John Leverso
Biographic Data
| ID | 177759 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Leverso |
| GIVEN NAMES | John |
| FAMILY NAME | Leverso |
| SIGNATURE | LEVERSO J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cincinnati |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3700-7703 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 29 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Scrolling Through the Streets: Examining Women’s Gang-Related Online Engagements
Research on gang-related social media has focused overwhelmingly on boys and men, leaving girls’ and women’s online engagement underdeveloped. To address this gap, we examine women’s engagement on a public Facebook page dedicated to Latina/o gangs in Chicago. Drawing on 2,309 comments and replies posted between 2015 and 2016, we combine descriptive frequency coding of comment-level practices with thematic analysis to develop a typology of four en…
The Real Ones: Gang Femininity and Authenticity in the Digital Streets
This paper revisits street gangs as an ideal context for theorizing femininities through a qualitative analysis of a gang Facebook page. We integrate insight on digitization, identity in deviant subcultures, and gangs to explain how public-facing groups disrupt the analog logic of gang culture and its practice in the digital streets, where converging audiences necessitate dualistic self-presentation as a decent female and capable gang member. We …
GangTok: Street gang content, culture, and roleplay on TikTok
Research on street gangs’ digital presence has focused on networked platforms like Facebook where visibility reflects interpersonal ties. Newer, short-form, algorithmically curated environments such as TikTok reorder these dynamics by privileging performance, spectacle, and trend alignment. This mixed-methods study analyzes 397 publicly available TikTok videos associated with Latino gangs in Chicago to address four key questions: the genres of ga…
Immigration and serious gang violence: Assessing the immigrant revitalization thesis on urban gang shootings
Over the past few decades, extensive empirical evidence has supported the immigrant revitalization thesis, demonstrating that immigration is often associated with reductions in community crime. However, debate over the relationship between immigration and crime has increasingly grown in public and political discourse with many politicians claiming immigration fuels gang violence. Yet remarkably little research has examined immigration effects on …
The association of gang embeddedness and sexual victimization with mental health outcomes
Before Crips: Fussin’, Cussin’, and Discussin’ Among South Los Angeles Juvenile Gangs
The Status of the Surveilled: Hyper Surveillance and Status Attainment among Gangs
Using a case study of Latino gangs in Chicago over a 15-year period and original data compiled from gang cassette mixtapes, CDs, and DVDs, this research analyzes highly ritualized interactions in public media to investigate how status rituals change over time. Specifically, we focus on how factors external to the gang space, such as hyper-surveillance and enhanced policing techniques, influence status attainment in gangs. To date, research on hyp…
Dude, you're a Bitch!' Gang Members' Internet Banging Masculinity via Bitch Discourse
Introduction to the OUP Handbook of Gangs and Society
This chapter introduces readers to The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society and its central theme of “looking back, moving forward.” The chapter reflects on the past, present, and future of gangs and gang research and discusses the process of curating and editing more than 40 chapters written by over 80 scholars from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, criminology, geography, history, law, psychology, public health, sociology, and more. The b…
A Relational Approach to Street Gangs
The gang world is built not through individual actions alone, but by larger constellations of relationships and social networks between and within groups, their members and associates, and the relationship between gangs and their social environs. This chapter advances a relational understanding of gangs and gang behaviors that extends the group process perspective by more deeply tying gang research to relational thinking and social network theory…
Measuring Online–Offline Spillover of Gang Violence Using Bivariate Hawkes Processes
The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society
The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society is the premier reference book on gangs for practitioners, policymakers, students, and scholars. This carefully curated volume contains 43 chapters written by the leading experts in the field, who advance a central theme of “looking back, moving forward” by providing state-of-the-art reviews of the literature they created, shaped, and (re)defined. This international, interdisciplinary collective of authors …
Leaving the gang is good for your health: A stress process perspective on disengagement from gangs
During the last decade, health criminology—the study of health outcomes for justice‐involved individuals and their families—has gained traction in the field. We extend health criminology to the study of street gangs by drawing on the stress process perspective. Gang membership is conceptualized as a primary stressor that leads to secondary stressors with direct and indirect adverse effects on mental health. Leaving a gang, we hypothesize, offers …
Keeping it real: A signaling theory perspective on authentic claims of gang membership made on social media
The advent of social media has transformed the landscape of street gang dynamics. Although existing research has documented gang members’ use of social media—including identity performance, rival taunting, promoting gang culture, and conflict de-escalation—it often lacks a theoretical foundation and process-oriented view of these digital interactions. This study advances a signaling timeline approach to fill this gap. We apply it to a case study …
The limits of digital liberation: The social locations of gang-affiliated girls and women in the digital streets
History, Linked Lives, Timing, and Agency: New Directions in Developmental and Life-Course Perspective on Gangs
For more than three decades, developmental and life-course criminology has been a source of theoretical advancement, methodological innovation, and policy and practice guidance, bringing breadth and depth even to well-established areas of study, such as gangs. This review demonstrates how the developmental and life-course perspective on gangs can be further extended and better integrated within broader developments in criminology. Accordingly, we…
