The Price of Poverty

This book examines Jamaican gang development through a neoliberal framework, which elucidates the processes of the neoliberal system and its impact on gang membership. The model is hierarchal, multidimensional, and integrative and theoretically explains gang and non-gang outcomes in Jamaica. The tenets of the model can be applied to gang membership in other parts of the world. The author argues that there are five key risk factors of gang membership, including: structurally-related disruption, situational-related disruption, improper bonds, human agency, and gendered norms, which are examined in separate chapters. These five key variables lead into the three stages of adaptation that facilitate the gang subculture. Non-gang membership on the other hand is premised on the human agency of the youth and pro-social bonds of the caregiver. This book draws on narrative accounts that engage the reader and paint a picture of gang members? life and the conditions of the Jamaican society. The author also discusses the implications for policy.