ABSTRACT
Adult gang members enhance a gang’s effectiveness by influencing its organization and structure and by enhancing its violence and weapon use. However, adult gang membership receives little empirical or theoretical attention, possibly because most gang membership begins and ends in adolescence. This chapter brings together empirical findings and theoretical propositions to examine why some gang members stay into adulthood when most leave during adolescence. Discussion considers social factors such as employment and childhood experiences that could influence adult gang membership, how adult gang members are exposed to elevated levels of violence as perpetrators, victims, and witnesses, and how they have poor emotion regulation, elevated levels of mental illness (e.g., PTSD, paranoia, anxiety), and behavioral problems (e.g., pathological gambling, substance use, adverse sexual behavior). Findings relating to adult gang members’ embeddedness in a gang are also considered to understand whether adverse correlates of adult gang membership vary according to commitment. Implications drawn from research reviewed include the importance of screening adult gang members’ mental health when considering interventions, the importance of developing future research strategies that have a psychological focus, and conclusions that the neglect of adult gang members in gang research is not justified.