The Corner, the Crew, and the Digital Street: Multiplex Networks of Gang Online-Offline Conflict Dynamics in the Digital Age
Social media is increasingly intertwined into people's lives, spurring questions about the relationships between online behavior and offline actions. We advance knowledge in conflict dynamics by using a multiplex network framework that conceptualizes online and offline gang relationships as co-constitutive networks-online and offline relationships often overlap and entangle in complex ways that influence behavior in both the virtual and real worl…
Youth Gangs and Victimization: An Investigation of the Impact of Gang Dynamics on Experiences of Victimization
Studies comparing gang members to similarly situated non-gang members find youth gang involvement is positively associated with experiencing simple and aggravated assault (i.e., violent victimization). This study expands on those studies by using data on gang dynamics from the Denver Youth Survey and bringing theory and concepts directly related to street gangs to the analysis of the relationship between gang membership and different forms of vic…
From the Hood to the Home: Masculinity Maturation of Chicago Street Gang Members
This study draws on interviews with 29 former gang members to investigate changes in masculinity practices over time, which we term masculinity maturation. We find that perceptions of masculinity embodied dominant values while in the gang as well as later in the life course. For instance, respondents expressed that men should always act with respect, honor, and integrity toward others. We observed changes, however, in the ways that men accomplish…
The Corner, the Crew, and the Digital Street: Multiplex Networks of Gang Online-Offline Conflict Dynamics in the Digital Age
Social media is increasingly intertwined into people's lives, spurring questions about the relationships between online behavior and offline actions. We advance knowledge in conflict dynamics by using a multiplex network framework that conceptualizes online and offline gang relationships as co-constitutive networks-online and offline relationships often overlap and entangle in complex ways that influence behavior in both the virtual and real worl…
Youth Gangs and Victimization: An Investigation of the Impact of Gang Dynamics on Experiences of Victimization
Studies comparing gang members to similarly situated non-gang members find youth gang involvement is positively associated with experiencing simple and aggravated assault (i.e., violent victimization). This study expands on those studies by using data on gang dynamics from the Denver Youth Survey and bringing theory and concepts directly related to street gangs to the analysis of the relationship between gang membership and different forms of vic…
From the Hood to the Home: Masculinity Maturation of Chicago Street Gang Members
This study draws on interviews with 29 former gang members to investigate changes in masculinity practices over time, which we term masculinity maturation. We find that perceptions of masculinity embodied dominant values while in the gang as well as later in the life course. For instance, respondents expressed that men should always act with respect, honor, and integrity toward others. We observed changes, however, in the ways that men accomplish…
Keeping it real: A signaling theory perspective on authentic claims of gang membership made on social media
The advent of social media has transformed the landscape of street gang dynamics. Although existing research has documented gang members’ use of social media—including identity performance, rival taunting, promoting gang culture, and conflict de-escalation—it often lacks a theoretical foundation and process-oriented view of these digital interactions. This study advances a signaling timeline approach to fill this gap. We apply it to a case study …
Dude, you're a Bitch!' Gang Members' Internet Banging Masculinity via Bitch Discourse
The limits of digital liberation: The social locations of gang-affiliated girls and women in the digital streets
Leaving the gang is good for your health: A stress process perspective on disengagement from gangs
During the last decade, health criminology—the study of health outcomes for justice‐involved individuals and their families—has gained traction in the field. We extend health criminology to the study of street gangs by drawing on the stress process perspective. Gang membership is conceptualized as a primary stressor that leads to secondary stressors with direct and indirect adverse effects on mental health. Leaving a gang, we hypothesize, offers …
History, Linked Lives, Timing, and Agency: New Directions in Developmental and Life-Course Perspective on Gangs
For more than three decades, developmental and life-course criminology has been a source of theoretical advancement, methodological innovation, and policy and practice guidance, bringing breadth and depth even to well-established areas of study, such as gangs. This review demonstrates how the developmental and life-course perspective on gangs can be further extended and better integrated within broader developments in criminology. Accordingly, we…
From the Hood to the Home: Masculinity Maturation of Chicago Street Gang Members
This study draws on interviews with 29 former gang members to investigate changes in masculinity practices over time, which we term masculinity maturation. We find that perceptions of masculinity embodied dominant values while in the gang as well as later in the life course. For instance, respondents expressed that men should always act with respect, honor, and integrity toward others. We observed changes, however, in the ways that men accomplish…
Youth Gangs and Victimization: An Investigation of the Impact of Gang Dynamics on Experiences of Victimization
Studies comparing gang members to similarly situated non-gang members find youth gang involvement is positively associated with experiencing simple and aggravated assault (i.e., violent victimization). This study expands on those studies by using data on gang dynamics from the Denver Youth Survey and bringing theory and concepts directly related to street gangs to the analysis of the relationship between gang membership and different forms of vic…
History, Linked Lives, Timing, and Agency: New Directions in Developmental and Life-Course Perspective on Gangs
For more than three decades, developmental and life-course criminology has been a source of theoretical advancement, methodological innovation, and policy and practice guidance, bringing breadth and depth even to well-established areas of study, such as gangs. This review demonstrates how the developmental and life-course perspective on gangs can be further extended and better integrated within broader developments in criminology. Accordingly, we…
