bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Composition, Policy, and the Formation of Agency
Authors: Schmidt Patrick , Edwards Jashen
Published: January 2024

This chapter argues that while at first glance music education policy and music composition may seem an odd pairing, when framed through a lens of critical and progressive practice the strangeness disappears. The chapter illustrates a pushback at traditionalist, Eurocentric narratives, arguing that in some ways, apprehensions around “policy” mirror hesitancies around “composing”—a similar narrowness promoting misconceptions about who can do what and how and to what end. What can be heard, instead, is an invitation for music teachers in all educational levels to reimagine their roles and (re)sound music education as a space for voice, agency, and social change. Situating itself within larger—and now acute—social, racial, and cultural demands placed by a need to change, this chapter explores avenues through which music education may be ready to enact curricular policies that forego “conveyor belt” approaches (Stone, 2011) to recurring challenges such as music teacher preparation diversity, pedagogical innovation, and program relevance. The chapter presents three field cases that exemplify innovative dispositions and provides a critique of music teacher education programs in relation to NASM accreditation policy. Specifically, we use policy as an analytical lens to articulate how composition, understood broadly, can serve as a convincing example of “institutional innovation capable of linking the subject in a creative relationship with an [renewed] institutional environment.”
From Vulnerable Teacher to Vulnerable Songwriter
Authors: Whitcomb Rachel
Published: January 2024

Vulnerability is inherent in both teaching and songwriting. Engaging in either endeavor exposes hopes, regrets, relationships, triumphs, struggles, fears, desires, and memorable stories. Vulnerability and authenticity are inextricably linked. Without authenticity, one cannot truly be vulnerable, and one usually feels vulnerable partly because the previously hidden authentic self is at the forefront of the endeavor. This chapter provides a series of autoethnographic stories describing frighteningly vulnerable yet refreshingly authentic moments that shaped the author’s experiences as a musician, music teacher, songwriter, and music teacher-educator. Through reflective accounts of the journey from obedient music student to country-songwriting professor, this discussion aims to provide music teachers with opportunities to recognize and embrace their own vulnerabilities and those of their students. Each story concludes with a life lesson and set of reflective questions for music teachers to ponder as they consider ways to create welcoming creative learning spaces for songwriting endeavors.
Cultivating Student Agency in the PreK–12 Composition Curriculum
Authors: Albert Daniel J.
Published: January 2024

A major responsibility of music educators is to ensure student mastery of district-mandated learning goals. Teaching musical concepts and skills through composition can be empowering and provide a “bridge” to students’ musical lives outside of school. A successful composition classroom includes a classroom culture that encourages students to employ their agency, in addition to supporting “messiness” and space to create. However, what exactly is “agency” and what are ways for educators to construct this type of classroom culture? The purpose of this chapter is to examine student agency in the composition classroom and provide strategies as to how the music educator can foster that agency through a classroom culture conducive to compositional practices. The chapter examines representative research studies on agency and classroom culture and suggests strategies for implementation and facilitation in the composition classroom.
Creating Culturally Sustaining Spaces in the Compositional Process
Authors: Mena Christopher , Campbell Patricia Shehan
Published: January 2024

This chapter explores culture in the compositional process and ways in which teachers can facilitate the musical inventions of students of diverse backgrounds. Culture is acknowledged as key to a reckoning with creativity in music, in the context of formal education. The chapter addresses the interdisciplinary fascination with creativity inside and outside musical circles, and how social and educational inequities have characterized schooling, including the Asset Pedagogies. The authors discuss Hip-Hop Pedagogy and World Music Pedagogy, which embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion. Particular attention is paid to Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP) while recognizing the multiplicity of student identity, and the collective songwriting process (Gonzalez, 2020) as an approach to enacting Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy. The authors explain testimonio, a liberationist process of writing about lived experiences of oppression, marginalization, and survivance, and offer an account of collective songwriting, a pedagogical practice whereby community-generated testimonios can be shaped into lyrics, rhythms, and melodies (Campbell, Mena, Gestsson, & Coppola, 2019). To acknowledge ways of moving beyond colonial structures that emphasize composition as the province of the isolated composer, the authors offer illustrations of these collaborative processes so that teachers can help students to recognize opportunities to exercise their agency and express their values, influences, and experiences.
Evidence-Based Crime and Justice Policy
Authors: Welsh Brandon C. , Zane Steven N. , Mears Daniel P.
Published: January 2024

