Do Gang Prevention Strategies Actually Reduce Crime?

• NCJ Number: 141088
• Author(s): D J Palumbo; R Eskay; M Hallett
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented at the American Society of Criminology, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 1992.

Annotation

Evaluation data on three gang prevention programs operating in Arizona New Turf, Gang Resistive Education and Training (GREAT), and Community Reliance Resource Effort (CARE) are presented and tentative conclusions about their effectiveness in reducing crime and drug use are drawn.

Abstract

Most experts agree that gang prevention programs should shift their emphasis toward changing social and cultural environments rather than changing individuals. The best strategy seems to be community mobilization and the provision of youth educational and employment opportunities. Project CARE has involved four elementary schools in the fight against drugs and gangs by organizing neighborhood coalition teams, developing interagency agreements, formulating a community awareness plan, and developing after-school and summer programs. While teachers and parents agree the program has been well implemented, to date it seems to have had very little positive impact on the city's gang problem. Project GREAT is an educational and information strategy in which a uniformed police officer conducts a seventh-grade class once a week, using a curriculum aimed at changing the children's attitudes toward gang participation. According to student surveys conducted after the program's completion, Project GREAT has not been successful in attaining its objectives. The New Turf program aims to increase collaboration and formulation of linkages between law enforcement, juvenile justice, schools, community agencies, local businesses, parents, and religious institutions and therefore to reduce gang membership and the use of drugs and alcohol in three Arizona communities. In addition to interagency meetings, New Turf conducted other activities including neighborhood clean- ups, graffiti elimination, parent training, summer youth programs, drug-free zones, and one-on-one counseling with gang members. The police officers involved in New Turf felt the program was useful, but its impact on the complex gang problem was limited. 3 figures and 3 tables