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56 Crime & Delinquency 3 (2010)

handle is hein.journals/cadq56 and id is 1 raw text is: 0 2010 S)AGE, Publications Gang Membership and hillllL L Illi t Drug Involvement http://oiuline.sagepubLIL.COM Untangling the Complex Relationship Beth Bjerregaard University of North Carolina at Charlotte Previous research has consistently demonstrated a relationship between gang membership and involvement in illegal substances. In addition, researchers have noted that gang members are frequently more heavily involved in drug sales, which often lead to increases in violent behaviors. Most of this research, however, is either cross-sectional or ethnographic in nature, and therefore does not reveal the causal nature of these relationships. This research attempts to establish the temporal ordering of these relationships while controlling for a variety of relevant variables and to determine whether the relationships between drug involvement and violence differ for gang members versus nongang members. The findings indicate that gang mem- bership is weakly associated with drug involvement, including both usage and sales. This involvement, however, does not appear to be related to assaults. Results suggest that gang membership is not determinative of drug involvement among a national random sample of youth. Keywords: gangs; gang membership; drugs; violence R esearch, both ethnographic and empirical, has long demonstrated the negative consequences of gang involvement, most frequently citing the association between gang membership and delinquent activities (Battin, Hill, Abbott, Catalano, & Hawkins, 1998; Bobrowski, 1988; Curry & Spergel, 1992; Esbensen & Huizinga, 1993; Maxson & Klein, 1990; Thornberry & Burch, 1997; Thomberry, Krohn, Lizotte, & Chard-Wierschem, 1993), but also noting the connection between gangs and involvement in illegal substances (Esbensen, Huizinga, & Weiher, 1993; Fagan, 1989; Short & Strodbeck, 1965; Spergel, 1995; Thrasher, 1927). Since its incep- tion, research examining the phenomenon of gang membership has noted that the consumption of alcohol is a frequent activity in the gang setting 3

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