line Types of gangs

Juvenile gangs and street gangs were included by more than 80 percent of all respondents.

There has been considerable debate among practitioners and researchers about which groups should be considered gangs (Klein, 1995). In the present survey, respondents were asked to identify, from a list of groups some consider to be gangs, the types of groups they included in their definition of a gang. Juvenile gangs, street gangs, drug gangs, and "taggers" were included in the gang definitions of more than half of all respondents (see figure 6). Juvenile gangs and street gangs were included by more than 80 percent of all respondents. Of the groups included on the survey list, terrorist groups were least likely to be included in gang definitions.

Figure 6


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1996 National Youth Gang Survey   July 1999