W 1 Summer 2000 • Juvenile and Family Court Journal Linking Gender, Minority Group Status and Family Matters to Self-Control Theory: A Multivariate Analysis of Key Self-Control Concepts in a Youth-Gang Context BY DANA PETERSON LYNSKEY, M.C.J., L. THOMAS WINFREE, JR., PH.D., FINN-AAGE ESBENSEN, PH.D., AND DENNIS L. CLASON, PH.D. Dana Peterson Lynskey received her Masters in Criminal Justice from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and is currently a third-year doctoral student in Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her research interests include violence, gangs, and family and gender issues in crime. L. Thomas Winfree, Jr. is a Professor of Criminal Justice at New Mexico State University. His research interests include attitudes toward police, officer perceptions of the police workworld, and youth gangs. Finn-Aage Esbensen is a Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In addition to pursuing his research on gangs and juvenile delinquency, he currently serves as Editor of Justice Quarterly. Dennis L. Clason, Associate Professor in the Economics and International Business Department, is a statistical consultant in the New Mexico State University Statistics Center; he also teaches applied statistics. His research interests include multivariate methods and nonlinear regression models. INTRODUCTION Whether recent or age-old contributions to the field, theories must undergo con- tinuous empirical examina- tion under rigorous testing conditions that hold the possibility of nullifying all or part of the theory under examination (see Braithwaite 1990; Cohen 1989). Only by subjecting a theory to evi- dence that may disprove or contradict its hypotheses can we learn its limits and value for criminology and criminal justice. For example, our ideas of juvenile delin- quency (i.e., theories to explain behavior) are inextrica- bly linked to our ideas of juvenile justice (i.e., policies and programs to address delinquency) (Bernard 1992); thus, theories of delinquency that hold up under strict examination can guide policymakers and practitioners in developing effective responses to delin- quent behavior. Rigorous scrutiny is especially important for the- ories touted as able to explain a broad range of mis- behavior. For example, Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) contend that their gen- eral theory of crime, often called self-control or propen- sity-event theory, can explain a variety of conforming and non-conforming behaviors across genders, ethnic A B S T R A C T The variable roles of family, gender, and race are underdeveloped in Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime, also called self control and propensity-event theory. Using cross-sectional data generated as part of the National Evaluation of the Gang Resistance Education and Training program, we assessed the links between the self-reported gang involvement of 5,935 eighth-grade public school students residing in eleven widely dispersed cities and their levels of self-control, gender, minority group status, and family context. We found that youths with low self-control levels reported that they were more deeply involved in gangs than youths with high self-control, as were youths who were not closely monitored by their parents. We also found differences by gender, minority group status, and family structure. This article explores the limitations and implications of these findings for gang research, theory, and juvenile justice practice.