Chapter 12: Gang Delinquency

1
Chapter 12 Gang Delinquency
2

• A. Introduction
• Peers and Group Delinquency
• Gangs and Gang Delinquency
• -Problems in Defining Gangs
• -Joining Gangs and Getting Out of Gangs
• -Characteristics of Gangs
• The Contemporary Gang Problem
• -The Spread of Gangs
• -Racial and Ethnic Variations in Gangs
• -Gang Violence
• -Drugs and Drug Dealing by Gangs (Overstated?)
• Female Gang Delinquency

3

• B. Peers and Group Delinquency
• 1. Are gangs the result of Group Dynamics?
• a. Paul Lerman published a study in 1967
  regarding low-income neighborhoods in New York
  City which found that about 10 of boys who
  engaged in delinquent behavior belonged to a gang
  or a 'named group
• i. Lerman's research found that the early
  association with delinquent peers was a
  significant predicator of later gang entry
• ii. James F. Short, Jr. argued against Lermans
  findings, contending that many gang members 'pair
  off' and engage in delinquency as a group, but
  usually only hang out in pairs or trios
• b. The group nature of delinquency has also been
  examined, although early studies in the 20th
  century overestimated the amount of delinquency
  perpetrated by such groups
• i. The inconsistencies in this data were due to
  law enforcement officials' tendency to pursue
  'youths in packs
• c. Michael Hindelang helped to counter this bias
  by relying solely on self-report surveys/data and
  made several noteworthy findings

4

• d. Clear differences in delinquency rates between
  gang and non-gang members have been reported when
  gang membership is a known factor in group
  offending
• i. Finn-Aage Esbensen and other researchers have
  found that prevalence rates and individual rates
  of delinquency are greater for both males and
  females who participate in gangs, than those who
  do not participate in gangs
• ii. Sara Battin and Terence Thornberry
  corroborate this by stating that participation in
  most forms of delinquency increase upon a
  juvenile's entry into a gang
• e. The Rochester Youth Development Study examined
  the portion of delinquency in the community that
  could be attributed to gang involvement and
  non-gang involvement
• i. In the aforementioned study, gang members
  accounted for 86 of the serious delinquent acts,
  69 of the violent delinquent acts, and 70 of
  drug sales
• ii. In summary, involvement in gangs dramatically
  increases a juvenile's involvement in
  delinquency, especially serious delinquency
  (homicide, extortion, etc.)
• f. Tom Winfree and his associates are quick to
  point out that most juveniles who join gangs may
  already have a predisposition toward violence and
  that this may explain why members seem to engage
  in more delinquency (chicken or the egg scenario)
• i. Do group dynamics influence a juvenile in a
  gang to engage in more delinquency than a
  non-gang youth?

5

• C. Gangs and Gang Delinquency
• 1. Problems in Defining Gangs
• a. Stemming back to the 20th century, the term
  gang was quite pejorative and was frequently
  associated with groups in socially disorganized
  and deteriorated inner-city neighborhoods
• i. Frederick Thrasher, in his 1927 study of more
  than 1,300 delinquent gangs in Chicago, found
  that while no two gangs are alike, they possess a
  number of qualities that set them apart from
  other social groups
• b. According to Thrasher, gangs can be classified
  (note that he leaves criminality out of his
  classification) by the following types of
  behavior
• i. Meeting face to face
• ii. Milling
• iii. Movement through space as a unit

