Youth Gangs: Problem and Response

• NCJ Number: 129512
• Author(s): I A Spergel
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 24 pages
• Grant Number(s): 87-JS-CX-X100
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Corporate Author: University of Chicago
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Four major policy emphases for dealing with youth gangs in the United States have evolved: local community mobilization, youth outreach, social opportunities, and gang suppression.

Abstract

These approaches need to be integrated with a special focus on community mobilization and targeted social opportunities. Youth gangs exist in large and middle-size cities and are spreading to suburban and smaller communities. Gangs increasingly create problems in correctional and school settings. Gang members, compared with nongang offenders, are responsible for a disproportionate percentage of serious offenses and engage in the sale and distribution of drugs. Race or ethnicity and social isolation interact with poverty and community disorganization to account for much of the gang problem. The gang, an important social institution for low-income male youths and youth adults from newcomer and residual populations, often serves social, cultural, and economic functions no longer adequately performed by family, school, and the local market. (Author abstract modified)