University of Missouri, St. Louis IRL @ UMSL Dissertations UMSL Graduate Works 12-11-2014 The Role of Violence within and across Self-identified Gang outhY J. Michael Vecchio University of Missouri-St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://irl.umsl.edu/dissertation Part of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Recommended Citation Vecchio, J. Michael, "The Role of Violence within and across Self-identified Gang outhY " (2014). Dissertations. 8. https://irl.umsl.edu/dissertation/8 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the UMSL Graduate Works at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Role of Violence within and across Self-identified Gang Youth J. Michael Vecchio M.S.C.J., Criminal Justice, Bowling Green State University, 2008 B.S.C.J., Criminal Justice, Bowling Green State University, 2007 A Dissertation submitted to The Graduate School at the University of Missouri-St. Louis for the partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Criminology and Criminal Justice December 2014 Advisory Committee Finn-Aage Esbensen, Ph.D. Chairperson Beth M. Huebner, Ph.D. Terrance J. Taylor, Ph.D. Jody Miller, Ph.D. Dena C. Carson, Ph.D. Copyright, J. Michael Vecchio, 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS Disclaimer vii Acknowledgements viii Abstract xii Chapter One: Introduction 1 Chapter Two: Relevant Literature 8 Prevalence of Gang Membership 8 Defining Gang Membership 12 The Gang Experience 16 Pathways into Gangs 17 The Period of Active Membership 20 Pathways Out of Gangs 23 Chapter Three: Theoretical Framework 28 Models of Gang Membership 28 Social Learning Theory 31 The Current Study 38 Chapter Four: Methodology 45 The National Evaluation of the G.R.E.A.T.