2025 · Study · English

Rural Adolescent Gang Involvement and Associated Outcomes in Early Adulthood

Fleming, C. M., Oesterle, S., & Catalano, R. F.

Fleming, C. M., Oesterle, S., & Catalano, R. F. (2025). Rural Adolescent Gang Involvement and Associated Outcomes in Early Adulthood. Justice Quarterly, 43(4), 979–1000. doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2025.2594186

Summary

Longitudinal study of gang involvement outside big cities, using panel data from 2,002 young people in the 12 rural and small-town control communities of the Community Youth Development Study, the community-randomised trial of Communities That Care. Repeated-measures latent profile analyses, run separately for males and females, sorted adolescents in Grades 7–12 into gang members, gang-associated youth and non-affiliated youth. Logistic regressions then compared outcomes at age 19. Both gang members and gang-associated adolescents, of either gender, had significantly greater odds of delinquency, substance use and poorer well-being than non-affiliated youth. The authors conclude that prevention should include gang-associated young people, not only formal members. Only control communities were analysed, so the paper says nothing about CTC’s own effect; its relevance lies in showing that gang-related risk is real in rural areas and that CTC survey panels can be mined to sharpen prevention targets.