Gangs
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Gangs - Facts and Figures

This section provides the latest information and statistics.

• The National Youth Gang Study, conducted annually since 1996 by the National Youth Gang Center (which merged with the National Gang Center (NGC) in October 2009) for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), surveys a nationally representative sample of 3,018 law enforcement agencies that includes (1) all police and sheriff’s departments serving suburban counties and cities with populations of more than 25,000 and (2) a randomly selected sample of police and sheriff’s departments serving rural counties and cities with populations between 2,500 and 25,000. Survey respondents were asked to report information only for youth gangs, defined as “a group of youths or young adults in your jurisdiction that you or other responsible persons in your agency or community are willing to identify or classify as a ‘gang.’” Motorcycle gangs, hate or ideology groups, prison gangs, and adult gangs were excluded from the survey. Annual response rates ranged from 84 to 92 percent during the survey years of 1996 to 2000.   The 2002 OJJDP  report, National Youth Gang Survey Trends From 1996 to 2000, highlights findings from the 5 national surveys.  Highlights include the following.

• In 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program provided data on murder circumstances from 1999-2003. The data for the study came from the UCR  Program's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) database, which contains information on each single incident and arrest reported by the participating local, county, and state law enforcement agencies. NIBRS collects data for 22 crime categories and includes information about each incident, the offenses committed within the incident, and details about the victim and offender. Currently, 5,271 law enforcement agencies contribute NIBRS  data to the national UCR Program. The data submitted by these agencies represent 20 percent of the U.S. population and 16 percent of the crime statistics collected by the UCR  Program (Crime in the United States, 2003, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2004). Findings from this study include:

• "A youth gang is an organization of tightly bonded youth who are joined together and controlled by a criminal leader. A gang is often conceived and nurtured by an individual who uses it as a vehicle to raise himself or herself to a position of power among his or her peers” (Gang and Drug Related Homicide: Baltimore's Successful Enforcement Strategy, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2003).

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