Reducing gang involvement through employment: a pilot intervention

UnrestrictedGang-related activity exacts a heavy toll in terms of morbidity and mortality, law enforcement and corrections resources, and quality of life. Previous intervention efforts to reduce gang involvement have had negligible effects, and current knowledge about the processes that redirect youth away from gangs is limited. This dissertation attempts to contribute to our understanding of gang-related treatment process by examining the relationship between employment and gang involvement within the context of a pilot employment-focused intervention for gang-involved youth. A sample of 27 gang-involved, juvenile offenders were recruited from the Los Angeles Department of Probation and randomly assigned to either the Behavioral Employment Program (BEP) or usual probation services (US). Both within-subjects analyses (i.e., pooled time series) and between-subjects analyses (i.e., multiple regression) examined the impact of BEP-initiated employment on gang involvement. Increased employment was significantly related to reductions in gang involvement for within- and between-subjects analyses. Although no association between treatment condition and increased employment was found, BEP led to marginally significant reductions in gang involvement at 6-months post-entry. Employment programs for gang-involved youth are common in community settings, although empirical support for such programs is rare. Results from this study offer initial support for BEP and the continued use of employment as a strategy to reduce gang involvement. Confirmation of these promising findings will require future research with larger samples