The need for and the threats to improved crime and justice policy are acute. This includes contending with a crime policy agenda that continues to be driven by anecdotal evidence, program favorites of the month, and political ideology. An evidence-based approach is needed to inform decisions that affect the public good. This Handbook showcases the state of research on evidence-based crime and justice policy and the challenges that impede its creation and use. The volume has three core objectives: to promote new and productive ways to think about evidence-based policy; to demonstrate how research can contribute to and guide evidence-based policy in juvenile justice, criminal justice, and alternatives to system responses; and to identify strategies that can increase reliance on evidence-based policy. This chapter sets the stage for this larger, more comprehensive project.
Using Evidence-Based Practices to Improve Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts
Authors: Sullivan Christopher J. , Gonçalves Vitor , McKenna Nicole
Published: January 2024

Juvenile drug treatment courts (JDTCs) are a frequent response to justice-involved youth who engage in substance use. Despite the frequent implementation of JDTCs since the 1990s, the evidence base for their effectiveness and courts’ adherence to the underlying JDTC theory of change is limited. This chapter offers an overview of the underlying foundation of these interventions and identifies and describes their key components and processes. It then assesses relevant evaluation studies in this area to reach some conclusions about current knowledge regarding JDTCs. Based on that review of key evidence to date, we then offer suggestions on how knowledge about JDTCs may be improved to facilitate better practice. The chapter concludes with some summary points about the state of the JDTC evidence base and thoughts for future consideration.
Evidence-Oriented Youth Justice
Authors: Butts Jeffrey A. , Roman John K. , Pugliese Katheryne
Published: January 2024

The public expects youth justice agencies to help young people whenever possible, but their primary job is to protect communities from crime. When crime rates rise or notorious crimes attract the attention of policymakers and news media, youth justice officials defend themselves by citing their adherence to evidence-based practices. The term “evidence-based” is rarely defined and may even be misused as a marketing slogan. Building interventions with rigorous evidence is an important and valuable goal for youth justice, but it must be an ongoing process. Adhering rigidly to the existing evidence base could hinder effective policy if it inhibits innovation and suppresses the discovery of new interventions. Instead of defensively claiming to be evidence-based, youth justice officials should be evidence-oriented. Justice systems are evidence-oriented when they use credible evaluation findings to (1) identify already effective programs and (2) develop innovative and promising approaches to be tested by future evaluations.
Evidence-Based Policing
Authors: Lum Cynthia , Koper Christopher S.
Published: January 2024

Evidence-based policing is an approach to police practice that incorporates scientific processes, analyses, and research to guide decision-making and operations. Thus, evidence-based policing includes not only efforts to generate and improve the supply, demand for, and use of scientific knowledge in policing, but also the processes and techniques that link the supply of research with its implementation. These efforts include translating that knowledge into digestible and usable forms, building receptivity toward science within police agencies and communities, and institutionalizing knowledge and scientific processes into police practices and decision-making. The chapter defines evidence-based policing and contrasts it with the standard model of policing and other alternatives. It then discusses activities to achieve translation, receptivity, and institutionalization of research outputs and processes into law enforcement practices.
Incarceration-Based Drug Treatment
Authors: Mitchell Ojmarrh
Published: January 2024

Individuals held in prisons and jails are much more likely than the general population to have a drug use disorder. Drug-involved inmates often also face mental health disorders and homelessness. These co-occurring problems reinforce one another and complicate treating drug use disorders, as effective solutions to drug problems may require multimodal treatments to address the host of challenges facing this population. Given that a large proportion of drug-involved individuals are incarcerated at some point in time, correctional institutions have a plum opportunity to intervene in the cycle of uncontrolled drug use, drug-related crime, and reincarceration. This chapter discusses these issues and reviews research assessing the effectiveness of common incarceration-based drug treatment programs.
Making Prisoner Re-entry Evidence-Based
Authors: Kosc Helen , Kirk David S.
Published: January 2024

Re-entry presents formerly incarcerated individuals with a multitude of triggering risk factors and challenges that make reintegration difficult. The role of re-entry policies and practices is to recognize and moderate the impact of those stressors to encourage successful community reintegration. While government agencies and nonprofit organizations offer a number of programs intended to support and improve prisoner re-entry outcomes, relatively few have been rigorously evaluated for their effects, and those that have sometimes have harmful unintended consequences for their participants. For this reason, in this chapter, we advocate for more evidence-based evaluations of current re-entry support as well as the strict use of evidence when designing future policy and programming.
Early Prevention as an Alternative to Imprisonment
Authors: Welsh Brandon C. , Paterson Heather , Farrington David P.
Published: January 2024