6

• vi. Development of tradition (unreflective
  internal structure, esprit de corps, solidarity,
  morale, group awareness, attachment to a specific
  territory)
• c. In the 1950's, the image of the gang
  transformed into one in which large urban groups
  of males engaged in violent conflict (as seen in
  the West Side Story)
• i. According to Joan Moore, the gang is "a
  friendship group of adolescents who share common
  interests, with a more or less clearly defined
  territory, in which most of the members live.
  They are committed to defending one another, the
  territory, and the gang name in the
  status-setting fights that occur in school and on
  streets
• d. By the 1980's there began to be a public
  outcry over gangs and the organization and
  structure of gangs began to be examined in more
  detail
• i. Walter Miller defines a youth gang as "a
  self-forming association of peers, bound together
  by mutual interests, with identifiable
  leadership, well-developed lines of authority,
  and other organizational features, who act in
  concert to achieve a specific purpose or purposes
  which generally include the conduct of illegal
  activity and control over a particular territory,
  facility, or type of enterprise" (as seen in the
  movie "colors")
• ii. However, this definition has been scrutinized
  by criminologists and law enforcement officials
  alike for being too restrictive
• e. According to the Street Terrorism and
  Prevention Act (STEP) (section 186.22) of the
  California Penal Code, a street criminal gang is

7

• i. "any ongoing organization, association, or
  group of three or more persons, whether formal or
  informal, having as one of its primary activities
  the commission of one or more of the criminal
  acts enumerated in paragraphs (1) to (8),
  inclusive, of subdivision (3), which has a common
  name or common identifying sign or symbol, whose
  members individually or collectively engage in or
  have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang
  activity
• ii. Note that this code allows law enforcement to
  arrest/apply pressure to youths for being
  involved, and/or having knowledge of criminal
  activities (criminal conspiracy)
• iii. A legally binding definition of gangs in
  most states in the exception, rather than the
  rule, as most states do not have legislatively
  determined definitions of juvenile gangs
• f. In 1998, the National Youth Gang Survey asked
  law enforcement agencies across the country to
  rank six defining characteristics of gangs in
  order of definitional importance
• i. 50 of law enforcement agencies participating
  ranked "Commits crimes together" as the most
  important factor in defining gangs (19 has a
  gang, 10 Hangs out together, 9 Claims a turf,
  8 Colors-symbols-other defining insignia, 7 has
  a leader or several leaders)
• ii. More than half of all law enforcement
  agencies also responded that they use a
  member-based definition, or a method of defining
  a crime as gang-related when a gang member or
  members are either the perpetrators or the
  victims, regardless of the motive
• iii. About two-thirds used a motive-based
  definition, or a method of defining a crime as
  gang-related when committed by a gang member or
  members in which the underlying reason is to
  further the interest and activities of the gang

8

• g. According to the LAPD, (note that California
  purportedly has the largest gang problem in the
  country), there are a number of criteria that are
  used to determine a member-based definition
• i. When incidents involve participants who are
  identified as gang members/associates
• ii. When a reliable informant identifies the
  incident as gang related
• iii. When a criminal act is reported, and the
  suspect or victim is on file as an active gang or
  associate gang member
• iv. When the investigation reveals that the
  incident involves a gang member, even if they are
  not necessarily trying to further the interests
  or activities of their gang (or if their gang
  affiliation is not known by the victim or the
  perpetrator)
• h. In contrast to this, the Chicago P.D. (note
  that Illinois purportedly has the second-largest
  gang problem in the country, directly behind
  California), uses a motive-based definition
  (which some argue is too restrictive)
• i. A homicide is gang-related "only if it occurs
  in the course of an explicitly defined collective
  encounter between two or more gangs (a gang
  fight, for example)
• ii. For the C.P.D. there must be a gang-related
  motive for an act to be defined as 'gang-related'

9

• 2. Joining Gangs and Getting Out of Gangs
• a. Most youths who join gangs are influenced to
  do so by external forces, outside of the realm of
  family control
• b. According to Martin Jankowski, there are 6
  main reasons why a juvenile may be attracted to a
  gang
• i. Material incentives (money)
• ii. Recreation (meet girls, drink, hang out)
• iii. Refuge or camouflage (the gang offers
  anonymity)
• iv. Physical protection (personal protection from
  predatory elements rival gangs, extortionists)
• v. A time to resist (a show of defiance to their
  parents or other figures of authority)

