Public Perceptions of Gangs: An Experimental Test of Nomenclature, Race/Ethnicity, Violence, and Organization

Abstract

This study examines how the public views gangs, surveying 1,000 US adults using a vignette of a teenage collective. Through a factorial design, elements crucial to gang definition debates were randomly manipulated: the name of the group, its racial composition, behavior severity, and organizational structure. Findings reveal that a name associated with known gangs significantly impacts perception, making it more likely for a group to be identified as a gang. The collective’s activity and organizational structure also swayed perceptions, with violent and structured groups more readily classified as gangs. Surprisingly, the group’s racial makeup did not markedly alter perceptions, although joint effects show it did affect the interpretation of other factors. These insights suggest a need to reassess how research shapes our understanding of gangs and, in turn, how public concerns inform policymakers; highlighting the nuances in public opinion that could factor into legal responsibility and guide future legislative decisions.

Keywords:

• Gangs
• public opinion
• definitions
• race
• violence
• organization

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Phillips (2012) titled the article, “It ain’t nothing like America with the Bloods and the Crips,” reflecting the sentiments of prisoners interviewed in England and Wales. Kennedy (2024, p. 76) quoted an upper level public safety executive in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who stated “There’s no Vice Lords or Crips. Those are gangs.”.

2 We recognize that populations exceeding our upper age bound constitute the largest share of the voting population and disproportionately serve on juries—two examples of areas where people are likely to “receive” the idea of gangs. The broader aims of the survey, along with the scope of funding, required that we target adults between ages 18 and 60 years owing to generational differences in exposure to gang activity.

3 We found no evidence of threshold effects or non-linearity in the association. A multiplicative interaction variable was statistically null (b=-0.062, p = 0.426) and non-parametric results revealed incremental growth in perceptions of the collective as a gang with age in years. These findings minimize concern with the age ceiling of the sample. Still, it would be worthwhile for future research to replicate these findings with a population exceeding age 60 years, and, if possible, to distinguish age, period, and cohort effects.

Additional information

Funding

Funding to support this research was provided by the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder as part of their 2023 Research Development Award cycle. The content of this article and subsequent interpretations are solely those of the authors.

Notes on contributors

James A. Densley

James A. Densley is a Professor and Department Chair of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Metropolitan State University. He is the author of nine books and editor of two more, including The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society (OUP, 2024).

David C. Pyrooz

David C. Pyrooz is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the author of three books and editor of two more, including The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society (OUP, 2024).

Jose Antonio Sanchez

Jose Antonio Sanchez is an incoming assistant professor at Texas Christian University’s Department of Criminology and a Criminal Justice. In 2022, Jose was named a Ruth D. Peterson Fellow by the American Society of Criminology.