Good Lives Model and street gang membership: A review and application

With attention rapidly growing on the Good Lives Model (GLM) as a rehabilitation framework for offending behavior, this paper is the first to review the literature surrounding the GLM and examine its theoretical application to street gang membership and intervention during adolescence. Each of the general, etiological and treatment assumptions of the GLM are reviewed and discussed in relation to the street gang literature. Using a twin focus, the GLM aims to both reduce risk and promote achievement of overarching primary goods by improving internal (e.g., skills and values) and external capacities (e.g., opportunities, resources and support); enabling the development of a prosocial, fulfilling and meaningful life. Street gang members are notoriously difficult to engage in intervention, with slow levels of trust towards therapists. With the use of approach goals, rather than the typically-used avoidance goals, this enables street gang members to perceive themselves as individuals with the ability to change, and allows them to recognize a future life without offending is both possible and appealing. By wrapping the GLM framework around current evidence-based interventions (e.g., Functional Family Therapy), this can increase motivation to engage in treatment and, ultimately, reduce need to associate with the street gang.