UC Santa Barbara

Research on juvenile gangs has focused predominantly on why adolescents are members of gangs rather than on how youths desist from gang involvement. Participants were recruited from a camp facility in central California. Using the Consensual Qualitative Research approach, four researchers reviewed 58 adolescent males’ responses to six open-ended questions regarding how to help youths get out of gangs. These youths made six overarching recommendations: overall recommendations and those relating to school, family, community, law enforcement, and gang interventions. This article concludes with practical implications and future directions based on the integration of study results with the research literature.