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Abstract:
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Gang involvement among youth has significantly increased over the past two decades in Sonoma County. Currently, there are over 44 identified gangs in Sonoma County and the majority of these gangs are of mainly Latino background. Latino gangs, Nortenos and Surenos, are the more prevalent of gang membership among youth in Sonoma County. There are numerous intervention models to deal with gang youths; however, minimal studies have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of Aggression Replacement Training (ART) on communication barriers between gang youth and their parent/caretaker. Therefore, in the attempt to improve communication among parent/caretaker and their gang involved youth, this descriptive study provides insight about the effectiveness of ART on communication skills. Fifteen Latino gang involved youth who are currently involved in the Sonoma County Juvenile Justice System and fifteen of their parents/caretakers participated in the gang intervention program, ART, offered through The Center for Social and Environmental Stewardship (The Center). The results showed that after participating in ART, communication among the Latino gang involved youth and their parent/caretaker increased. The study’s findings show that there was an increase in positive and negative communication skills, therefore, ART does improve the criminogenic need of increasing communication among Latino family members. Lastly, the researchers recommend expanding the participants from diverse cultural backgrounds to further the validity of the research study. Bernardo Ruiz Gonzalez and Cindy Yang equally contributed to this research project. |
