Crime - Gangs

Testifying before the U.S. Senate, Steven R. Wiley (April 23, 1997, http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/taku77/refer/gang.htm) explained that law enforcement agencies define a street gang as a "group of people that form an allegiance based on various social needs and engage in acts injurious to public health and safety." Although gangs have been involved with the drug trade for many years, gang-related deadly violence is more likely to come from territorial conflicts.

Gangs are often (but not always) racially or ethnically based. As a rule, ethnic gangs require that all members belong to a particular race or ethnic group. According to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, criminal activity by ethnic gangs has been increasing since the 1990s.

The most frightening crime committed by gangs is murder. More than half of all gang-related homicides between 1976 and 2002 involved whites. Approximately 57.9% of gang-related homicide victims during that period were white, while 54.3% of offenders were also white. African-Americans were the victims of gang-related homicides 38.7% of the time; 41.5% of offenders were African-Americans. (See Table 7.4.)

Wiley said that in June 1996 the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) released a National Street Gang Report (the most recent report of its kind) based on data from 301 participating municipal and county law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. The study revealed the level at which nationally recognized street gangs have particularly established themselves in new communities. According to Wiley, the NDIC noted the following trends:

• Gang activity was reported in 88% of the 301 jurisdictions responding to the survey and in 98% of the 120 jurisdictions with populations over one hundred thousand.
• Gang activity was not confined to major metropolitan areas and was reported in 68% of the fifty-nine responding jurisdictions with populations under twenty-five thousand and in 78% of the 120 responding jurisdictions with populations under fifty thousand.
• More than seventy-four hundred individual gang sets were identified.
• Hispanic gangs were reported in 167 jurisdictions in forty-one states and made up 20% of all gangs reported.
• White gangs were reported in 157 jurisdictions in forty-four states.
• Asian-American gangs were reported in 104 jurisdictions in forty-one states.
• Gangs claiming affiliation with the Blood and/or Crip sets were reported in 180 responding jurisdictions in forty-two states.
• Chicago-based gangs, such as the Black Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, and Almighty Latin Kings, were reported in 110 of the responding jurisdictions in thirty-five states.

During the 1990s violent street gangs emerged as a problem among Native Americans as well. Wiley reported that "on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona alone there are approximately 55 street gangs, many of which have some affiliation with gangs in California, Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Chicago. These gangs have been responsible for a dramatic increase in violent crimes in the Navajo Nation."