Date of Award

12-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Legacy Department

Applied Sociology

Committee Chair/Advisor

Britz, Marjie

Committee Member

Granberg , Ellen

Committee Member

Sturkie , Douglas

Abstract

In the United States the presence of gangs and gang activity is a common occurrence in lower socio-economic communities; however, local law enforcement agencies often have little information about the racial and ethnic composition of gang activity in their areas. As a result, gangs are often categorized without respect to important demographic differences between them. The purpose of this paper is to examine the New Jersey State Police Gang Survey 2007, which is a statewide assessment of gang composition and activity. I use the data from this survey along with conflict theory to analyze differences between African American and Hispanic gangs in New Jersey. These differences include distribution across the state of New Jersey, location (rural or urban) and types of crimes associated with particular gangs.

Included in

Sociology Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.