10

• i. Randall Shelden, Sharon Tracy, and William
  Brown argue that most youths who leave gangs
  simply do so without being required to give a
  reason
• 3. Characteristics of Gangs (Debunking the myths)
• a. The organizational structure of gangs has
  evolved over time, and is varied in many cities
• i. One example of gang structure is the Chicago
  Vice Lords, whom formed an administrative "board"
  of sorts to direct the decisions and the day to
  day operations of the gang
• ii. James F. Short, Jr. notes that this is highly
  atypical of most gangs, and argues that many
  gangs fall somewhere in the middle between crowds
  and mobs on one hand, and mobs and ordinary
  organizations on the other
• iii. In other words, the hierarchical structure
  of gangs is very rudimentary at best, with most
  operating at a highly de-centralized level
• iv. When Gene Muehlbauer and Laura Dodder
  analyzed a suburban gang known as the "losers"
  they noted that it operated at a cellular level,
  with about 10 or 12 members consisting of the
  nucleus and other members defined in their
  relation to the core
• v. Other gangs become so large that they break
  off into sub-groups called "cliques

11

• vii. Klikas (as defined by Joan Moore) are age
  cohorts within Latino gangs that form about every
  two years and are characterized by salient
  lifelong membership and reference groups for
  some, but not all, members of the gang
• b. While most gangs have clearly defined leaders,
  the establishment of such leaders varies from
  gang to gang
• i. In the mafia-style model of gang leadership,
  the top authority position is analogous to a
  general in the military (it also relies on a
  chain of command structure with a series of ranks
  and echelons)
• ii. In the charismatic style of gang leadership,
  a leader rules by the force of his or her
  personality and is typically older and stronger
  than the other members of the gang (rules by a
  combination of charisma and intimidation)
• iii. According to Barry Krisberg, the defining
  characteristic of nearly every gang leader is
  their superior verbal ability and their ability
  to 'get stuff done
• c. In Irving Spergels research, turf is defined
  as having two main components, identification and
  control
• i. While at one time, there were clearly defined
  boundaries of turf, the mobility and the
  renovation of many urban communities has blurred
  such lines
• ii. Also, graffiti is often used to mark turf,
  though many gangs attempt to keep a low profile
  in certain instances, mainly due to police
  vigilance in recent years

12

• d. Though gangs are cohesive and typically share
  a sense of solidarity with one another, many
  criminologists say that this does not seem to be
  the case in recent years
• i. Malcolm Klein says that the gang members he
  observed were "dissatisfied, deprived, and making
  the best of an essentially unhappy situation
• ii. James F. Short, Jr. and Fred Strodtbeck say
  that most gang members fail at school, their
  personal lives and that these failings make these
  juveniles insecure about their status, thus
  driving them toward the thug life
• e. The purpose of gangs is not necessarily to
  commit criminal offenses, and most researchers
  have found that most gang members spend their
  time on pursuits other than crime
• D. The Contemporary Gang Problem
• 1. The spread of gangs
• a. Walter Miller identified seven major reasons
  that account for the dramatic spread of gangs
  over the past three decades
• i. Drugs The expansion of illegal drug markets
  increased the solidarity of existing gangs and
  offered the incentives for the creations of new
  gangs

13

• iii. Gang Names and Alliances In the 1980's the
  pattern of adopting a common name and claiming a
  federated relationship to a major gang became
  increasingly popular (splinter federations from
  the Blood, Crips, Latin Kings, and Gangster
  Disciples are popular)
• iv. Migration some experts believe that when
  gangs exhaust a particular drug market, they move
  to another untapped community in an effort to
  gain more profits (i.e. urban to suburban)
• v. Government Policies During the 1960's, some
  gangs were allocated federal funds as part of the
  'war on poverty' which were provided to these
  groups to initiate social reform programs
• vi. Female-headed households The absence of
  stable adult male role models created identity
  problems for male adolescents who then turned to
  gangs to fill a gap in their lives
• vii. Gang Subculture and the Media Gangs are
  'hot market items' and the media has been accused
  of portraying gangs in a flattering light (or as
  the underdogs of society)

