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Gangs

The number of gangs and gang members in the United States varies from year to year. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, all large cities of over 250,000 people reported gang activity, with 91 percent indicating that at least one criminal homicide was gang related. Among gang researchers and antigang units studying this sociolegal problem, a generalized count indicates that gangs are most prevalent in large and midsized cities while the least amount of reported gang activity occurs in rural counties in the United States

The most common gang type is a street or juvenile gang. Although officials estimate that gang membership and activity dropped in 2001 from the 1990s, currently estimates are that more than 25,000 gangs with about 800,000 gang members are active. In general, the larger the populated area, the larger the percentage of reported gang activity; this activity is closely aligned with the poor inner city communities.

Legal Definitions of Gangs

More than half of the states in the United States have criminal laws that punish individuals for street gang activity. These statutes mimic the generalized social definition of a gang: a group of peers that have an identifiable gang name, recognizable indicia of gang identity, a geographic territory, and collective criminal behavior. Most state statutes indicate that prohibited gang-related activity involves the commission of either enumerated offenses (for example, assault or homicide) or other felonious activity committed by a gang or gang member on behalf of the gang. These other offenses are usually the commission of violent felonies, the recruitment of minors into a gang, or other crimes committed for the benefit of the gang, such as drug-related offenses.

Some state statutes, for example, those of Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia, identify persons as members of a gang if they have a tattoo, wear a particular style of clothing, or exhibit other indicia of gang membership. The number of persons needed to define a group as a street gang varies from state to state. Some states, such as California, Illinois, or New York, require the unlawful group to have at least two gang members, while other states, such as Indiana or Oklahoma, require as many as five members for a group to be defined as a gang. Most states require that a group contain at least three members to be a criminal street gang. Arizona law (AZ Revised Statutes, § 13-105.7) states that a criminal street gang is “an ongoing formal or informal association of persons whose members or associates individually or collectively engage in the commission, attempted commission, facilitation or solicitation of any felony and who has at least one individual who is a criminal street gang member.”

Gang Membership

The United States Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention conducts an annual survey of police departments nationwide to determine the nature and extent of gang activity in the United States. Their surveys indicate that officials consider juvenile and street gangs the most common gang type that requires law enforcement attention. The groups least likely to be identified as gangs were terrorist and satanic groups, and consequently the government reports exclude information on hate groups, prison gangs, and motorcycle gangs.

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