having provided a description of gang members by examining their demographic characteristics, we now extend this description considerably by identifying risk factors for gang membership. After examining how antecedent characteristics and attributes affect the likelihood that an individual will join a gang, we examine the ability of these same risk factors to distinguish transient from stable gang members. Following these bivariate analyses, we turn to multivariate models and examine how experiencing multiple risk affects the odds of joining a street gang.

A Risk Factor Approach

Risk factors are “individual or environmental hazards that increase an individual's vulnerability to negative developmental outcomes” (Small and Luster, 1994: 182; see also Farrington, 2000; Werner and Smith, 1982). Consistent with the multidimensionality of the life-course approach, risk factor models assume that there are multiple, and often overlapping, risk factors in an individual's background that lead to adverse outcomes. In the terms of developmental psychopathology, outcomes are characterized by equifinality, or multiple pathways to the same outcome (Cicchetti and Rogosch, 1996). Furthermore, this approach assumes that cumulative risk, that is, risk that occurs in many different life domains, is most strongly related to adversity (Werner and Smith, 1982).

Identifying risk factors, especially those that occur early in the life course, has several theoretical and practical advantages (Farrington, 2000). Theoretically, identifying factors that increase risk suggests fruitful areas for exploration in more formal causal analyses. It also helps in isolating variables that mediate or translate increased vulnerability into actually experiencing the outcome.