IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcjust/v101y2025ics0047235225001655.html

The association of gang embeddedness and sexual victimization with mental health outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Gross, Rebekkah L.
  • Leverso, John
  • Hayes, Brittany E.

Abstract

Justice-involved girls face disproportionately high rates of trauma, sexual victimization, and mental health challenges, yet little research has explored how gang involvement compounds these risks. Using data from the Northwestern Juvenile Project (N = 416), a longitudinal study of justice-involved youth that assessed a wide range of health, social, and legal topics through structured interviews, the present study focuses on the associations between gang membership, gang embeddedness, sexual victimization, and mental health outcomes—specifically mood disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—among justice-involved girls. Analyses pooled across Waves 2–5 and conducted with logistic regression models with clustered standard errors reveal that sexual victimization significantly increases the odds of both mood disorders and PTSD, while gang membership alone is not a significant indicator. However, deeper gang embeddedness is associated with higher odds of PTSD, and perceived gang organization is linked to increased odds of mood disorders. These findings highlight the critical role of proximal, gendered harms—particularly sexual victimization and deeper gang involvement—in shaping mental health outcomes beyond broader structural adversities. This study extends gender-focused gang research by quantifying the mental health risks tied to gang structure and depth of involvement, underscoring the need for trauma-informed, gender-responsive interventions for justice-involved girls embedded in gang environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Gross, Rebekkah L. & Leverso, John & Hayes, Brittany E., 2025. "The association of gang embeddedness and sexual victimization with mental health outcomes," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:101:y:2025:i:c:s0047235225001655
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102516
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235225001655
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102516?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Santiago, Catherine DeCarlo & Wadsworth, Martha E. & Stump, Jessica, 2011. "Socioeconomic status, neighborhood disadvantage, and poverty-related stress: Prospective effects on psychological syndromes among diverse low-income families," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 218-230, March.
    2. Grosholz, Jessica M. & Semenza, Daniel C., 2021. "Health conditions and victimization among incarcerated individuals in U.S. jails," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. John Leverso & Ross L. Matsueda, 2019. "Gang Organization and Gang Identity: An Investigation of Enduring Gang Membership," Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 797-829, December.
    4. Scott H. Decker & David C. Pyrooz & Gary Sweeten & Richard K. Moule Jr., 2014. "Validating Self-Nomination in Gang Research: Assessing Differences in Gang Embeddedness Across Non-, Current, and Former Gang Members," Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 577-598, December.
    5. Rosana E Norman & Munkhtsetseg Byambaa & Rumna De & Alexander Butchart & James Scott & Theo Vos, 2012. "The Long-Term Health Consequences of Child Physical Abuse, Emotional Abuse, and Neglect: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-31, November.
    6. Bouchard, Martin & Spindler, Andrea, 2010. "Groups, gangs, and delinquency: Does organization matter?," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 921-933, September.
    7. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Declan French, 2018. "Financial strain in the United Kingdom," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(1), pages 163-182.
    2. Averi Chakrabarti & Karen A Grépin & Stéphane Helleringer, 2019. "The impact of supplementary immunization activities on routine vaccination coverage: An instrumental variable analysis in five low-income countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-11, February.
    3. Ichev, Riste & Valentinčič, Aljoša, 2025. "The effect of impact investing on performance of private firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(PA).
    4. Huh, Yesol & Kim, You Suk, 2023. "Cheapest-to-deliver pricing, optimal MBS securitization, and welfare implications," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(1), pages 68-93.
    5. Ji Yan & Sally Brocksen, 2013. "Adolescent risk perception, substance use, and educational attainment," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(8), pages 1037-1055, September.
    6. Sènakpon Fidèle A. Dedehouanou & Luca Tiberti & Hilaire G. Houeninvo & Djohodo Inès Monwanou, 2019. "Working while studying: Employment premium or penalty for youth in Benin?," Working Papers PMMA 2019-03, PEP-PMMA.
    7. Mengyuan Zhou, 2022. "Does the Source of Inheritance Matter in Bequest Attitudes? Evidence from Japan," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 867-887, December.
    8. Sandra Müllbacher & Wolfgang Nagl, 2017. "Labour supply in Austria: an assessment of recent developments and the effects of a tax reform," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 44(3), pages 465-486, August.
    9. Campbell, Randall C. & Nagel, Gregory L., 2016. "Private information and limitations of Heckman's estimator in banking and corporate finance research," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 186-195.
    10. Christopher Dick-Sagoe & Ernest Ngeh Tingum & Peter Asare-Nuamah & Denis N. Yuni & Nicholas Baidoo, 2025. "Central transfers and incentives to collect local revenue among the Central Region of Ghana’s local government officials: analysing the flypaper effect," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    11. Maurice Mutisya & Moses W. Ngware & Caroline W. Kabiru & Ngianga-bakwin Kandala, 2016. "The effect of education on household food security in two informal urban settlements in Kenya: a longitudinal analysis," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(4), pages 743-756, August.
    12. Ilona Babenko & Benjamin Bennett & John M Bizjak & Jeffrey L Coles & Jason J Sandvik, 2023. "Clawback Provisions and Firm Risk," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 191-239.
    13. Şahan, Duygu & Tuna, Okan, 2018. "Environmental innovation of transportation sector in OECD countries," Chapters from the Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL), in: Kersten, Wolfgang & Blecker, Thorsten & Ringle, Christian M. (ed.), The Road to a Digitalized Supply Chain Management: Smart and Digital Solutions for Supply Chain Management. Proceedings of the Hamburg International C, volume 25, pages 157-170, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute of Business Logistics and General Management.
    14. Mehzabin Tuli, Farzana & Mitra, Suman & Crews, Mariah B., 2021. "Factors influencing the usage of shared E-scooters in Chicago," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 164-185.
    15. Ruomeng Cui & Dennis J. Zhang & Achal Bassamboo, 2019. "Learning from Inventory Availability Information: Evidence from Field Experiments on Amazon," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(3), pages 1216-1235, March.
    16. Callahan, Scott, . "Do Campaign Contributions from Farmers Influence Agricultural Policy? Evidence from a 2008 Farm Bill Amendment Vote to Curtail Cotton Subsidies," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 51(3).
    17. Blackburn, McKinley L. & Vermilyea, Todd, 2012. "The prevalence and impact of misstated incomes on mortgage loan applications," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 151-168.
    18. Shvartsman, Elena & Beckmann, Michael, 2015. "Stressed by your job: What is the role of personnel policy?," Working papers 2015/15, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    19. Luiz Paulo Fávero & Joseph F. Hair & Rafael de Freitas Souza & Matheus Albergaria & Talles V. Brugni, 2021. "Zero-Inflated Generalized Linear Mixed Models: A Better Way to Understand Data Relationships," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-28, May.
    20. Tiantian Gu & Anand Venkateswaran, 2018. "Firm-supplier relations and managerial compensation," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 621-649, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:101:y:2025:i:c:s0047235225001655. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcrimjus .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.