This chapter examines the extent to which early prevention provides economic returns to society and whether the returns make it a more worthwhile policy alternative to imprisonment. To address this question the authors reviewed (a) the latest benefit-cost analyses of early prevention programs, (b) the first generation of studies that have examined the economics of early prevention compared to imprisonment, including Washington State’s ongoing comparative benefit-cost model, and (c) a wide range of other economic studies. Based on the highest-quality research evidence, they found clear and substantial support for policy options that emphasize early prevention and limit the use of imprisonment. Importantly, the economic returns of early prevention compared to imprisonment are sizable, wide-ranging (i.e., cascading over multiple domains), and long-lasting, with some studies showing economic benefits accruing well into midlife. Implications for policy are discussed.
Evaluating Research and Assessing Research Evidence
Authors: Welsh Brandon C. , Mears Daniel P.
Published: January 2024

For crime or justice policy to be evidence-based, it must be grounded in scientific evidence. What goes into establishing credible evidence, however, can be complicated. It is nonetheless critical that criminal justice stakeholders and other consumers of research, and not just researchers, understand the complexity so that they can make more informed judgments about policy and practice. This chapter introduces readers to general considerations that go into evaluating specific research studies and assessing bodies of research. In so doing, it draws attention to critical dimensions, such as internal validity and external validity, and types of policy-relevant questions—beyond those solely focused on “what works”—that research can answer.
Systems of Change
Authors: Fagan Abigail A.
Published: January 2024

Despite the current emphasis on evidence-based crime control in the United States and the existence of many evidence-based interventions (EBIs) demonstrated to prevent crime, many communities continue to utilize untested and/or ineffective crime prevention strategies. This chapter describes a potential solution to this problem: the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system. CTC was intentionally designed to increase the use of EBIs by community agencies to prevent youth substance use, delinquency, and violence. It provides community coalitions with a structured process, training, and consultation to improve their knowledge, adoption, and high-quality implementation of EBIs. As described in this chapter, CTC is itself evidence-based, having been demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial and multiple quasi-experimental evaluations to increase the use of EBIs and reduce youth problem behaviors. This evidence suggests that, if widely implemented across the United States as a structured mechanism for installing EBIs in communities, CTC has the potential to significantly reduce rates of crime.
Reducing School Crime and Student Misbehavior
Authors: Payne Allison Ann
Published: January 2024

Schools should be spaces safe from crime and victimization, yet this is regrettably not the case. Despite declines in serious violent crime and overall school crime during the past three decades, crime and disorder in schools are still a cause for concern. In response, schools have increasingly implemented restrictive security and punitive disciplinary measures that, unfortunately, do more harm than good. By contrast, evidence-based interventions focused on improving a school’s climate and building students’ cognitive, social, and emotional skills have been shown to be effective in reducing school crime and student misbehavior. This chapter reviews schools’ use of strict security and harsh discipline, including the negative consequences therein, and presents an evidence-based alternative: strategies aimed at improving school- and student-level risk factors for crime and deviance. Recommendations for schools and research are discussed.
Evidence-Based Strategies for Preventing Urban Youth Violence
Authors: Ross Katherine M. , Walsh Colleen S. , Angulo Angela G. , Leslie Carine E. , Tolan Patrick H.
Published: January 2024

Youth violence continues to be a national public health concern. Violence in its many forms (e.g., aggression, bullying, delinquency, gun crimes) has profound and long-term effects on individuals (e.g., injury, death, mental health issues, more violent behavior, criminal record) and communities (e.g., loss of community members, unsafe conditions, community trauma, victim blaming, isolation from resources). While the field of violence prevention is not new and there is a body of evidence that identifies risk and protective factors of youth violence as optimal targets for programs and practices, less is known about violence prevention specifically for contexts that experience the most impact: low-resource urban communities. This chapter reviews what is known about evidence-based youth violence prevention strategies and what we still need to learn specifically for urban communities experiencing high levels of youth violence. We end with recommendations for future research, practice, and policy, with a call for more context specific approaches.
A Place Management Approach to Promote Evidence-Based Crime Prevention
Authors: Herold Tamara D.
Published: January 2024

Crime is highly concentrated among people and places. It is critical that police and other policymakers understand the causal mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon, so that scarce resources will be allocated to the prevention strategies most likely to reduce crime. This chapter seeks to explain these mechanisms and promote more place-focused, evidence-based crime prevention. It summarizes a large body of evidence showing that a few places generate most crime, and that place management practices can account for these unequal crime distributions. Drawing from this literature, a theory to explain persistent violent hot spots is offered. This theory uses a place typology known as CS4 to explain the role and significance of less visible crime-involved places. The theory explains how four place types create larger place networks that underlie persistent hot spots. A strategy, Place Network Investigations, designed to disrupt place networks and achieve long-term crime reductions by improving place management, is presented. This strategy and its associated theory suggest new directions for crime prevention research and practice.
Social Inequality and Evidence-Based Policy
Authors: Rodriguez Nancy
Published: January 2024

