hours with peers, with younger adolescents (ages 11–15) the most susceptible to peer influence. The older boys become, the greater influence their peer groups have on them. Starting with late childhood through early adulthood, Black boys’ peer groups become major influences on behaviors, values, masculine styles, understandings of racism, and what it means to be Black (White & Cones, 1999). However, during middle adolescence (roughly ages 14–15), boys begin to develop the psychological and social strength to resist peer influence.
Culture also influences the ways that Black males relate to their peers. For example, Giordano, Cernkovich, and DeMaris (1993) compared the friendships of White and Black adolescents and discovered that African American adolescents felt less peer pressure than Whites and reported less need for peer approval. Independent thinking is an attribute that Black parents emphasize in their socialization of Black males. One of the strengths of Black male peer relationships is their balance between brotherhood and independence. Thus, it is critical that social interventions and manhood training programs build on this Black male strength.
Important Needs That Peers Meet
Peer support is critical to the well-being of Black male youth (Spielberg, 2014a). Although caregivers provide adolescents with attachment and intimacy, as young males grow older the peer group begins to fulfill these needs more and more. Peer friends provide young Black males with basic needs for intimacy, belongingness, social skills, and excitement. Friends also provide a safe zone where males can be themselves (Bonner, 2014). Peer groups sometimes rebel against social norms and learn and set trends with one another. Black boys in particular are often on the cusp of cultural creation, spurred on by the validation they get from their peers—validation they typically would not get from their elders. For example, Afrika Baby Bam of the Jungle Brothers, arguably one of most influential hip-hop groups, stated:
The school talent shows are a tradition. It’s just that when we came on the scene, we added something new to the tradition, which was hip hop. Here’s a stage where we could do something that ninety percent of our peers know what we’re doing but our elders don’t. We can get on the mic and we can perform our lyrics and be just stars in the high school. (Ogg & Upshal, 1999, p. 105)
Because peer relationships are between equals, they provide Black boys with a sense of closeness and relatedness that is difficult to achieve in parent–child relationships. However, although peers may have more influence on short-term behavior (single events), parents still have more influence on long-term behavior (i.e., attending college) (Belgrave & Brevard, 2014; Davies & Kandel, 1981). Young men gain contact with peers in many settings including classes, teams, neighborhoods, gangs, etc. Peer groups’ influence can be beneficial, harmful, or both. Some peer groups can present Black males with life-altering challenges and can influence them to engage in high-risk, self-destructive behaviors and adopt antisocial attitudes.
Black Males and Gang Involvement
Studying Black male gang involvement can provide valuable insight into the needs of some young Black males. Blacks and Latinos make up a disproportionate percentage of male gang membership in ←87 | 88→the U.S. (National Youth Gang Survey, 1999). However, the image of Black males in gangs is stereotypical and frequently exaggerated. While law enforcement agencies think Blacks and Latinos comprise the majority of gang membership, national youth surveys paint a different picture. For example, a 2006 National Survey of Law Enforcement indicated 90% of gang members in the U.S. were minorities, with 35% African American and 49% Latino. Contrarily, results of the National Survey of Youth indicated 42% of gang members were White, 24% Latino, and 27% Black (Huey, McDaniel, Smith, Pearson, & Griffin, 2014). Although African American youth are overrepresented, only a small percentage belong to gangs and most are involved for only a short period of their lives, before transitioning out (Belgrave & Brevard, 2014).
Yet, gang involvement is important to study for many reasons. Gangs can channel young Black males’ potential into negative actions via exposure to violence, injury, and deadly circumstances (Huey et al., 2014). Youth involvement in violence and the illegal drug economy increases young Black males’ likelihood of incarceration and death (White & Cones, 1999). Overrepresentation in gangs combined with disproportionate and racially targeted policing results in Black males absorbing a lopsided amount of the negative consequences. Within some gangs, characteristics such as bravery, intelligence, violence, and brutality are rewarded. A range of external factors can intensify these characteristics. Historically, forces such as increased gang expansion are related to the proliferation of guns and drugs (White & Cones, 1999). But there are many factors that can influence youth to join gangs or resist them, including personal/individual, peer, family/adult, neighborhood, and macro-level socioeconomic factors.
Why Black Males Join Gangs: The Influence of Peers, Families, Communities, and Larger Society
Black males, like their peers, need a sense of belonging. Some gain it from their families, communities, and other sources. However, for those who lack a sense of belonging, gangs can provide it by acting as a surrogate family or support system. Other individual-level factors like antisocial beliefs and drug use can also put Black males at risk for gang involvement. Peer rejection also is associated with greater likelihood of delinquency, and eventually gang involvement (Belgrave & Brevard, 2014). Peers who are already in gangs or involved in high-risk behaviors can pressure non-involved young males to join gangs. Those who are affiliated with delinquent peers are more likely to join gangs (Huey et al., 2014). Such peer networks may provide no negative stigmatization to being arrested, instead romanticizing incarceration. In fact, some might celebrate incarceration.
Families influence gang involvement as well. Although peers influence adolescent drug use in the general population, some research shows that African American adolescent Black male drug use is more influenced by parental relationships than peer influence (Belgrave & Brevard, 2014). Family-level factors such as lack of supervision or intimacy can place some Black males at greater-than-average risk for gang involvement (Huey et al., 2014). Neglected and alienated boys are most vulnerable to gang recruitment, especially when the gang offers more opportunity, support, protection, and guidance than families and communities can. In his autobiography, Sanyika Shakur (1993) explains the familial role played by his fellow gang members:
My homeboys became my family—the older ones were father figures. Each time I shot someone, each time I put another gun on the set, each time I successfully recruited a combat soldier, I was congratulated by my older homeboys. (p. 25)
On the contrary, Black males are less vulnerable when they are nurtured, protected, acknowledged, heard, and exposed to positive adult models of success, and provided greater levels of parental supervision and monitoring (Huey et al., 2014; White & Cones, 1999). However, it is important not to put ←88 | 89→too much onus on parents because they do exist in a larger social context in which they have relatively little power.
The neighborhoods in which families lives affect the likelihood that young males will join negative peer networks. Related to this is the fact that the reasons for joining gangs differ by race. Thornberry’s (2003) research found that both Blacks and Whites were most likely to have joined gangs because of friend/family influence (59% and 63% respectively). However, the second most common reason for Blacks was protection (19%) while for Whites it was just to be in it (29%). Black males in low-income environments can be exposed to more negative peer influences because gangs provide protection in dangerous neighborhoods (Spielberg, 2014a; White & Cones, 1999).
Larger socioeconomic forces like racism and economic oppression drive Black male toward gang involvement. Gangs provide some benefits for Black males outside mainstream society that may partially offset these forces. Gangs can offer young men status/reputation, racial solidarity, brotherhood, and money (Spielberg, 2014a; White & Cones, 1999). Access to quality education and gender-related factors affect vulnerability to gang influence as well. For example, high-achieving Black
