History, Linked Lives, Timing, and Agency: New Directions in Developmental and Life-Course Perspective on Gangs

Abstract

For more than three decades, developmental and life-course criminology has been a source of theoretical advancement, methodological innovation, and policy and practice guidance, bringing breadth and depth even to well-established areas of study, such as gangs. This review demonstrates how the developmental and life-course perspective on gangs can be further extended and better integrated within broader developments in criminology. Accordingly, we structure this review within the fourfold paradigm on human development that unites seemingly disparate areas in the study of gangs: ( a) historical time and place, or the foregrounding of when and where you are; ( b) linked lives, or the importance of dynamic multiplex relationships; ( c) timing, or the age-grading of trajectories and transitions; and ( d) human agency, or taking choice seriously. We conclude by outlining a vision that charts new directions to be addressed by the next generation of scholarship on gangs.