Addressing the role of social inequality in society has been revealed and regarded as a national priority. Social inequality has a complex relationship with crime and the criminal justice system. Despite an overwhelming agreement on the important role that social inequality plays in crime and criminal justice outcomes, there are no evidence-based policies or practices designed to reduce social inequality among justice-involved individuals. Nonetheless, in the absence of massive social policy change, there are policies and practices that can reduce inequality and address the needs of marginalized groups in the justice systems. This chapter highlights several of these criminal justice strategies, as well as a few outside of the justice system that could reduce social inequality. It also discusses the important role that data metrics on subgroups play in addressing social inequality and the nature of research collaborations and accessibility in producing and translating scientific work.
Mass Evidence-Based Policy as an Alternative to Mass Incarceration
Authors: Mears Daniel P. , Cochran Joshua C.
Published: January 2024

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors argue for an investment in evidence-based policy (EBP) through the prioritization of research, including creating the infrastructure necessary to generate credible evidence and the incorporation of the evaluation hierarchy into policy development, implementation, and assessment. In advancing this argument, they highlight the profound disconnect between mass incarceration and policymaker calls for EBP. They highlight, too, problems that stem from the disjuncture and what the contemporary criminal justice landscape could have been with investment in policy grounded in strong science. The assessment leads them to conclude that a fundamental shift in political priorities and research infrastructure is needed to create mass EBP. This shift entails institutionalizing and increasing funding for research at multiple governmental levels and creating agency requirements to undertake need, theory, implementation, impact, and efficiency evaluations of existing and proposed policy. Finally, they argue that mass EBP is a realistic possibility and, to reduce crime and increase justice, a necessity.
“Big Data” and Evidence-Based Policy and Practice
Authors: O’Brien Daniel T.
Published: January 2024

Narratives around “big data” are heavy on promises or critiques but light on the specifics of how they enable new directions in data-driven research, policy, and practice. This chapter offers a remedy by arguing that we should focus not on the size of big data but on their “naturally occurring” origins, arising from nonresearch processes and systems. This creates the paired advantages and challenges of unprecedented precision but uncertain validity, flexibility but lack of guidance for measurement, and powerful but potentially invasive variety of information. The chapter includes six case studies from the study and management of crime in communities, illustrating each of these aspects of naturally occurring data. It concludes with an additional opportunity created by naturally occurring data: the weaknesses of the data can be leveraged to understand how a given policy or program works and to further improve it, as captured in two final case studies.
Imposed Use
Authors: Zane Steven N.
Published: January 2024

Central to the evidence-based paradigm is the explicit goal to increase the influence of scientific research on public policy. One of the central issues regarding evidence-based policy is how policymakers will actually use the best evidence to inform their decision-making. The research utilization literature delineates a number of ways that evaluation research can exert an influence on policy decisions, including conceptual, instrumental, and political. Limitations of these routes of research influence on policy, along with a growing interest in the evidence-based paradigm, have given rise to the term “imposed use,” first coined by Carol Weiss. This chapter describes the promise and limitations of imposed use for advancing evidence-based crime and justice policy.
The Eurogang Definition
Authors: Weerman Frank M. , Decker Scott H.
Published: January 2024

The Eurogang definition of gangs and troublesome youth groups is now regarded as almost a standard, used by many gang researchers around the world. However, the road to reaching consensus about this definition has been a long and thorny path, and methodological debate and disputes about its application still remains. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the context in which the definition evolved, the history of its development, the rationale behind its basic elements, studies that were conducted to scrutinize the usefulness of the definition, and debates that evolved around the definition and its applicability in the current age. The chapter is based not only on various publications of the Eurogang network and other researchers, but also on recollected memories from various meetings of the Eurogang network, as well as a recent interview with Malcolm Klein, famous gang researcher and initiator of the Eurogang project.
Masculinities and Respect in the Group Context of Gangs
Authors: Hughes Lorine A. , Broidy Lisa M.
Published: January 2024

