The Experiences of Decision Making in Gangs

Gang violence and illicit gang activities continue to be a major problem to society and law enforcement. Gang violence is responsible for much of the violence death and illicit drug trade. The decision juveniles make to initiate into a gang increases these unwelcome behaviors. The ways in which juveniles make decisions about gang initiation and how to assess the ramifications of those decisions are understudied and reflect a gap in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to better comprehend the experiences of juveniles who make decisions to initiate into a gang and to better understand how they perceived the likely ramifications of their decisions. Interpretative phenomenological analysis tradition was adopted for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine ex-gang members ranging from age 18- 30 years old. This study was conducted through the lens through prospect theory. Analysis of the data resulted in eight major themes: survival and lack of opportunity, the need to belong and friendship, impulsivity; indifference lack of calculation, glorified violence, and power, the hope of favorable outcomes; scant regard for the repercussions of gang violence, and hopelessness. The findings were compared with current literature through lens of prospect theory and illuminated the aspects of gang culture that could be targeted to impact positive social change. This study has implications for researchers seeking to better comprehend decision making among juvenile initiation into gangs and for law enforcement and policy makers who wish to develop policies and interventions to reduce gang initiation.