Gettin Outta the Game: Trajectories, Triggers, Turning Points and Tugs in Gang Disengagement and Desistance

By Jennifer Lee

Until recently little attention has been paid - in desistance or gang research - to gang disengagement and desistance. Gang research and literature was heavily focused on the causes of gang membership, the processes involved in joining a gang, and descriptions of gang activity, prevalence, composition and demographics. The Gettin’ Outta the Game study utilises wider desistance theories to present an analysis of the positive and negative influencers in gang-life exiting for the nineteen former-gang members in this study. These findings draw on Sampson and Laub (1993) and Laub and Sampson’s (2003) theories structural turning points; Maruna’s 2001 and 2004 accounts of cognitive transformation and the role of agency; Decker and Lauritsen’s 2002 and Pyrooz and Decker’s 2011 four-fold typology of ex-gang member status, and the latter’s 2011 theories concerning the motives and methods for leaving the gang. This study’s findings are drawn from a quasi-longitudinal dataset of oral history interviews with nineteen former-gang members. This study highlights the complexity of life events, structural constraints, cognitive turning points and labelling forces that have impacted – negatively or positively – on disengagement and desistance from gang-life. That is: The Trajectories, Triggers, Turning Points and Tugs in Gang Disengagement and Desistance. These findings highlight the longer term consequences of gang involvement and the counter-productive effects of some policy and practice measures.

Manchester, UK: University of Manchester, Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2018. 290p.