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Gangs and Crime

Gangs and Crime. The Consensus Based Approach to Defining Gangs: Walter Miller. Surveyed police and youth workers in 26 cities Asked respondents “How would you define a gang?” Five criteria most commonly mentioned. Characteristics of Gangs: Miller, 1975.

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Gangs and Crime

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  1. Gangs and Crime

  2. The Consensus Based Approach to Defining Gangs: Walter Miller • Surveyed police and youth workers in 26 cities • Asked respondents “How would you define a gang?” • Five criteria most commonly mentioned

  3. Characteristics of Gangs:Miller, 1975

  4. The Result of Survey Findings: A Consensus Based Definition of Gangs A gang is a group of recurrently associating individuals with identifiable leadership and internal organization, identifying with or claiming control over territory in the community, and engaging either individually or collectively in violent or other forms of behavior

  5. Extent of Gang Problem According to Law Enforcement • The National Youth Gang Survey conducted since 1995 • In 2002, over 2100 LE agencies surveyed • Youth gangs defined in survey as group of youths or youth adults in your jurisdiction that you or some other responsible persons in your agency or community are willing to identify or classify as a ‘gang’.

  6. Number of Gangs Reported Nationally Source: National Youth Gang Survey

  7. Number of Gang Members Reported Nationally Source: National Youth Gang Survey

  8. Gangs & Gang Members in Las Vegas

  9. Are These Groups Gangs? Police Perceptions v. Research Findings on the Nature of Gangs

  10. Characteristics of Gang According to Police • Organized • Clear leadership • Continuous association • Territorial • Distinctive dress • Violent

  11. How Organized Are Street Gangs?Two Perspectives 1. Gangs as organized crime • Martin Jankowski • Influential gang structures • no formal leadership, leadership shifts • Horizontal gang structures • several leaders with equal authority • Vertical gang structures • formal and fixed leadership structures

  12. Second perspective 2. Gangs as disorganized “non-groups” • Leon Yablonsky • Street gangs comprised of sociopaths • No leadership structure • Shifting memberships • Limited cohesion • Little normative consensus • Gangs are something between a mob and a group

  13. What Research Shows About Gang Organization • Gangs are loose collections of age-graded cliques • High member turnover • Little normative consensus • Generally no hierarchical leadership • No collective goals

  14. Are Gangs Territorial? • Historically true • Degree of territoriality varies greatly • Autos have decreased territoriality

  15. Do Gangs Have Distinctive Styles of Dress? • The diffusion of gang culture • Adoption of gang garb and mannerisms

  16. What is Being Counted As Gangs by Law Enforcement? • Reality NE to LE perceptions • Counts primarily “law violating youth groups” • Concept developed by Walter Miller

  17. The Law Violating Youth Group • 3 or more youth • Temporary and casual relationships • Leadership shifting and undefined • Engage recurrently in illegal activities • Crimes not systematic

  18. Recalculating Number of Gangs and Gang Members • Ratio of law violating youth groups to street gangs in typical urban area is 80 to 1 • Ratio of law violating youth group members to gang members is 30 to 1 • Thus, revised LE counts • 300 street gangs • 26,000 street gang members

  19. Gangs and Crime

  20. The Threat Posed by Street Gangs

  21. The Gang-Violence Nexus • Gang members more likely to commit crimes • Particularly true for violent crimes • Also commit crimes at a higher rate

  22. Cross-Sectional Evidence of Link Between Gangs & Violence • Interviews with samples of gang members and non-gang members in Denver, Aurora, and Broward County, FL • Gang identified through social service referrals and self-reports • Self-reported criminal behavior

  23. Huff’s Findings on Gang vs. Non-Gang Violence

  24. Problems with Cross-Sectional Studies • The problem of causal order • A selection effect • gangs recruit violent youth • Need different methodology to isolate effect of gang membership on violence

  25. Longitudinal Studies of Gang-Crime Nexus • Denver and Rochester Youth Development studies • Follow sample of youth over course of early adolescence into early adulthood • Find more violent during active gang membership

  26. Putting Gang Violence into Context

  27. Few Youth are in Gangs • 7-9 percent of all young males report gang membership at some point • active for only a few months to a year • According too NYGS - 731,500 gang members in 2002- almost all male • That year, were 28 million males age 10-24 in U.S. • Or, roughly 2 percent of all males gang members

  28. Gang Crime Represents Small Proportion of All Crime in Communities • How “gang-related” crime defined affects statistics • Affects extent of gang crime reported by LE • Two ways “gang-related” crime is defined

  29. 1. Motive-based definition • Crime that is function of or motivated by gang goals • Used in Chicago

  30. 2. Member-Based Definition • Any crime committed by known gang member, regardless of motivation • Used in Los Angeles

  31. How We Know Gang Crime is Small Proportion of All Crime 4 Sources of Information

  32. 1. National Estimates of Gang Crime from LE • 1994 NIJ Gang Survey • LE asked for number of gang-related crime • 580,000 gang-related crimes reported • 14 million Part I crimes that year • Roughly 4% of all serious crimes

  33. 2. Survey of State Prison Inmates • Find similar proportions • 6 percent report having been gang member at time of the arrest

  34. 3. National Crime Victimization Survey • Only 6 % of all serious offenses involved 2 or more juveniles • 5 % of victims reported crime involved gang members

  35. Gangs and Guns

  36. What We Know • Gang members more likely to report gun ownership • No evidence gangs routinely possess sophisticated weapons • Guns seizures from gang members in Chicago and LA

  37. Gangs and Drugs

  38. The Gangs-Drugs Connection • Jerome Skolnick’s research • Concluded gangs were highly organized drug distribution networks • LA Crips and Bloods migrating across U.S. • Search for new drug markets

  39. Majority of research has failed to confirm gangs-drugs link • LA DA study • Malcolm Klein study • McCorkle and Miethe study

  40. Responding to Gangs

  41. Gang Suppression • Priority given to law enforcement, legislation, & prosecution • Low priority to prevention and treatment • Establishment of police gang units • Gang rosters and tracking systems • Focus on surveillance and sweeps

  42. Gang Legislation • Some states have adopted new criminal codes in response to gangs • Two forms of legislation enacted • Laws targeting specific “gang” activity • drive-by shootings, graffiti, victim intimidation • Adoption of comprehensive gang statute • enhanced penalties for gang-related crime

  43. Gang Prosecution • Special problems posed by gang cases • Creation of specialized prosecution units • Created in 1/2 of large jurisdictions • Low caseloads • Vertical prosecution

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