The Corner, the Crew, and the Digital Street: Multiplex Networks of Gang Online-Offline Conflict Dynamics in the Digital Age
Social media is increasingly intertwined into people's lives, spurring questions about the relationships between online behavior and offline actions. We advance knowledge in conflict dynamics by using a multiplex network framework that conceptualizes online and offline gang relationships as co-constitutive networks-online and offline relationships often overlap and entangle in complex ways that influence behavior in both the virtual and real worl…
Introduction to the OUP Handbook of Gangs and Society
This chapter introduces readers to The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society and its central theme of “looking back, moving forward.” The chapter reflects on the past, present, and future of gangs and gang research and discusses the process of curating and editing more than 40 chapters written by over 80 scholars from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, criminology, geography, history, law, psychology, public health, sociology, and more. The b…
A Relational Approach to Street Gangs
The gang world is built not through individual actions alone, but by larger constellations of relationships and social networks between and within groups, their members and associates, and the relationship between gangs and their social environs. This chapter advances a relational understanding of gangs and gang behaviors that extends the group process perspective by more deeply tying gang research to relational thinking and social network theory…
Measuring Online–Offline Spillover of Gang Violence Using Bivariate Hawkes Processes
The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society
The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society is the premier reference book on gangs for practitioners, policymakers, students, and scholars. This carefully curated volume contains 43 chapters written by the leading experts in the field, who advance a central theme of “looking back, moving forward” by providing state-of-the-art reviews of the literature they created, shaped, and (re)defined. This international, interdisciplinary collective of authors …
Leaving the gang is good for your health: A stress process perspective on disengagement from gangs
During the last decade, health criminology—the study of health outcomes for justice‐involved individuals and their families—has gained traction in the field. We extend health criminology to the study of street gangs by drawing on the stress process perspective. Gang membership is conceptualized as a primary stressor that leads to secondary stressors with direct and indirect adverse effects on mental health. Leaving a gang, we hypothesize, offers …
Keeping it real: A signaling theory perspective on authentic claims of gang membership made on social media
The advent of social media has transformed the landscape of street gang dynamics. Although existing research has documented gang members’ use of social media—including identity performance, rival taunting, promoting gang culture, and conflict de-escalation—it often lacks a theoretical foundation and process-oriented view of these digital interactions. This study advances a signaling timeline approach to fill this gap. We apply it to a case study …
The limits of digital liberation: The social locations of gang-affiliated girls and women in the digital streets
The association of gang embeddedness and sexual victimization with mental health outcomes
Before Crips: Fussin’, Cussin’, and Discussin’ Among South Los Angeles Juvenile Gangs
The Status of the Surveilled: Hyper Surveillance and Status Attainment among Gangs
Using a case study of Latino gangs in Chicago over a 15-year period and original data compiled from gang cassette mixtapes, CDs, and DVDs, this research analyzes highly ritualized interactions in public media to investigate how status rituals change over time. Specifically, we focus on how factors external to the gang space, such as hyper-surveillance and enhanced policing techniques, influence status attainment in gangs. To date, research on hyp…
Dude, you're a Bitch!' Gang Members' Internet Banging Masculinity via Bitch Discourse
Scrolling Through the Streets: Examining Women’s Gang-Related Online Engagements
Research on gang-related social media has focused overwhelmingly on boys and men, leaving girls’ and women’s online engagement underdeveloped. To address this gap, we examine women’s engagement on a public Facebook page dedicated to Latina/o gangs in Chicago. Drawing on 2,309 comments and replies posted between 2015 and 2016, we combine descriptive frequency coding of comment-level practices with thematic analysis to develop a typology of four en…
The Real Ones: Gang Femininity and Authenticity in the Digital Streets
This paper revisits street gangs as an ideal context for theorizing femininities through a qualitative analysis of a gang Facebook page. We integrate insight on digitization, identity in deviant subcultures, and gangs to explain how public-facing groups disrupt the analog logic of gang culture and its practice in the digital streets, where converging audiences necessitate dualistic self-presentation as a decent female and capable gang member. We …
GangTok: Street gang content, culture, and roleplay on TikTok
Research on street gangs’ digital presence has focused on networked platforms like Facebook where visibility reflects interpersonal ties. Newer, short-form, algorithmically curated environments such as TikTok reorder these dynamics by privileging performance, spectacle, and trend alignment. This mixed-methods study analyzes 397 publicly available TikTok videos associated with Latino gangs in Chicago to address four key questions: the genres of ga…
Immigration and serious gang violence: Assessing the immigrant revitalization thesis on urban gang shootings
Over the past few decades, extensive empirical evidence has supported the immigrant revitalization thesis, demonstrating that immigration is often associated with reductions in community crime. However, debate over the relationship between immigration and crime has increasingly grown in public and political discourse with many politicians claiming immigration fuels gang violence. Yet remarkably little research has examined immigration effects on …
Crime Patterns and Interventions (14 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance (8 works) · Criminology (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies (5 works) · Gender, Feminism, and Media (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Law (3 works)