Clinicians' Attributional Biases Toward Male Adolescent Gang Members

This research aimed to identify attributional biases that may exist among clinicians with regard to male adolescent gang members. While previous research has investigated community sample biases toward gang members, there is very little research exploring how clinicians view adolescent male gang members. In the current study, it was hypothesized that clinicians with previous gang related training would attribute gang involvement to situational (external) factors while clinicians without gang related training would attribute gang involvement to dispositional factors (internal). Thirty-seven clinicians completed the Clinical Attribution Scale (CAS) and the Juvenile Offender Stereotype Scale (JOSS) in order to measure attributional biases after they read a short vignette. Results from a one-way ANOVA indicated that receiving gang related training did not impact the types of biases for either the CAS or JOSS. More specifically, participants responded neutrally to the measures and did not attribute juvenile offending entirely to internal or external factors. Additionally, the type of vignette did not impact participants' biases. Results from this study indicate that clinicians may consider the various and complex factors that contribute adolescent gang involvement. Future research should utilize a larger sample in order to determine if attributional biases among clinicians are truly neutral. Further, potential research should also work toward constructing a measure to more concisely measure attributional biases specific to clinicians. This study provided some hope that clinicians consider the whole picture of their clients and their environments when conceptualizing how factors lead to behaviors such as juvenile offending and gang involvement.