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Juvenile Gang Violence: Interim Hearing Before the California Senate Committee on Judiciary, October 15, 1986

NCJ Number
111146
Date Published
1986
Length
47 pages
Annotation
A 1986 hearing before a California legislative committee heard 17 speakers discuss juvenile gang violence and propose State legislation to deal with it.
Abstract
Speakers included a State senator, district attorneys, law enforcement officials, a public defender, probation officers, of a street youth program administrator, and a parent who was a former gang member. They discussed the nature and extent of gang violence, the circumstances under which juveniles should be tried as adults, whether gang membership should be criminalized, drug use by gang members, the level of organized criminal activity by street gangs, and efforts by communities and criminal justice agencies to deal with gangs. They noted the transformation of street gangs into highly mobile, extremely violent, organized criminal enterprises. The proposed Senate Bill 2118 would enable prosecutors to file more serious crimes committed by 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds directly in adult court, rather than being first required to make an affirmative showing in juvenile court that the defendant's case should be transferred to adult court. This legislation was sponsored by the Los Angeles County District Attorney.