According to OJJDP’s 1999 National Youth Gang Survey (the latest survey from which data are available), youth gangs continue to be widespread across the United States. Nearly half of the law enforcement agencies that responded to the survey reported gang activity in their jurisdictions in 1999. Although the estimated number of gangs decreased from 1998, the estimated number of gang members increased, and estimates of both gangs (more than 26,000) and gang members (more than 840,500) remained high in 1999.

For the past several years, OJJDP has supported the development and implementation of a comprehensive gang prevention, intervention, and suppression program that includes helping communities develop comprehensive responses to youth gangs, funding research and evaluation activities, providing training and technical assistance, and disseminating information and data about gangs. Just as important, the Office has used findings from the National Youth Gang Surveys and feedback from its grantees to develop new initiatives to address youth gangs. For example, the surveys have shown that although the prevalence of youth gangs is decreasing nationwide, it is increasing in rural communities. In response to this finding, OJJDP is helping four rural communities assess their gang problems. The Office also has developed a new demonstration program to help schools address youth gang problems.

OJJDP funds the National Youth Gang Center—a one-stop shop for up-to-date information and data about gangs and effective responses to them. OJJDP also produces and distributes information to help juvenile justice practitioners respond to youth gangs.

This chapter highlights these and other OJJDP research, evaluation, training and technical assistance, and dissemination activities related to youth gangs. These activities reflect OJJDP’s commitment to helping communities respond to gangs and the violence associated with them.

Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program

In FY 1995, OJJDP awarded funds to five jurisdictions (Bloomington, IL; Mesa, AZ; Riverside, CA; San Antonio, TX; and Tucson, AZ) to help them reduce gang violence by implementing OJJDP’s Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program (OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model). The Model includes five key strategies: mobilizing communities, providing youth opportunities, suppressing gang violence, providing social intervention (services) and street outreach, and facilitating organizational change and development in community agencies. After funding the five original sites for 4 years, OJJDP provided continuation funding in FY 1999 to further support two of the sites. Although all five cities served as promising demonstration sites, OJJDP awarded additional funding to Mesa and Riverside, based on their strong prospects for sustaining the comprehensive approach, program performance, preliminary evaluation data, and evidence that they were continuing to develop promising strategies. By the end of FY 2000, preliminary findings documented success in both Mesa and Riverside (including reduction in gang offending among almost 300 targeted youth), and the two communities received local support to continue their programs beyond the fifth year of Federal funding. In 2000, the Maricopa County (AZ) Association of Governments recognized the achievements of the Mesa Gang Intervention Project with a “Desert Peaks Award” for its strong public-private collaborations in addressing youth gang violence.

OJJDP also is funding an evaluation of the program by the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago in Chicago, IL. Evaluators helped each of the five original sites establish realistic and measurable objectives, document program implementation, and measure the impact of this comprehensive approach. They also provided interim feedback to the program implementors and trained the local site interviewers. During FY 2000, the evaluation team continued to gather and analyze data, monitor and oversee the quality control of data, assist with interviews, and provide feedback to project sites. Full evaluation results for three of the five program sites are expected in spring 2002. Results for the other sites and cross-site findings will follow.

Gang Prevention Through Targeted Outreach With Boys & Girls Clubs

OJJDP provides funds to the national Boys & Girls Clubs of America organization of Atlanta, GA, to help local affiliate clubs prevent youth from entering gangs, intervene with gang members in the early stages of gang involvement, and divert youth from gangs into more constructive activities. This program reflects a long-term collaboration between OJJDP and Boys & Girls Clubs to reduce problems of juvenile gangs, delinquency, and violence. The national organization provides training and technical assistance to local gang prevention and intervention sites and to other clubs and organizations through regional training sessions and national conferences. During FY 2000, Boys & Girls Clubs added 30 new gang prevention sites, 5 new gang intervention sites, and 3 new “targeted reintegration” sites (where clubs provide services to youth returning to the community from juvenile correctional facilities, with the goal of preventing them from returning to gangs and violence). The targeted reintegration component of this initiative has been of great interest to many local clubs and communities. As of FY 2000, 75 local Boys & Girls Clubs were receiving direct funding support through the targeted outreach program. Also in FY 2000, Boys & Girls Clubs of America hosted its Sixth Annual Youth Gang Symposium in Atlanta, GA. The Symposium, which was attended by hundreds of Boys & Girls Club professionals and interested community agency representatives, featured promising approaches to gang-related prevention, intervention, and reintegration that have been implemented by local clubs across the country.

OJJDP is funding an evaluation of the Gang Prevention Through Targeted Outreach Program by Public/Private Ventures of Philadelphia, PA. A report detailing the effectiveness of the program across multiple sites is expected in FY 2001.

National Youth Gang Center

OJJDP established the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) at the Institute for Intergovernmental Research of Tallahassee, FL, in 1994, to expand and maintain the body of critical knowledge about youth gangs and effective responses to them. One of NYGC’s major activities is to conduct an annual survey of police and sheriff’s departments to determine the extent of the Nation’s gang problem. As noted earlier in this chapter, results from the 1999 National Youth Gang Survey (the latest survey from which data are available) suggest that the youth gang problem continues to be widespread and substantial across the United States. Detailed results from the 1998 survey are discussed in an OJJDP Summary, 1998 National Youth Gang Survey, and key findings from the 1999 survey are summarized in an OJJDP Fact Sheet, Highlights of the 1999 National Youth Gang Survey; both publications are available from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse.

