Attitudes Toward Gangs

Abstract

The Attitudes Toward Gangs (ATG) scale is a specialized nine-item psychometric instrument designed to quantitatively assess the dispositional orientation of youth and juveniles toward gang involvement. Developed by Nadel and colleagues in 1996, the ATG scale functions as a crucial indicator of a young person’s acceptance, indifference, or rejection of gang culture and membership.

A central tenet of the scale is that a higher cumulative score reflects a more positive, accepting, or favorable attitude toward gangs and associated delinquent behaviors. Beyond simple affiliation intent, the instrument probes underlying psychological dimensions that motivate gang attraction, including the perceived link between gang membership and feelings of safety, social status, and personal power, alongside comfort levels with aggression and risk-taking behavior. The scale is administered using age-appropriate methods, including oral responses for younger participants.

Keywords

Attitudes Toward Gangs, Juvenile Delinquency, Youth Violence Prevention, Risk Assessment, Gang Membership, Psychological Measurement, Social Status, Aggression, School-Based Intervention.

Authors

H. Nadel, M. Spellmann, T. Alvarez-Canino, L. Lausell-Bryant, G. Landsberg

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Purpose

The core purpose of the Attitudes Toward Gangs scale is to provide researchers and practitioners with an accessible and quantifiable diagnostic tool for youth violence prevention and intervention programs. By accurately gauging the extent to which a young person views gang affiliation as desirable, the scale facilitates the early identification of individuals who possess a high risk factor for future gang enrollment or engagement in related delinquent activities.

Furthermore, the detailed assessment provided by the ATG scale offers critical insight into the specific motivational drivers drawing youth toward gang life. These factors often include the desire for perceived physical protection, the pursuit of enhanced social status or “coolness,” or the search for excitement. Utilizing this diagnostic information is vital for developing and implementing targeted preventative strategies and therapeutic interventions aimed at mitigating youth violence and fostering positive social development pathways.

Construct

The ATG scale is designed to measure the latent psychological construct defined as Attitudes Toward Gangs. This construct is conceptualized as a continuous dispositional spectrum, ranging from strong ideological rejection of gang life to an enthusiastic acceptance and intent to join. A positive attitude is empirically operationalized by agreement with items that romanticize gang membership, associate it with positive outcomes (like safety or social acceptance), or express a likelihood of future affiliation.

The scale’s underlying framework also indirectly assesses secondary psychological dimensions related to the justification and acceptance of violence and aggression. Specifically, it measures the degree to which a juvenile associates gang involvement with obtaining increased power, guaranteeing personal safety, experiencing heightened excitement, or viewing aggressive action as a justified or necessary coping mechanism, particularly in response to feelings of shame or disrespect.

Validity

Specific detailed psychometric data, such as formal coefficients for construct, convergent, or criterion validity (e.g., correlation measures with official records of actual gang involvement or documented delinquency), are generally not included in readily available public compendiums. This absence necessitates careful interpretation of correlation data.

However, the Attitudes Toward Gangs scale exhibits robust face validity. The nine items directly address the core components hypothesized to drive gang attraction among youth, including the perceived benefits of safety, social acceptance (often termed “coolness”), and explicit statements regarding personal affiliation or future intent to join a gang.

Reliability

Comprehensive data regarding the internal consistency—such as statistical measures like Cronbach’s Alpha—or test-retest reliability estimates for the Attitudes Toward Gangs scale are not typically provided within common source documents or assessment compendiums. This limits the ability to universally determine the scale’s stability and internal coherence.

Practitioners and researchers intending to utilize the ATG scale are strongly advised to consult the original research publication by Nadel et al. (1996) for any potential reliability estimates reported during the scale’s development. In the absence of explicit, documented reliability coefficients, scores derived from this instrument should be interpreted with appropriate caution.

Factor Analysis

Information concerning the underlying factor structure, dimensionality, or factor loadings of the nine-item scale is not detailed in the general assessment compendium. Consequently, it remains ambiguous based on currently available data whether the ATG scale functions optimally as a single, unidimensional measure of overall gang attitude, or if it resolves into distinct, separable factors representing differing motivational drivers, such as perceptions of safety/power versus direct affiliation/intent.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-Report Attitude Scale

Format: Binary Response (Dichotomous scoring: True/Not True)

Language Available: English (Implied)

Population Group: Youth and Juveniles

Age Group: 8 to 18 years old (Students in grades 3–12)

Population Details: The scale is specifically designed for administration to students across a broad developmental age range. To ensure accessibility and validity for all participants, the protocol accommodates both written responses for older youth (ages 10–18) and oral responses for younger children (ages 8–9).

Test Methodology: The ATG scale utilizes a straightforward binary scoring system. Responses are assigned point values: “Not true for me” equals 0 points, and “True for me” equals 1 point. The final total score is calculated by summing the points across all items. A key methodological consideration is that items 5, 6, and 7 are reverse coded prior to summation, as these specific items express negative attitudes toward gangs. Thus, a consistently high total score reliably indicates a positive or accepting orientation toward gang involvement.

Keywords

Youth Prevention, Delinquency Assessment, Attitude Measurement, School-Based Intervention, Violence Risk, Aggression, Social Influence, Gang Culture, Risk-Taking Behavior.

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not available in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Author contact information is not available.

Correspondence Address: Not available in source material.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Fees and Requirements: No formal fees are explicitly noted for the usage of this instrument, suggesting that the scale may be freely available for academic research and non-commercial application, particularly within public health or educational settings.

Permissions: Formal contact information for the original authors (Nadel et al.) is not readily available. This lack of correspondence detail may complicate the process for researchers seeking formal permission for substantial modifications or utilization in large-scale commercial applications.

Test Year: The scale was developed, utilized, and published in the context of the original research study conducted by Nadel and colleagues in 1996.

Reference’s

The scale and its applications, particularly within youth violence prevention, are detailed in the following references:

• Nadel, H., Spellmann, M., Alvarez-Canino, T., Lausell-Bryant, L., Landsberg, G. (1996). The cycle of violence and victimization: A study of the school-based intervention of a multidisciplinary youth violence-prevention program. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12 (5), 109-119.
• Dahlberg, L. L., Toal, S. B., Behrens, C. B. (1998). Measuring violence-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors among youths: A compendium of assessment tools. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

A copy of the instrument is included within the Compendium published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/YV_Compendium.pdf

An additional resource containing the instrument is available here: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED486261.pdf

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Items of the Attitudes Toward Gangs

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The following are the nine items comprising the Attitudes Toward Gangs scale:

1. I think you are safer, and have protection, if you join a gang.
2. I will probably join a gang.
3. Some of my friends at school belong to gangs.
4. I think it’s cool to be in a gang.
5. My friends would think less of me if I joined a gang. (Reverse Coded)
6. I believe it is dangerous to join a gang; you will probably end up getting hurt or killed if you belong to a gang. (Reverse Coded)
7. I think being in a gang makes it more likely that you will get into trouble. (Reverse Coded)
8. Some people in my family belong to a gang, or used to belong to a gang.
9. I belong to a gang.