Question

(1) the “Code of Silence” and (2) “Not Responsible for My Actions.” Choose one and refer to it as you answer the questions below. Describe this mentality. What does it mean? What does it cause a gang member to do or say? Imagine that you are conducting an interview with a gang member who has this mentality. What problems might it cause for your investigation, and what would you do and say to defeat it?

Answer 1

The tendency of ‘not taking responsibility’, also called Diffusion of responsibility,  is a sociopsychological phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction in the presence of others. In the case of a social group like gangs, individual members have a strong affiliation for the beliefs and goals of the group and they are found to experience a greater sense of De-individuation wherein they minimise on their unique personality characteristics and instead draw more from their identification from the group. As a result, they feel that their own actions are driven by group norms rather than their own personal will. Thus, the Assumption of personal responsibility tends to decrease when the gang evokes stronger affective bonds between the members. Encountering such group tendency in the course of research on a particular gang such as a neighbourhood gang of youth from White middle class suburbs can have adverse implications during the interview process. For instance, in a focus group discussion on reducing the delinquent behaviours of this gang, if the members show a tendency towards not taking accountability for their own actions, then the instances of delinquent acts such as vanadalism, bullying youth from other neighbourhoods, smoking in public places, etc, can be threatening as the group participants may show strong resistances and increasing moral disengagement. A strategic way to reduce such diffusion of responsibilit in the gang members would then involve initiating discussions within the group where the members are made to express their individual positions rather than the collective perspective based on the group norms, encouraging and rewarding dissent and differing positions, etc which would lead members to identify and accept individual differences and uniqueness in the members and minimise the tendency towards more dangerous and extreme collective actions.