Understanding Violence in Contemporary and Earlier Gangs: An Exploratory Application of the Theory of Reasoned Action

Although the theory of reasoned action has been quite successful in predicting a wide range of social behaviors, it has not been used in understanding the behavior of gangs. The purpose of this article is to review the theory of reasoned action, to demonstrate how it can be applied to understanding gang violence, and to illustrate its potential applicability to a pilot sample of contemporary and earlier gangs living in a large metropolitan community.