This chapter delineates the history and significance of masculinities within the gang literature. Following the second women’s movement, crime and violence came to be understood as means by which male and female offenders, including gang members, accomplish gender. While criminological debates over the nature and behavioral effects of feminine gender identities remain unresolved, masculinities frequently are implicated in explanations of gang crime and violence, particularly as related to street codes, street culture, and street socialization. This body of work conceptualizes masculinity as a resource for obtaining respect and shows how it is accomplished through violence and other public displays of toughness. Missing from this literature, which focuses primarily on individual action and macro-level considerations, is attention to complementary micro-level group dynamics in which enactments of masculinity unfold. After discussing the role of group structure and process in transforming performances of masculinity, including violence, into contextual resources for earning and maintaining respect, the chapter concludes with recommendations for future research.
Indigenous Gangs and Gang Research
Authors: Freng Adrienne , St. Clair Hannah
Published: January 2024

Indigenous gangs in the United States and Canada share similar histories and characteristics. It is often proposed that gangs in these communities result from the ongoing discrimination and marginalization of these groups from mainstream society. The information available regarding these groups indicates many similarities with gangs in general. While general gang prevention and intervention programs have been suggested, many also argue that culturally specific programming is needed to eradicate these groups from Indigenous communities. However, more evaluation and research are required to fully assess the situation among this population. A lack of recent comprehensive examinations prevents us from fully understanding the scope and nature of gangs and thus how to best address these groups for Native communities. To fully understand the impact of gangs on Indigenous populations, more research is needed.
Re-Examining the Literature on Social Media and Gangs
Authors: Elsaesser Caitlin , Patton Desmond
Published: January 2024

Social media now shapes nearly every dimension of adolescents’ lives, including the experience of conflict. In the last decade, scholars with expertise in gangs and community violence have documented important trends in how social media shapes gang activity, including gun violence. Concurrently, a focus on individual-level behaviors and even group processes on social media obscure the root causes that create the conditions for community violence—in other words, the structural violence targeted at Black and Latinx communities that have created concentrated poverty. Critical race theory is a useful framework that can support researchers in centering anti-racism to determine promising directions for the research in this area. This chapter brings insights from critical race theory to scholarship on social media use and gang-labeled individuals, including the debate about the causal role of social media and gun violence. Throughout, it attends to implications for addressing racism, highlighting examples of research that integrates critical race theory, social media, and gang-labeled individuals. The chapter underscores the powerful potential researchers have to shift energy from focusing on individual-level risk behaviors and to addressing the conditions, systems, and structures that allow violence to occur.
Funding Gang Research to Advance Policy and Practice
Authors: Wyrick Phelan A. , Kelley Barbara Tatem , Carlton Mary Poulin
Published: January 2024

Funders play a critical role in supporting research that advances scientific knowledge on gangs and the delinquent and criminal behaviors of those involved in gangs. Gang research funding and the knowledge it produces are essential to the development of effective programs, practices, and policies to reduce gang activity and promote public safety. This chapter examines gang research and evaluation funding by the US Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP). With consideration of the needs and priorities of practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders, the OJP has mobilized a range of funding strategies to produce groundbreaking and seminal research findings over more than three decades, which have transformed our understanding of gangs and how to respond to them.
The National Youth Gang Survey
Authors: Cahill Meagan , Howell James C. , Egley Arlen
Published: January 2024

From 1996 to 2012, the National Youth Gang Survey (NYGS), funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, was conducted annually. The survey provided insight into gang trends in the United States, and researchers demonstrated its utility for studies on gang-related topics. Yet at the time of this writing, the survey had not been fielded for a decade. In 2020, the National Institute of Justice committed funding to revive the NYGS. This chapter reviews the history of the survey over the 17 years it was fielded, reviews its contributions to the field of gang research, and discusses plans for the revived NYGS. An updated NYGS will provide the field with a current understanding of risk factors for joining gangs, gang member behavior, and how to address gang problems. Part of the work will include increasing NYGS’s use for policymaking, informing practice, and rigorous research.
Historical Gang Research Methods
Authors: Roth Mitchel P.
Published: January 2024

This chapter gives an overview of the many historical research methods that have been neglected by gang researchers. Contrary to the longstanding view that historical research is not “scientific,” this chapter demonstrates numerous types of historical research methods, ranging from using archival materials and other primary sources to oral history and newspapers. Often eschewed by social scientists, historical research methods can supplement other research methodologies and lead to a better understanding of gangs at all levels. Historical research is both qualitative and quantitative in scope. Social scientists seem to have neglected this form of research due in no small part to their misunderstanding of what actually constitutes historical data. This chapter will show the myriad forms in which data are available and offer suggestions for incorporating it into their research.
Gang Research in the Caribbean
Authors: Maguire Edward R.
Published: January 2024

