The Prosocial Gang

Implementing Aggression Replacement Training

An effective gang intervention programme, Aggression Replacement Training (ART), is the subject of this book. Rearrest rates and other outcome results support the success of a project using the ART intervention approach with a series of very aggressive juvenile gangs in New York.

Working with gangs as a unit, the goal was not only to teach them anger control and other skills, but to do so in such a way that their real-world reference group (the gang) was turned, as much as possible, into a prosocial rather than an antisocial support group.

In addition, the book provides a thorough introduction to the history of gangs, current gang demographics, gang aggression and its etiology, as well as a review and critique of the various interventions that have been tried.