Gang affiliation and negative perceptions about authority, law enforcement, and laws: Is gang affiliation a precursor to becoming a threat to homeland security and terrorism?
Article
Kakar, S. (2008). Gang affiliation and negative perceptions about authority, law enforcement, and laws: Is gang affiliation a precursor to becoming a threat to homeland security and terrorism?
. 15(4), 65-76.
Kakar, S. (2008). Gang affiliation and negative perceptions about authority, law enforcement, and laws: Is gang affiliation a precursor to becoming a threat to homeland security and terrorism?
. 15(4), 65-76.
This study explored the connections between gang affiliation and negative perceptions about authority, law enforcement, and laws. It compared the young adults' (gang affiliated) perceptions about authority, law enforcement, and laws with young adults' (non-gang affiliated), perceptions. The objective was to explore whether negative perceptions about authority, law enforcement, and laws may enhance an individual propensity to join more serious and hard core groups and actually serve as precursor to becoming a threat to homeland security. Data indicate that although young adults with gang affiliation are more likely to hold negative perceptions and are more likely to be enticed by any organization that challenges authority and provides members with a sense of belonging and introduces gang members to terrorist activities, gang affiliation by itself is neither a certain nor an inevitable precursor to becoming a threat to homeland security and terrorism. The analysis of variance was conducted to examine the differences on measures of differences among the three groups. Gang members were found to have more negative perceptions about the authority, law enforcement, and laws as well as more enthusiastic about engaging in illegal and criminal activities as compared to non-gang members. The gang members with negative perceptions about the authority, law enforcement, and laws were more likely to justify terrorist actions as compared to non-gang members with lesser degree of negative perceptions about the authority, law enforcement, and laws. The contribution of close affiliation and ties to gang membership to criminal gang activities was also examined. Gang membership was not found to independently affect justification for terrorist actions.
