From Colors and Guns to Caps and Gowns? The Effects of Gang Membership on Educational Attainment

• Date: 01 February 2014
• Author: David C. Pyrooz
• Published date: 01 February 2014
• DOI: 10.1177/0022427813484316
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

From Colors and

Guns to Caps and

Gowns? The Effects

of Gang Membership

on Educational

Attainment

David C. Pyrooz

1

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined the effects of adolescent gang membership

on educational attainment over a 12-year period. A broader conceptualiza-

tion of gang membership—as a snare in the life course—is used to study its

noncriminal consequences. Method: Data from the National Longitudinal

Survey of Youth 1997 and propensity score matching were used to assess

the cumulative and longitudinal effects of gang membership on seven educa-

tional outcomes, including educational attainment in years and six educa-

tional milestones. After adjusting for nonrandom selection into gangs,

youths who joined a gang were compared annually to their matched coun-

terparts from 1998 to 2009. Results: Selection-adjusted estimates revealed

disparities between gang and nongang youth in education attainment. Youth

who joined gangs were 30 percent less likely to graduate from high school

and 58 percent less likely to earn a four-year degree than their matched

1

College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

David C. Pyrooz, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Sam Houston State

University, Huntsville, TX 77341, USA.

Email: david.pyrooz@shsu.edu

Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency

2014, Vol 51(1) 56-87

ªThe Author(s) 2013

Reprints and permission:

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DOI: 10.1177/0022427813484316

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counterparts. The effects of gang membership on educational attainment

were statistically observable within one year of joining, and accumulated

in magnitude over time to reach 0.62 years (ES=0.25) by the final

point of observation. Conclusion: The snare-like forces linked to the onset

of gang membership have consequences that spill into a range of life

domains, including education. These findings take on added significance

because of a historical context where education has a prominent role in

social stratification.

Keywords

educational attainment, gang membership, NLSY97

The criminological consequences of gang membership are well established.

Gang members engage in criminal offending at a much higher rate than

their peers who are not in gangs (Curry, Decker, and Pyrooz 2013; Krohn

and Thornberry 2008). This observation is especially robust for offenses

that are personal or violent in nature, and extends to victimization. Field

research on gangs regularly documents extreme levels of violent victimiza-

tion (Decker and Van Winkle 1996; Hagedorn 1998; Levitt and Venkatesh

2001), and survey and official records confirm such findings (Howell

2011). Indeed, using police gang data, Decker and Pyrooz (2010) estimated

that homicide rates among gang-involved populations in large U.S. cities

are over 100 times greater than that of the general public. An emerging

empirical literature has begun to unpack the ‘‘black box’’ of gang member-

ship, identifying the criminal mechanisms associated with the movement

into and out of gangs (Krohn et al. 2011; Melde and Esbensen, 2011;

Sweeten, Pyrooz, and Piquero 2013).

The current stateof research on gangs, however, givesthe narrow impres-

sion that the consequences of gang membership are confined to the domains

of crime and victimization. This is problematic because the social forces

associated with gang membership will likely cascade into other significant,

noncriminal life domains, such as education, family, and employment. To

account for the w ide-ranging c onsequences of g ang membershi p, this study

adopts a broader conceptualization of gang membership by extending the

snares framework of Moffitt (1993).It is argued that joining a gang is a snare

in the life course, one that disrupts progression in conventional life domains

and isolates individuals from the virtues of educational institutions.

Education is a critical element of success in developed countries. As

Kingston et al. (2003:53) noted, ‘‘education is a great independent variable’’

Pyrooz 57

for social scientists because of the numerous and diverse benefits associated

with it. Monetary rates of return to education are most closely tied to its vir-

tues (Becker 1964; Card 1999; Hout 2012; Mincer 1958), but education is

also linked robustly to other social and nonmarket factors, including

delayed adult mortality, and increased civic engagement, health, marital

stability, and life satisfaction (Haveman and Wolfe 1994; Hout 2012; King-

ston et al. 2003; Lleras-Muney 2005; Mirowski and Ross 2003; Oreopoulos

and Salvanes 2011; Schwartz 2010). Indeed, educational attainment is

among the most consequential life domains to end up on the wrong side

of the distribution, as it plays a central role in social stratification (Moore

1991; Murray 2012; Wilson 2009). Studies that have empirically examined

the link between gang membership and education (Levitt and Venkatesh

2001; Thornberry et al. 2003) provide evidence consistent with the present

hypothesis, but focus on a narrow (e.g., high school dropout) set of out-

comes over a limited timeframe.

This study assesses the effects of adolescent gang membership on educa-

tional attainment. Data from a national sample were usedto track educational

attainment patterns over a 12-year period, from adolescence to emerging

adulthood. Using propensity score matching (PSM) to account for the endo-

geneity of gang membership, two sets of outcomes are studied: (1) cumula-

tive educational attainment on a yearly basis and (2) specific milestones in

educational trajectories, including general equivalency degree (GED), high

school diploma, postsecondary matriculation, two-year college degree, four-

year college degree, and advanced degree. Utilizing the longitudinal

nature of the data allows this study to examine if and how the conse-

quences of gang membership on educational outcomes emerge over time.

In doing so, it provides a more comprehensive understanding of the

effects of gang membership, identifying where individuals get ‘‘tripped

up’’ in their educational trajectories. Given the central and lasting role

that education plays in the lives of individuals and the turning point sig-

nificance of joining a gang, it is necessary to better understand how these

factors intersect in the life course.

Theoretical Framework

Lives change when people join gangs. What is known empirically about

these changes is restricted largely to criminal offending and victimization.

This is problematic because it gives the impression that the consequences of

joining a gang are confined to criminological domains. Other life domains

are likely impacted by the social forces associated with gang membership.

58 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 51(1)