Gang injunctions and foster care rates across California

Youth gang membership and gang violence continue to be a problem in American society. Research has found a positive correlation between gang involvement and an individual's race, social-economic status, lack of academic success and involvement with delinquent peers. Little research has been done on gang injunctions and whether the current policies are effectively deterring gang membership. The proposed study will seek to test the hypothesis that gang injunction policies in California counties will have a positive correlation with the dependent variable of interest, gang involvement. The second hypothesis is that children in foster care will be more likely to join gangs than those not in foster care. This proposal provides a background on the problem of gang involvement, a literature review of predictors of gang involvement, and a methodology for how data can be collected and analyzed to test the hypotheses