Asian American Gangs

Rise and Proliferation of Asian American Gangs

Asian American gangs formed and began to operate in the Chinatown neighborhoods of New York City and San Francisco in the mid-1960s. The timing makes sense: Prior to 1965, U.S. policy restricted immigration of youths and women from Asian nations. The population of Chinese permitted to enter the United States when immigration policy was reformed supplied the youths who formed the first gangs. Through the 1970s, the Chinatown gangs were composed of immigrants. By the 1980s, American-born Chinese were becoming members.

A large increase in the number of crimes committed by these gangs was recorded through the 1990s. Ko-Lin Chin has pointed out that this increase is likely due to more than just the sheer number of crimes being committed. As Chinatown became a tourist destination, crimes committed there against non-gang members and against non-Asians caught the attention of law enforcement authorities and journalists. At the same time, Chinese gangs began to operate outside Chinatown, another factor widening the circle of victims and making crimes more visible. And the crimes themselves, because they were becoming more serious, were more likely to be reported by victims.

Gangs also formed in Japanese, Korean, and Filipino communities in the 1960s, and later among Southeast Asians. Immigrants from Vietnam and Cambodia came to the United States in great numbers just prior to the fall of Saigon in 1975. A second surge of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees arrived in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Both waves of immigration included youths who would form and join gangs. Though especially evident in southern California, Vietnamese and Cambodian gangs operate in other locales too. Southeast Asian gang members have been reported in San Francisco, points east, and Chicago, Houston, and cities on the East Coast.

That Asian American gangs proliferated from the mid-1960s until the present is clear, though no precise measurement of activity exists. By the mid-1990s, one quarter of American cities reported problems involving Asian American gangs or gang members who were Asian. A decade later, Canadian authorities reported activity by Asian American gangs in the cities of Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Toronto. In 2002, police department sources put the number of Asian American gangs during the past 15 years in the West San Gabriel Valley (in Los Angeles County) at 100. It has been claimed that Los Angeles County is home to as many as 20,000 Asian gang members.

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