14

• b. Researchers such as Cheryl Maxon believes that
  the spread of gangs can be primarily attributed
  to the migration from gang members families to
  the suburbs and the development of loosely
  associated cliques that stem from this movement
• 2. Racial and Ethnic Variations in Gangs
• a. The two most notorious (and primarily black
  gangs) are the bloods and the crips
• i. These gangs are typically composed of many
  sets, (consisting of about 20 to 30 members each
  though some sets have around 100 or more members)
• ii. Black gangs have little, in any, formal
  structure and George Hackett states that
  "Leadership is usually collective, and internal
  organization is rudimentary Most sets are as
  casually organized as a pickup basketball game
• iii. Most rivalry with other gangs is a result
  over turf, wrong style of dress, etc.
• b. Latino gangs are usually composed of youths
  whose ethnic backgrounds include Mexican, Mexican
  American, Cuban, and Puerto Rican, etc.
• i. As was previously mentioned, most Latino gangs
  are organized around Klikas, separated in age by
  two or three years
• ii. In Latino gangs, allegiance to others and the
  defense of the barrio (or hood) is extremely
  important and Latino gangs have shown a
  remarkable longevity over the years, with
  generations of members arising from the same
  lineage

15

• iii. Membership in a Latino gang is primarily
  achieved through a 'beat in' initiation to see if
  a new member is able to defend himself
• iv.. According to the Regoli/Hewitt the
  automobile is important to Latino gangs with the
  main symbol of wealth and status being the
  low-rider
• c. Asian gangs are a relatively new development
  in the United States
• i. According to Ko-lin Chin, the first Asian
  youth gangs started appearing in the United
  States around the 1950, after an influx of
  Chinese immigration
• ii. Unlike most other gangs, Asian gangs are
  primarily concerned with the acquisition of money
  rather than fighting with other gangs over turf
• iii. In research compiled by James Vigil and
  Steve Yun, Indo-Chinese gangs are among the most
  numerous among Asian gangs today
• iv. According to Geoffrey Hunt, Karen Joe, and
  Dan Waldorf, Asian gangs do not usually have a
  hierarchical structure, or a clearly defined
  leadership
• v. Unlike Latino or black gangs, Asian gangs are
  more likely to initiate members through a process
  of evaluation or 'kicking back' on a regular
  basis in an effort to determine whether the
  recruit should be accepted or not

16

• a. Today's gangs are exceptionally violent when
  compared to the gangs of earlier decades
  (especially on school grounds)
• i. Gang operations have been identified at all
  three levels of schools, including elementary,
  junior high school, and high school
• ii. However, most gang violence still occurs off
  of school grounds
• b. Walter Miller attributes the growth of gang
  violence after the 1970's to firearms
  (specifically the handgun)
• i. Youth gang homicides have increased since the
  1970's
• c. Are juvenile gangs extensively involved in
  drug dealing?
• i. C. Ronald Huff reports that gang members
  appear to be extensively involved in drug sales,
  especially cocaine and marijuana (in a study he
  conducted in Colorado, Ohio and Florida)
• ii. The National Youth Gang Center reports that
  although gangs are involved in drug dealing,
  respondents indicated that gangs did not control
  or manage most of the drug distribution

17

• E. Female Gang Delinquency
• 1. A Serious Problem?
• a. Recent studies suggest that girls may comprise
  anywhere from 4 to 38 percent of all gang members
• i. Female gang members are much more likely to be
  involved in delinquency, especially serious
  delinquency, than are non-gang females
• ii. Generally speaking, female gang members
  engage in less delinquency than their male gang
  counterparts
• iii. Also, female gang members are less likely to
  be the victims of gang violence than are male
  gang members (chivalry?)