The Caribbean region is a well-known tourist destination due to its beaches and other attractions. Unfortunately, it is also home to a significant violent crime problem. Research has shown that much of the violence is due to criminal gangs. This chapter reviews the research on gangs in the Caribbean with a particular focus on the methodologies used to understand a variety of gang-related phenomena, including the nature and characteristics of gangs; gang membership; crime, violence, and conflict associated with gangs; and interventions intended to address these issues. The chapter concludes with a discussion about how the methodologies used to study gangs in the Caribbean have evolved, current gaps in theory and research, and recommendations for addressing these gaps.
The Legacy of Scott H. Decker
Authors: Pyrooz David C. , Moule Richard K.
Published: January 2024

This chapter traces the legacy of Scott H. Decker’s career in gang research. Situated in the life-course perspective, it documents the micro- and macro-level factors that shaped his legacy of scholarly impact. His entrance into the field of gang research was in response to the rise of gang violence in St. Louis in the late 1980s, along with a parallel track of professional ties to government stakeholders and community outreach. Over the course of three decades, an incredible duration of consistent and diverse scholarly and translational outputs, this chapter identifies five lasting contributions Scott has made to the study of gangs: (1) providing rich description of gangs and gang life, (2) elaborating on the group process perspective, (3) establishing disengagement from gangs as a field of inquiry, (4) advancing evidence-based policy and practice on gangs, and (5) a commitment to data derived from mixed-methods scholarship with diverse populations and research designs. What makes Scott’s contributions even more remarkable is that he did this while managing the development of two of the leading doctoral-granting criminology departments, deeply investing in the mentorship and training of colleagues and students, and maintaining an impactful research agenda outside of the field of gang research.
“Somebody’s Watching Me”
Authors: Valasik Matthew , Brantingham P. Jeffrey
Published: January 2024

Tension remains between how gangs are policed by law enforcement and whether such practices are overtly invading the privacy of citizens or infringing their Fourth Amendment rights. Such concerns have risen in the era of big data and predictive analytics. This chapter discusses the policing of gangs, both conventionally and through data-driven approaches. As the implementation and use of data-driven policing across the 18,000 police jurisdictions in the United States remains inconsistent and uneven, the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) anti-gang policing strategies will be the focus given their longstanding engagement with street gangs and their employment of a variety of innovative approaches over the years. Overall, this chapter concludes that the policing of gangs remains a low-tech process focused primarily on reaction to and investigation of crimes.
What Gangs Aren’t
Authors: Bouchard Martin , Descormiers Karine , Girn Alysha
Published: January 2024

This chapter aims to compare gangs with delinquent peer groups, organized crime groups, and other collectives to tease out what, precisely, makes a gang a gang. It proposes several dimensions to consider when aiming to determine whether a collective looks more like a gang or another form—some focus on how collectives approach crime and others focus on the organizational aspects of collectives. In the end, these dimensions combine in unique ways that capture the wide variations observed in gangs worldwide. The chapter discusses the measurement of each dimension, hoping to stimulate future research in this area, but also to help scholars and practitioners recognize what gangs are and what they aren’t.
Introduction to the OUP Handbook of Gangs and Society
Authors: Pyrooz David C. , Densley James A. , Leverso John
Published: January 2024

This chapter introduces readers to The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society and its central theme of “looking back, moving forward.” The chapter reflects on the past, present, and future of gangs and gang research and discusses the process of curating and editing more than 40 chapters written by over 80 scholars from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, criminology, geography, history, law, psychology, public health, sociology, and more. The book is organized into six substantive areas: (1) revisiting definitions of gangs; (2) the empirical study of gangs; (3) core and emerging issues in gang research; (4) the integration of gangs in predominant institutions; (5) legacies of second-generation gang researchers; and (6) responding to gangs. This chapter, like the handbook itself, appreciates the longstanding and at times contentious history of research on gangs, while also aiming to advance the field of study squarely into the twenty-first century.
Place Matters
Authors: Bloch Stefano
Published: January 2024

Research on place-making and place-taking coming out of the discipline of geography remains an untapped intellectual resource for research on gangs. Part of the reason for this is that geographers have not sufficiently included gangs and gang members in their theories of space and place. This may be surprising given what is known about gangs and their place-oriented penchant for territoriality and neighborhood demarcation as part of their expressed raison d’être. This chapter brings geography further into the conversation on gangs that criminologists and sociologists have been having for decades, concluding with personal reflection and a discussion about how to make geography a home for gang studies.
A Relational Approach to Street Gangs
Authors: Papachristos Andrew V. , Leverso John , Hureau David
Published: January 2024

