Gangs in America

According to the California Penal Code, “a criminal street gang is defined as any organization association, or group of three of more persons, whether formal or informal, which (1) has continuity of purpose (2) seeks a group identity: and (3) has members who individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal activity.” Therefore, “approximately one million gang members belonging to more than 20,000 gangs were criminally active in the U.S. as of September 2008, as stated by the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC)” (FBI, 2009). Because of the high volume of criminal gangs, there are a high number of violent activities roaming around in rural areas and now expanding to suburban areas.

Figure 2: Percentage of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies Reporting Gang Activity, by Regions.

Source: National Drug Threat Survey 2004-2008.

Gangs affect everyone! Criminal street gangs or Security threat groups (STGs) are a major threat to society. Their purpose is to intimidate their enemies such as rival gangs, law enforcement officers, and the general public by using violence (FBI, 2008). Violent acts and illegal acts include “auto theft, assault, alien smuggling, burglary, drive-by shootings, extortion, firearms offenses, home invasion robberies, homicide, identity theft, insurance fraud, mortgage fraud, operating prostitution rings, and weapons trafficking” (FBI, 2009). So law enforcement officers need to be prepared in order to protect themselves and the public from these violent acts. They also affect law enforcement officers because they make police jobs more dangerous and tougher. Gang violence affects the public significantly because gangs are living in their neighborhood, committing illegal activities. One example is, almost all gangs are involved with drug trafficking, so with gangs living in the community, drugs are distributing and being exposed to everyone. Also, gangs arguing over drug territory and enforcement of drug debt are a major concern for the community because more money is being spent on anti-gang units rather than other programs.

Today gangs are expanding geographically and can be found everywhere, from rural to suburban and urban areas. Gangs using the Internet are seen as a future trend because it is easier and faster for gang members to recruit new members especially youths. Also, gangs have become more organized in their structure and activity, causing more violent acts and more trouble for police officers to deal with.

As stated above, criminal street gangs are growing rapidly. According to the law enforcement officials, criminal gangs commit about 80 percent of the crime which includes armed robbery, assault, auto and identity theft, drug and weapons trafficking, extortion, murder, and fraud (FBI, 2009).

Figure 3: Pacific Region gang membership by county

Figure1: Top left corner: Image retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/ngic/violent_gangs.htm

Figure 2: Chart retrieved from http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs32/32146/gangs.htm#Top

Figure3: Chart retrieved from http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs32/32146/pacific.htm#start

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). (2008, January). The MS-13 Threat: A National Assessment. Retrieved September 15, 2009 from http://www.fbi.gov

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). (2009, Februray). National Gang Threat Assessment Issued. Retrieved September 15, 2009 from http://www.fbi.gov