The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago

and expulsion practices in dealing with gang youth?• Can effective job training programs and jobs be targeted to gang youth?• Is counseling and/or suppression effective with gang youth and if so, under whatconditions?Research Design. Gang program evaluations generally have not been adequately designed orimplemented. They have not addressed the range of characteristics of youth in gang programs,and have not specified them in terms of demographic, family, gang, social-space, and criminalbackgroundfactors. The need to make use of varied procedures for gathering data from multiplesources (e.g., police and gang-member self-reports) has not been accepted. Particular programservices or strategies and worker activities with specific youth have, surprisingly, not beendescribed. Appropriate comparison groups have not been used. Multivariate analyses of theinterrelationship of critical variables have not been provided. Findings on the relation betweenwhat street workers do with individual youth, and with what results have not been developed(Schubert, Richardson 1976; Sivilli, Yin, Nugent 1995; Eccles, Grootman 2002).Sampling. There are many issues related to who and how a sample of gang youth (program andcomparison) are to be selected for inclusion in the gang program as well as in the evaluation ofthe program: who is a gang member, based on what definition?; what is the specific nature ofthe crime or criminal pattern of the gang member included in the program?; how representativeare program gang youth of the community’s gang population?; how representative of theevaluation youth-sample are the program youth?; how equivalent – based on key demographic,1.27