Selection and facilitation: Is the gang membership-psychopathic traits link a product of individual differences, social influences, or both?

Abstract

The issue of psychopathology among gang populations is controversial. Classic gang scholarship points to psychopathic traits as time-stable characteristics of those who join gangs, others argue gangs facilitate attitudes and behaviors endogenous to psychopathy, still others reject a gang-psychopathic traits link. Building off an interdisciplinary theoretical basis that adapts a tripartite theoretical model (i.e., selection, facilitation, and enhancement) on the gang membership-offending link (Thornberry et al. 1993) to the mixed positions on the gang membership-psychopathic traits relationship, this study tests selection and facilitation models. Using longitudinal data from Pathways to Desistance, I examine whether psychopathic traits are an antecedent and/or consequence of gang membership. Specifically, I test whether (1) there are between individual differences in psychopathic traits that contribute to selection into gangs and (2) gangs facilitate within-individual change in psychopathic traits among their members. The findings suggest that the enhancement model (i.e., both selection and facilitation) best represents the relationship between gang membership and psychopathic traits. Analyzing the role of individual propensities—like psychopathic traits—and social-environmental influences—like gang membership—is critical for understanding crime and criminality. This study demonstrates that these factors do not operate in isolation but instead interact bidirectionally. By moving beyond the selection-facilitation dichotomy, this study contributes to a more integrated framework for explaining problem behaviors and helps establish best practices for prevention and rehabilitation.

Jennifer Tostlebe

Assistant Professor

My research focuses on criminological theory and empirical tests of it within institutional corrections and prisoner reentry, system responses to incarcerated and previously incarcerated individuals, and the intersection between individual differences and social influences.