The gang world is built not through individual actions alone, but by larger constellations of relationships and social networks between and within groups, their members and associates, and the relationship between gangs and their social environs. This chapter advances a relational understanding of gangs and gang behaviors that extends the group process perspective by more deeply tying gang research to relational thinking and social network theory. A relational or network-oriented approach centers the group nature of gangs but, at the same time, problematizes it by showing the complexities of boundaries and patterns of influence within and between groups. The objective is to measure—rather than assume—structure, which urges researchers to focus on analytically constructing and measuring “the gang” in ways that capture how these complex, evolving, and overlapping social entities are consequential for individual and collective behaviors. To spur future research, this chapter also reviews qualitative and quantitative data and methods that can be used to conduct studies of gangs via a relational perspective.
Gang Ecological Diversity in the Hollenbeck Area of Los Angeles, 1978–2012
Authors: Brantingham P. Jeffrey , Valasik Matthew
Published: January 2024

Criminal street gangs are paradoxically both ephemeral and durable social forms. Unique gangs might emerge to only disappear a short while later, while others may persist for decades. These dynamics raise questions about the ecological diversity of gangs over time and space. This chapter examines gang diversity in an area of Los Angeles over a 35-year period. It looks to annual counts of the number of uniquely named gang cliques identified in gang-related homicides. The chapter finds that gang diversity fluctuates over time from a minimum of 8 to a maximum of 34 unique cliques. Homicide is concentrated among a small number of unique cliques; one uniquely named clique is tied to 86 homicides over this period. Most cliques are around for a very short period of time—the median lifespan of a clique is seven years, and 41% of all cliques appear for just one year. While the homicides per clique is relatively stable over time, it is clear that more cliques on the landscape is associated with more homicides per clique; there were 63% more homicides with 34 unique cliques on the ground compared to when there were just 4. Overall, the chapter estimates that this area of Los Angeles could support as many as 40 unique cliques at any one time. It considers several explanations for the observed patterns and discuss how gang diversity offers a unique window into the challenges communities with chronic gang problems face.
Association between serum omentin-1 and mucosal disease activity in patients with ulcerative colitis
Authors: Pan Yan , Li An , Huang Xijing , Zhou Zhou , Zhang Yinghui , Yang Xue , Gao Caiping , He Chong
Published: January 2024

Purpose

Mucosal inflammation is a key feature of ulcerative colitis (UC), a chronic relapsing and remitting form of inflammatory bowel disease. Omentin-1, a newly discovered adipokine, is reported to have anti-inflammatory effects and has been found to be decreased in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. The aim of our study was to investigate the association between serum omentin-1 levels and mucosal disease activity in patients with UC.

Study design

A total of 126 patients with UC and 77 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study. Serum omentin-1 expression levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to evaluate its potential for monitoring disease activity, including clinical and endoscopic activity.

Results

Serum omentin-1 levels were significantly lower in patients with UC compared to healthy controls (HC) (UC, 61.7 interquartile range: 51.5–72.6 versus healthy controls, 103.5 interquartile range: 48.3–156.2 ng/ml; P < .001). Furthermore, serum omentin-1 levels were associated with both clinical and endoscopic activity in patients with UC. Notably, omentin-1 levels were significantly lower in patients who achieved mucosal healing. Receiver operating characteristic curves indicated that serum omentin-1 levels could potentially serve as an activity index for evaluating UC.

Conclusions

These findings provide further insight into the association between omentin-1 and UC, suggesting that omentin-1 may be a useful biomarker for monitoring mucosal disease activity in patients with UC.
Clinical characteristics, diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of patients living with HIV and co-infected with tuberculosis and histoplasmosis: a 5-y retrospective case series
Authors: Castellanos Reynosa María Eugenia , Caal Maria Eugenia , Mercado Danicela , Medina Narda , Pérez Juan Carlos , Emeto Theophilus I , Arathoon Eduardo
Published: January 2024

Background

In Latin America, tuberculosis (TB) and histoplasmosis are two of the most frequent opportunistic infections affecting people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, there are limited data on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with concurrent TB and histoplasmosis infections.

