Values and Gang Delinquency: A Study of Street-Corner Groups

Deduced from three theoretical positions on gang delinquency, hypotheses concerning the values of gang, non-gang lower-class, and non-gang middle-class boys were tested with a semantic differential. Contrary to expectation, the data indicated no differences between gang, lower-class, and middle-class boys, both Negro and white, in their evaluation and legitimation of behaviors representing middle-class prescriptive norms. These middle-class behaviors were also rated higher than deviant behaviors governed by middle-class proscriptive norms. The samples differed most in their attitude toward the deviant behaviors, tending to form a gradient, with gang boys most tolerant, middle-class boys least tolerant.