18

• b. Initiation also varies among gangs who accept
  females into their ranks
• i. Some girls are tattooed, some are blessed and
  others are 'sexed in' (required to have
  intercourse with multiple gang members)
• c. Why do females join gangs?
• i. Many girls seem to look to the gang as an
  escape from family problems
• ii. Joan Moore and John Hagedorn report that the
  parents of gang girls were more likely than boys
  to come from families that were abusive (in their
  Los Angeles study)
• iii. Jody Miller reported that 71 of the gang
  girls in her study reported serious family
  problems, such as violence, drug addiction, and
  drug or alcohol abuse, compared to only 26 of
  non-gang girls
• d. Geoffrey Hunt postulates that females who join
  gangs do so as an extension of their families in
  an effort to expand their social networks (after
  interviewing 47 different Latino females who
  represented 23 different gangs)

19

• F. Gang Suppression, Intervention, and Prevention
  Strategies
• 1. The strategy of Suppression (is it effective?)
• a. The use of existing laws allows authorities to
  charge gang youths with basic criminal
  offense-crimes against persons, property, and
  public order-as well as to use conspiracy laws to
  target gang members who may have been physically
  present during the commission of a crime
• i. In some states, gang-related crimes carry
  maximum sentences (is this really a deterrent?)

20

• b. According to a Bureau of Justice Assistance
  report on urban street gang enforcement, the key
  elements in gang suppression involve
  understanding the problem, gathering intelligence
  into a comprehensive database, and developing
  strategies aimed at taking down the leaders of
  said gangs
• i. A common strategy for law enforcement
  officials is a technique called a 'neighborhood
  sweep' in which known gang members are rounded up
  and questioned (do you think this is harassment,
  or an effective deterrent?)
• ii. Another strategy is surveillance of known
  gang 'hotspots
• iii. The creation of specialized prosecutor
  programs that target gang activity have been
  established throughout the country, most notably
  in Los Angeles with its Operation Hardcore (est.
  1979)
• c. According to Malcolm Klein, most gang
  prosecution programs include
• i. Transfers to adult court for juvenile gang
  members
• ii. Forfeiture of cars used in drive-by shootings
• iii. Enhanced penalties for crimes committed near
  schools

21

• vi. Prosecution for criminal conspiracy under the
  Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
  Organization Act (RICO) and similar state laws in
  cases of drug sales and other applicable crimes
• 2. Intervention and Prevention Strategies
• a. Many gang experts are quick to warn that gangs
  should not be viewed in an us versus them mindset
  (don't view things in terms of moral absolutism)
• i. John Hagedorn argues that the growth of gangs
  in the Midwest can be attributed, in part, to the
  emerging black underclass and inadequate social
  programs
• ii. Growing poverty, and the flight from the
  cities by both whites and upwardly mobile blacks,
  has left behind a huge underclass in several
  inner cities
• iii. William Julius Wilson argues that this
  poverty, among other factors, leads to social
  disorganization
• b. Experts advocate increased funding and support
  for social programs targeted toward 'at-risk'
  youth in the community in order to address the
  reasons why gangs form in the first place. These
  programs should include broad based strategies
  such as
• i. Youth outreach programs

22

• iii. Employment and training assistance
• iv. School dropout services (G.E.D. attainment
  programs, etc.)
• v. Multicultural training for teachers and other
  professionals
• vi. Family intervention and training
• vii. Substance abuse counseling
• viii. Conflict mediation programs
• ix. Recreational activities
• c. Non-governmental organizations such as the
  Boys Girls Club of America (BGCA) have
  developed a program to reach at risk youths

23

• i. In Los Angeles, Operation Cul de Sac (OCDS)
  was an experiment designed to decrease drive-by
  shootings in certain areas by closing down
  certain accessible roads where drive-by shootings
  were the most frequent (by using free-way
  dividers)
• ii. The number of homicides in the OCDS area fell
  significantly over the two years in which this
  program was run for
• iii. However, the number of homicides increased
  after the operation ceased
• iv. This is a shining example of situational
  crime prevention
• -end of chapter 12 notes