Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Gang Involvement Among Juvenile Offenders: Assessing the Mediation Effects of Substance Use and Temperament Deficits

• Published date: 01 January 2020
• Date: 01 January 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/1541204019854799
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Adverse Childhood Experiences

(ACEs) and Gang Involvement

Among Juvenile Offenders:

Assessing the Mediation

Effects of Substance Use and

Temperament Deficits

Kevin T. Wolff

1

, Michael T. Baglivio

2

, Hannah J. Klein

3

,

Alex R. Piquero

4,5

, Matt DeLisi

6

, and James C. (Buddy) Howell

7

Abstract

A growing body of research has demonstrated the deleterious effects of adverse childhood

experiences (ACEs). Less understood is the role of ACEs in gang involvement among juvenile

offenders. The current longitudinal study employs a sample of 104,267 juvenile offenders (mean age

of 16, 76% male, 46% Black non-Hispanic, 15.7% Hispanic) to examine the effect of ACE exposure on

two different measures of gang involvement by age 18. We use structural equation modeling to test

whether higher ACE exposure at Time 1 predicts gang involvement and whether current substance

use and/or difficult temperament mediates the ACE-gang involvement relationship. Results indicate

ACE exposure at Time 1 predicts gang involvement by age 18, but that much of the effect of ACEs on

later gang involvement can be explained by their impact on current substance abuse and difficult

temperament. Implications for juvenile justice systems are discussed.

Keywords

adverse childhood experiences, gang involvement, temperament, substance abuse, structural equa-

tion modeling

1

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA

2

Youth Opportunity Investments, St. Petersburg, FL, USA

3

Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

4

The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA

5

Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

6

Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

7

National Gang Center, Tallahassee, FL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Kevin T. Wolff, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 524 West 59th Street, 63104T, New York, NY 10019, USA.

Email: kwolff@jjay.cuny.edu

Youth Violence and JuvenileJustice

2020, Vol. 18(1) 24-53

ªThe Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/1541204019854799

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What children experience in the first few years of life helps to set the stage for many life course

domains including education, employment, physical and mental health, interpersonal relationships,

and prosocial (or antisocial) behavior. To the extent that children experience positive parenting

within a prosocial environment, they will be more amenable to being effectively socialized, with

self-control being one of the most important individual characteristics developed in the first decade

of life (see, e.g., Augimeri, Walsh, Donato, Blackman, & Piquero, 2018; Gottfredson & Hirschi,

1990; Moffitt, 1993; Piquero, Jennings, & Farrington, 2010; Tremblay & Craig, 1995).

On the other hand, to the extent that children experience adverse parenting and disadvantaged

environments, the chances of effective and prosocial socialization are hampered. Children who find

themselves in this negative residential situation are at increased risk of abuse, neglect, and more

general household dysfunction—all of which place the child at risk of adverse childhood experi-

ences (ACEs; see e.g., Anda et al., 2006; Felitti et al., 1998). Although there are a great many type of

these experiences—not to mention the variability that children may have when they experience and

react to these experiences—they tend to involve negative behaviors either aimed at the youth or

problems in the home that make socialization more difficult, such as household violence, parental

substance abuse, and parental incarceration. Not surprisingly, the literature has investigated the

extent to which experiencing ACEs increases the risk of many adverse outcomes including, for

example, smoking, heavy drinking, incarceration, various forms of adverse health problems (obe-

sity, heart disease, early death), and poor educational and employment outcomes (see, e.g., Anda

et al., 1999; Dube, Anda, Felitti, Edwards, & Croft, 2002; Dube et al., 2003; Felitti et al., 1998).

In this study, we examine the extent to which these experiencesare related to gang involvement in

adolescence, a pressing social and policy issue (see Decker & Pyrooz, 2015). Further, we consider

whether this relationship is not as directas presumed in large part because ACEs may leadto compro-

mised socialization, which in turn leads to other types of behaviors that then serve to increase the

likelihoodof gang involvement. Two of theseprominent mediators includetemperament and substance

abuse, both of which are inextricably linked to various sorts of antisocial involvement (Loeber, Far-

rington,Stouthamer-Loeber, Moffitt,& Caspi, 1998), includinggang involvement (Hill,Howell, Haw-

kins,& Battin-Pearson,1999; Thornberry, Krohn,Lizotte, Smith, & Tobin,2003). In order to investigate

this issue,we use a database of over 100,000juvenile offenders throughout the state of Florida. Prior to

presenting the results of our study, relevantliterature on each of our key constructs is reviewed with a

focus on potentialpathways between childhood maltreatment and later gang involvement.

Predictors of Gang Involvement

Prior research has found numerous risk factors associated with a youth’s probability of joining a

gang (Dmitrieva, Gibson, Steinberg, Piquero, & Fagan, 2014; Howell & Egley, 2005; Pyrooz,

Sweeten, & Piquero, 2013), revealing that the process of entering a gang begins in childhood and

progresses through distinct developmental stages. The life-course perspective emphasizes how these

trajectories are intertwined so that a development in one trajectory will influence another (Krohn &

Howell, 2017). Howell and Egley (2005) identified 46 risk factors for gang joining that were drawn

exclusively from prospective longitudinal studies. These factors were then grouped within sequen-

tial child and adolescent developmental domains (preschool, school entry, childhood, and adoles-

cence) and used to generate a general developmental theory of gang involvement. Raby and Jones

(2016) found strong evidence across 102 studies supporting the salience of the four developmental

age periods that Howell and Egley identified.

It has been noted that the commonly identified risk factors fit into larger domains (Decker, Melde,

& Pyrooz, 2013; Glesmann, Krisberg, & Marchionna, 2009; Howell & Egley, 2005; Klein & Maxon,

2006; O’Brien, Daffern, Chu, & Thomas, 2013). At the individual level, many of the risk factors

relate to biological/psychological factors such as hyperactivity and early-onset behavioral issues.

Wolff et al. 25