Similarities are more than the differences: How youth gang violence affects gender based violence among immigrant Latinos

Introduction: Project VOCES is a gender based etiologic study of Latinos in a geographic community in the Mid-Atlantic. It is without question that youth and adult gender based interpersonal violence (GBV) in many forms pose formidable threats to the community. It is part and parcel of larger syndemic relationships that act in concert at individual household, neighborhood, home country setting, and societal levels to affect multiple aspects of population well-being.

Methods: The first phase of this multiphase project utilized qualitative methods (32 key informant interviews and 4 focus groups) with youth boys/girls and adult men/women to ascertain the relative influence of home country and present community youth gang violence on forms and prevalence of GBV. Text were transcribed verbatim and thematically coded by three coders.

Results. The transcripts point to underlying constructs that affect the prevalence of gang membership and GBV. These constructs were community safety, sense of belonging, gender norms, alcohol and drug use, and stressors experienced by males and females including discrimination (lack of social justice). The use and non-use of community based resources were found to differ depending on prevention or cessation of youth gang violence or GBV. Transcript text will be presented to exemplify these relationships.

Discussion: Rather than acting to affect gang violence or GBV, these constructs were found to syndemically affect both forms of violence among male and female Latinos. To be most effective efforts to prevent youth gang violence must at the same time work with the community to prevent gender based violence.