Sociology Commons^™

Gangs, Drugs, And Delinquency, Tina Renea Engstrom

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The main objective of this thesis is to study the link between gangs, drug use, and delinquency. Previous literature suggests that social learning and social control theories commonly provide theoretical contexts for explaining deviant behavior. The present research applies the principles of Sutherland's (1949) theory of differential association and Hirschi' s (1969) theory of social control to the delinquent behavior of gang members and their drug involvement. The present study does not attempt to explain why youths become gang members. Rather, this research uses an integration of social learning and social control theories to explain why gang members become involved …