Deck 10: Youth Gangs and Delinquency

Question 1

What is one reason that gang crime poses special challenges for criminal justice agencies?

A) Gang crime must be addressed while the youths are still young so they don't continue to break the law as adults.
B) The personal issues and shortcomings of individual gang members are the most important element to be addressed.
C) Gang peers must be encouraged to network.
D) The social context of group dynamics that involve gang membership can't be addressed.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What are the connections between those of equal standing within a group are called?

A) peer relationships
B) the buddy system
C) gang memberships
D) friendships

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What may be the basis of a gang?

A) race or ethnicity
B) the local neighborhood
C) the type of illegal activity they pursue
D) all of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which is not a gang characteristic recognized by scholars, law enforcement, and youth workers?

A) a self-formed association of peers
B) involvement only in legal activity
C) well-developed lines of authority
D) control over a particular territory

Question 5

This provides police with information about gangs, including suspects, organizations, weapons, locations, and vehicles, as well as visual material of gang members, gang symbols, and gang graffiti.

A) RISS National Gang Intelligence Database
B) CODIS Gang Database
C) NDIS National Gang Intelligence Database
D) Gang National Grouping System (GNGS)

Question 6

Which is true?

A) The police might have special criteria for identifying gangs that is useful for suppressing gang activity.
B) A youth detention facility might have its own criteria for defining gangs so it can separate potential gang members from each other or from the institution's general population.
C) Schools might define gangs in a way that is useful in targeting youths who have academic and behavioral problems.
D) all of the above

Question 7

Research on gangs has concluded that definition of a gang member has two aspects. Which is one of these?

A) introversion
B) involvement in crime
C) community loyalty
D) bonding with other gangs

Question 8

A gang is a _____ group whereby the gang comes first in how members identify themselves and is a relationship that supersedes nearly all others.

A) primary
B) tertiary
C) secondary
D) informal

Question 9

Which is a common strategy used to study gangs?

A) examine records and talk to people who think they've seen gang members
B) talk directly to youths and gang members through surveys or interviews
C) watch TV shows about gangs
D) photograph graffiti throughout urban areas

Question 10

Police records _____ the level and intensity of any gang problem.

A) under-report
B) over-report
C) accurately report
D) ignore

Question 11

What are field studies useful for?

A) collecting large amounts of data that can compare gangs between cities
B) scholars concerned with the circumstances in gang members' lives
C) understanding police activity
D) gathering gang crime statistics

Question 12

Which is a problem that field researchers must deal with when attempting to study gangs?

A) affecting the research setting
B) resisting generalizations
C) finding gang members who are willing to talk
D) all of the above

Question 13

In this method of field research information is gathered by asking each person interviewed to suggest additional people for interviewing.

A) snowball sample
B) Hawthorne effect
C) random sample
D) convenience sample

Question 14

The degree to which the results of an individual study and/or investigation sample can be applied to other studies and samples.

A) randomization
B) believability
C) specificity
D) generalizability

Question 15

The tendency of research subjects not to act as they normally would as a result of their awareness of being studied.

A) Habersham effect
B) Hawking effect
C) Hawthorne effect
D) Hayward effect

Question 16

Gang delinquency is _____ behavior.

A) group
B) individual
C) disorganized
D) childish

Question 17

American society is a(n) _____ society.

A) age-free
B) ageless
C) age-graded
D) aging

Question 18

Teenagers in gangs are _____ to break the law than those who are not.

A) more likely
B) less likely
C) as likely
D) not as likely

Question 19

What may encourage delinquent youths to become involved with existing gangs or to begin one of their own?

A) peer loyalty
B) rejection of conventional society
C) social isolation from schools and family
D) all of the above

Question 20

One reason gangs become so highly structured is that the gang is replacing other _____.

A) institutions
B) gangs
C) people
D) peers

Question 21

Joining a gang has been envisioned as a _____ in the life-course.

A) stopping point
B) goal
C) turning point
D) resting point

Question 22

Which situation can "push" a youth into a gang?

A) social change
B) need for a buffer against poverty
C) need for a "tribe"
D) desire for success

Question 23

Youths who _____, leave the gang as they grow older and find other, more important activities to take part in.

A) age in
B) age out
C) age up
D) age graded

Question 24

What factors do scholars use to differentiate among types of gangs?

A) size
B) racial and ethnic makeup
C) organization
D) all of the above

Question 25

Which gang was connected to the Black Panthers political party of the 1960s?

A) Folks
B) Bloods
C) Crips
D) all of the above

Question 26

When and where did U.S. gangs first emerge?

A) on the West Coast around 1953
B) in Chicago in the 1960s
C) in Kansas City in 1929
D) on the East Coast around 1783

Question 27

What is one of the largest of the People-style gangs?

A) Crips
B) Latin Kings
C) Bloods
D) Skinheads

Question 28

Which is a Folks-style gang?

A) Vice Lords
B) Black Gangster Disciples
C) Latin Kings
D) Bloods

Question 29

These include smaller gangs that have their own names.

A) supergangs
B) gangs of gangs
C) metagangs
D) megagangs

Question 30

The most common offense committed by these types of gangs is the extortion of Asian businesses and wealthy Asians.

A) triads
B) dyads
C) Bloods
D) Disciples

Question 31

This type of Vietnamese gang is loosely organized, is quickly put together for a brief crime spree, then disbands.

A) quick gang
B) fast gang
C) flash gang
D) hasty gang

Question 32

These gangs are usually white, and often racist and neo-Nazi.

A) stoner
B) skinhead
C) tagger
D) all of the above

Question 33

Why might a girl join a gang?

A) because her boyfriend is a member
B) to escape poverty
C) protection
D) all of the above

Question 34

A girl who must fight other gang members to join a gang is _____.

A) trained in
B) jumped in
C) born in
D) none of the above

Question 35

The idea behind this type of gang prevention is to remove factors from the community that are suspected to breed gang involvement.

A) secondary gang prevention
B) tertiary gang prevention
C) quaternary gang prevention
D) primary gang prevention

Question 36

Young gang members always outgrow their involvement in gangs.

Question 37

There's debate about exactly what constitutes a gang.

Question 38

The definition of a gang is the same regardless of who is defining it.

Question 39

The FBI maintains a large database of information on gang members and gang-related activity.

Question 40

According to Curry and Decker, gangs have core members and fringe members.

Question 41

Determining how much crime is gang-related is easy for gang researchers.

Question 42

Law enforcement records usually over-report the level and intensity of any gang problem.

Question 43

Teenagers in gangs are just as likely to break the law than those who aren't.

Question 44

Delinquent peers commit more delinquency together than apart.

Question 45

Most gangs are racially homogeneous groups that are largely the result of urban geographic segregation.

Question 46

There are no all-female gangs.

Question 47

Attempts to lure gang-involved youths away from their gangs are usually successful.

Question 48

The juvenile justice system uses deterrence and treatment to stem gang activity.

Question 49

The incarceration of thousands of gang members has been successful in preventing the development of gangs.

Question 50

A problem with trying to rehabilitate gang members is that many youth detention facilities already have gangs inside that influence the inmates.

Question 51

Tertiary prevention involves convincing youths to give up their gang affiliation and become responsible members of the community.