Methods

This was a retrospective observational study to describe the clinical, epidemiological and laboratory characteristics and outcomes of 21 patients living with HIV (PLHIV) who were diagnosed with concurrent histoplasmosis and TB between 2017 and 2021 in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Results

Most patients were male and were newly diagnosed with HIV. All patients had advanced HIV disease (AHD). They presented with a median CD4 count of 20 cells/µl. The most common symptoms reported by the patients were fever, weight loss, cough and diarrhoea. Twelve patients died within 6 months of baseline evaluation, for a mortality rate of 57.1%.

Conclusions

PLHIV with concurrent TB and histoplasmosis infections are characterised by AHD, predominantly presenting with disseminated forms of these infections and with unspecific symptoms and signs. This evidence calls for early HIV and opportunistic infection screening and insights into the challenges and opportunities for the efficient diagnostic and therapeutic management of patients with AHD with concurrent histoplasmosis and TB infections.
The Relationship Between Resilience and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Heart Failure Patients in New York Heart Association Functional Classes II and III
Authors: CHENG Ching-Hui , HSU Ching-Hwa , SIE Jia-Rong , TSAY Shiow-Luan , TUNG Heng-Hsin
Published: January 2024

Background

Heart failure is an intense, unpredictable, and stressful chronic disease caused by the decline in cardiac pumping function. The influence of heart failure affects patients not only in terms of physical capabilities but also in terms of their emotional and social dimensions, with patients in different functional classes experiencing different levels of effect. Although resilience and health-related quality of life have been studied in populations with heart failure, the scholarly understanding of different functional classes is limited.

Purpose

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between resilience and health-related quality of life among patients with heart failure in different physical functional classes in Taiwan.

Methods

A cross-sectional design was applied to study patients with heart failure in northern Taiwan. Two structured questionnaires, including the Resilience Scale for Adults and the 12-item Short Form Health Survey, were used to assess resilience and health-related quality of life. New York Heart Association functional class was used to determine physical function status, and canonical correlation analysis was used to determine the weight of each resilience and quality-of-life domain for the different functional classes.

Results

The 100 participants had an average age of 65.52 years. Slightly over half (56%) were classified as Functional Class II. A group difference in health-related quality of life was observed. Personal strength (rs
= .759) and social competence (rs
= −.576) were found to influence the resilience and emotional role dimension of quality of life (rs
= −.996) in the Functional Class II group. In addition, family cohesion (rs
= −.922), dominant resilience, physical function (rs
= .467), and bodily pain (rs
= .465) were found to influence quality of life in the Functional Class III group.

Conclusions/Implications for Practice

The efficacy of measures taken to increase resilience to heart failure varied in patients in different functional classes. Functional Class II individuals were better able to manage the disease using their personal strength, whereas Functional Class III individuals relied more heavily on family support and assistance for this effort. Furthermore, participant feelings about quality of life also varied by functional class, with physical function and bodily pain taking on significantly more importance for Functional Class III individuals.
Effects of a Health Literacy Education Program on Mental Health and Renal Function in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: HUANG Hsiao-Ling , HSU Ya-Hui , YANG Chung-Wei , HSU Min-Fang , CHUNG Yu-Chu
Published: January 2024

Background

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) refers to permanent damage to the kidneys that occurs gradually over time. Further progression may be preventable depending on its stage.

Purpose

This study was developed to evaluate the effect of a health literacy education program (HLEP) on mental health and renal functioning in patients with CKD.

Methods

A single-blind, randomized controlled trial study was conducted. Data were collected from March 25 to December 18, 2021. Participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (n = 42), which received multidisciplinary care and HLEP, or the control group (n = 42), which received multidisciplinary care only. Data were collected at baseline (T1), Month 3 (T2), and Month 6 (T3), and the data included patient characteristics, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and responses to the Mandarin Multidimensional Health Literacy Questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory.

Results

After 6 months of the HLEP intervention, the results of generalized estimating equations analysis showed that, compared with the control group, the experimental group had significantly higher health literacy at Month 3 (β = −3.37, 95% CI [−5.68, −1.06]), significantly improved depression at Month 3 (β = −2.24, 95% CI [−4.11, −0.37]) and Month 6 (β = −4.36, 95% CI [−6.60, −2.12]), and a significantly higher estimated glomerular filtration rate at Month 6 (β = 5.87, 95% CI [1.35, 10.38]).

Conclusions/Implications for Practice

The findings of this study may provide a reference for healthcare providers to educate patients with Stage 3–4 CKD using the HLEP. Positive effects on health literacy, depression, and renal function in patients with Stage 3–4 CKD were observed in the short term. Findings from this study may facilitate the implementation of multidisciplinary and nurse-led strategies in primary care to reinforce patients' health literacy, self-care ability, and adjustment to CKD as well as delay disease progression.