By using panel data from 1,213 individuals who participated in the Pathways to Desistance Study to conduct a multilevel path analysis, the study found that active gang membership status was unrelated to legal earnings. Alternatively, entering a gang was associated with increased illegal earnings, attributable to changes in delinquent peers and drug use, whereas, leaving a gang had a direct relationship with decreased illegal earnings. These results indicate that the positive economic effect of gang membership (i.e., illegal earnings and total earnings) was short lived and that, on balance, the sum of the gang membership experience did not "pay" in terms of overall earnings. (publisher abstract modified)
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