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Title: From Colors and Guns to Caps and Gowns? The Effects of Gang Membership on Educational Attainment
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Pyrooz, David Cyrus
From Colors and Guns to Caps and Gowns? The Effects of Gang Membership on Educational Attainment
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 51,1 (February 2014): 56-87.
Also: http://jrc.sagepub.com/content/51/1/56.abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Sage Publications
Keyword(s): College Degree; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Educational Attainment; Handguns, carrying or using; High School Completion/Graduates; Propensity Scores

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Objectives: This study examined the effects of adolescent gang membership on educational attainment over a 12-year period. A broader conceptualization 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 educational outcomes, including educational attainment in years and six educational milestones. After adjusting for nonrandom selection into gangs, youths who joined a gang were compared annually to their matched counterparts 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 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.

Bibliography Citation
Pyrooz, David Cyrus. "From Colors and Guns to Caps and Gowns? The Effects of Gang Membership on Educational Attainment." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 51,1 (February 2014): 56-87.