NCJ Number
136588
Date Published
1992
Length
43 pages
Annotation
Two surveys gathered information from juvenile officers and gang or intelligence specialists in 29 Texas cities regarding the nature and extent of gang activity, weapons, migration, and police reporting practices in December 1991 and January 1992.
Abstract
Results revealed that the numbers of gangs and gang members appear to have increased in most cities and decreased in a few others in the past year. The four types of gangs include delinquent youth gangs, traditional turf-based gangs, gain-oriented gangs, and violent or hate gangs. The typical city of 50,000 to 100,000 has delinquent juvenile gangs and at least one other more serious kind of gang. These gangs are posing a moderate law enforcement problem. Larger cities show a wider range of kinds of gangs and a greater prevalence of the more seriously criminal kinds of gangs. The different kinds of gangs tend to reflect different cultural and economic circumstances. They require different strategies of prevention and intervention as well as different tactical responses from law enforcement.