Guest Lecturer from New Mexico State University Speaks About Youth Gangs March 27

Visiting lecturer Tom Winfree, professor of criminal justice at New Mexico State University, will describe his work as a member of Eurogang in "Youth Gangs in the European Context: A Brief Synopsis of What We Know (Or Think We Know) About an Emergent Social Problem," at 3 p.m. Friday, March 27 in the Lory Student Center Room 220-222.  

Winfree will describe the breadth and depth of youth gang activity as revealed by surveys conducted through Eurogang, a group of about 100 European and U.S. researchers and public officials from 15 nations. The group has developed research strategies and protocols and conducted nation-specific studies of youth street gangs. Winfree became a member of Eurogang in 1998 and helped to develop a specific research protocol called the Eurogang Survey.  

The lecture will focus on gang-related behaviors engaged in by 13-16-year-olds in Germany, the Netherlands and Bosnia-Herzegovina, contrasted with a comparison group of U.S. youth. Winfree will describe some of the problems associated with such comparative research including simple coordination, nationalism and university bureaucracies. He also will address some of the benefits including increased knowledge about the problem and international travel.

Winfree’s lecture is brought to campus by Colorado State University’s Department of Sociology, the undergraduate Criminal Justice Organization and the international sociology honor society Alpha Kappa Delta.

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