

Bennett

R. R.

(1996). Toward a Caribbean Criminology: Problems and Prospects. Caribbean Journal of Criminology and Social Psychology, 1, 8–37.

Berkman

(2007). Social exclusion and violence in Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.

Blaya

Gatti

(2010). Deviant youth groups in Italy and France: Prevalence and characteristics. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 16, 127–144.

Blum

R. W.

Halcón

Beuhring

Pate

Campell-Forrester

Venema

(2003). Adolescent health in the Caribbean: Risk and protective factors. American Journal of Public Health, 93, 456–460.

Cohen

(1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Curry

G. D.

Spergel

I. A.

(1988). Gang homicide, delinquency, and community. Criminology, 26, 381–406.

Decker

S. H.

Katz

C. M.

Webb

V. J.

(2008). Understanding the black box of gang organization: Implications for involvement in violent crime, drug sales and violent victimization. Crime and Delinquency, 54, 153–172.

10.

Decker

S. H.

Van Winkle

(1996). Life in the gang: Family, friends and violence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

11.

Decker

S. H.

Weerman

F. M.

(2005). European street gangs and troublesome youth groups: Findings from the Eurogang research program. In Decker

S. H.

Weerman

F. M.

(Eds.), European street gangs and troublesome youth groups (pp. 287–311). Lanham, MD: Altamira.

12.

Esbensen

Winfree

L. T.

Terrance

T. J.

(2001). Youth gangs and definitional issues: When is a gang a gang, and why does it matter?. Crime & Delinquency, 47, 105–130.

13.

Esbensen

Weerman

F. M.

(2005). Youth gangs and troublesome youth groups in the United States and the Netherlands: A cross-national comparison. European Journal of Criminology, 2, 5–37.

14.

Franco

A. A.

(2005). Testimony of Adolfo A. Franco on 20 April 2005, U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. Retrieved February 4, 2010, from http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa24054.000/hfa24054_0f.htm

15.

Fox

Lane

Akers

(2010). Do perceptions of neighborhood disorganization predict crime or victimization. Journal of Criminal Justice, 38(4), 720–729.

16.

Gatti

Tremblay

R. E.

Vitaro

McDuff

(2005). Youth gangs, delinquency, and drug use: A test of the selection, facilitation and enhancement hypotheses. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 1178–1190.

17.

Hagedorn

J. M.

(2005). The global impact of gangs. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 21, 153–169.

18.

Haymoz

Gatti

(2010). Girl members of deviant youth groups, offending behaviour and victimisation: Results from the ISRD2 in Italy and Switzerland. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 16, 167–182.

19.

Heinemann

Verner

(2006). Crime and violence in development: A literature review of Latin America and the Caribbean (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4041). Washington, DC: World Bank.

20.

Huizinga

Schumann

(2001). Gang membership in Bremen and Denver: Comparative longitudinal data. In Klein

M. W.

Kerner

Maxson,

C. L.

Weitekamp

E. G. M.

(Eds.), The Eurogang paradox: Street gangs and youth groups in the United States and Europe (pp. 231–246). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.

21.

Johnson

(2007). Preliminary survey results from the Gonzales impact study: Wave 2. Manassas, VA: George Mason University.

22.

Katz

C. M.

(2003). Youth gangs in Arizona. Phoenix, Arizona: Arizona State University West.

23.

Katz

C. M.

Choate

(2006). Diagnosing Trinidad and Tobago’s gang problem. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Los Angeles, California.

24.

Katz

C. M.

Fox

A. M.

(2010). Risk and protective factors associated with gang involved youth in a Caribbean nation: Analysis of the Trinidad and Tobago Youth Survey. Pan-American Journal of Public Health/ Revista Panamerica de Salud Publica, 27, 187–202.

25.

Katz

C. M.

Fox

Webb

Shaffer

(2011). Understanding the relationship between violent victimization and gang membership. Journal of Criminal Justice, 39, 48–59.

26.

Katz

C. M.

Maguire

E. R.

(2006). Reducing gang homicides in the Besson Street Station district. Presented to the Minister of National Security and the Executive Staff of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

27.

Katz

C., M.

Webb

V. J.

Decker

S. H.

(2005). Using the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program to further understand the relationship between drug use and gang membership. Justice Quarterly, 22, 58–88.

28.

Katz

C. M.

Webb

V. J.

Gartin

Marshall

(1997). The validity of self-reported marijuana and cocaine use. Journal of Criminal Justice, 25, 31–42.

29.

Katz

C. M.

Schnebly

(2011). Neighborhood variation in gang member concentrations. Crime & Delinquency, 57, 377–407.

30.

Kissner

Pyrooz

(2009). Self-control, differential association, and gang membership. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37, 478–487.

31.

Klein

M. W.

Maxson

C. L.

(2006). Street gang patterns and policies. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

32.

Maguire

E. R.

King

W. R.

Johnson

Katz

C. M.

(2010). Why homicide clearance rates decrease: Evidence from the Caribbean. Policing and Society, 20.

33.

Maguire

E. R.

Willis

Snipes

Gantley

(2008). Spatial concentrations of violence in Trinidad and Tobago. Caribbean Journal of Criminology and Public Safety, 13, 48–92.

34.

Malby

(2010). Homicide. In Harrendorf

Heiskanen

Malby

(Eds.), International Statistics on Crime and Criminal Justice (p. 7–20). Viena: United Stations Office on Drugs and Crime.

35.

Manwaring

M. G.

(2007). A contemporary challenge to state sovereignty: Gangs and other illicit transnational criminal organizations in Central America, El Salvador, Mexico, Jamaica and Brazil. Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute.

36.

Moser

Holland

(1997). Urban poverty and violence in Jamaica. Washington, DC: World Bank.

37.

Ohene

Ireland

Blum

(2005). The clustering of risk behaviors among Caribbean youth. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 9, 91–100.

38.

Salaam

(in press). Motivations for gang membership in Lagos, Nigeria. Journal of Adolescent Research,

39.

Spergel

I. A.

(1995). The youth gang problem: A community approach. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

40.

Townsend

(2009). No other life: Gangs, guns and governance in Trinidad and Tobago. Geneva: Small Arms Survey.

41.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2009). Tenth United Nations survey of crime trends and operations of criminal justice systems. Vienna, Austria: UNODC.

42.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2010). In Harrendorf

Heiskanen

Malby

(Eds.), International statistics on crime and justice. Helsinki, Finland.

43.

Van Gemert

Peterson

Lien

(Eds.). (2008). Street gangs, migration and ethnicity. Portland, OR: Willan.

44.

Webb

V. J.

Katz

C. M.

Decker

S. H.

(2006). Assessing the validity of self-reports by gang members: Results from the Arrestee Drug-Abuse Monitoring program. Crime & Delinquency, 52, 232–252.

45.

Wells

Katz

C. M.

Kim

(2010). Firearm possession among arrestees in Trinidad and Tobago. Injury Prevention, 16, 337–342.

46.

Zhang

(2009). Modeling nonresponse and underreporting in response in surveys of arrestees. In Proceedings of the Joint Statistical Meetings, Section on Survey Research Methods (pp. 4492–4503). Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association (August 1–6, 2009).