NYGC has developed a new Indian Country component for the annual National Youth Gang Survey, to be implemented in FY 2001. The new component is assessing the prevalence, composition, and activities of youth gangs in federally recognized tribes that are not traditionally included in the national survey of law enforcement officials.

NYGC also has played a major role in the Gang-Free Schools and Communities Initiative, launched by OJJDP in FY 2000. The two components of this Initiative are described in Rural Gang Initiative. The Center helped OJJDP develop the Initiative and promote it in communities that reported youth gang problems in NYGC’s annual survey.

NYGC also provides technical support to the National Youth Gang Consortium, which is convened by OJJDP three times a year to bring together all Federal departments and agencies engaged in antigang activities. The consortium builds partnerships and coordinates Federal resources to help communities develop local comprehensive approaches to gang prevention, intervention, and suppression.

NYGC also maintains a Web site (www.iir.com/nygc/) that is a comprehensive resource for information about gang programs, research, and legislation, including full-text publications, bibliographies of publications relating to gang research, and lists of gang legislation broken down by State and subject. NYGC also maintains GANGINFO, an electronic mailing list with some 850 subscribers, which provides a forum for professionals to exchange information about youth gangs.

Publications

In addition to the National Youth Gang Survey publications discussed above, OJJDP also published two gang-related Bulletins in its Youth Gang Series in FY 2000. Using the results of the 1996 National Youth Gang Survey, Youth Gang Drug Trafficking analyzes the participation of youth gang members in drug sales and the role of gangs in drug distribution. Youth Gangs in Schools analyzes findings from the School Crime Supplements to the National Crime Victim Survey, describes characteristics of gangs in schools, and discusses factors that contribute to gang prevalence in schools. OJJDP also published a gang-related Fact Sheet, Vietnamese Youth Gang Involvement, which discusses a study by the city of Westminister in Orange County, CA, that examined factors related to gang involvement by Vietnamese American youth. An FY 2001 Bulletin, Female Gangs: A Focus on Research, summarizes both past and current research on female gangs and draws attention to programmatic and research needs. These publications are available from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse.

Research Activities

In addition to the evaluations of the gang programs discussed above and NYGC’s research activities, OJJDP also funds several other gang-related research activities. Two studies are focusing on youth gangs in Indian Country, including the Navajo Nation (see Tribal Youth Mental Health Initiative). Another is examining how youth are socialized into gangs in a city with an emerging gang problem. Other studies are investigating girls and gangs, youth gangs in Europe, and gangs in juvenile detention and corrections facilities. Another is surveying school-based gang prevention and intervention programs.

Rural Gang Initiative

Recognizing that rural areas also face youth gang issues, OJJDP awarded grants in 1999 to four rural communities—Elk City, OK; Glenn County, CA; Longview, WA; and Mount Vernon, IL—to conduct comprehensive assessments of their local youth gang problems and to determine the feasibility of implementing OJJDP’s Comprehensive Gang Model. During FY 2000, each site (with assistance from NYGC) collected data from multiple sources, including police, schools, courts, and community residents. The data collection effort included community surveys and focus groups; topics included gang crime, the presence of risk factors for gang membership, and community demographics. Each site used this information to determine the nature and scope of its youth gang problems. A steering committee of community representatives then developed a response to the problems.

In two communities, Longview and Elk City, it was determined that an intensive gang intervention effort such as OJJDP’s Comprehensive Gang Model was not necessary. Instead, these communities will use their data to develop gang prevention services and to implement a less intensive intervention for delinquent and gang-involved youth. In Mount Vernon and Glenn County, it was determined that a more intensive intervention effort was required. They began implementing the Comprehensive Gang Model in accordance with a locally developed, data-driven strategic plan that incorporates prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies. NYGC will continue to provide training and technical assistance to assist these communities in implementing the Model.

In FY 2000, OJJDP awarded a grant to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) of Oakland, CA, to evaluate the rural gang initiative. NCCD has conducted case studies to document and analyze the 1-year community assessment and program planning efforts across the four sites. These case studies will be used to develop a model approach to assessing community gang problems in rural areas.

On the Horizon

During FY 2000, OJJDP expanded its comprehensive approach to youth gangs by launching two new initiatives to help communities and schools address gangs and gang violence. The initiatives were developed in collaboration with the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury. Competitive applications were solicited in late summer, and OJJDP will make grant awards in 2001. The two initiatives are as follows:

• The Comprehensive Gang Model: An Enhanced School/Community Approach to Reducing Youth Gang Crime. This initiative will provide grants to four demonstration sites to implement school-focused enhancements to the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model. The enhancements will build on the Model’s original framework and on current efforts to prevent youth violence in general and violence in schools. NYGC will provide training and technical assistance to the grantees. OJJDP also will fund a national evaluation of the sites’ efforts.

• The Gang-Free Communities Program. This initiative will offer seed funding to as many as 12 communities to replicate the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model. NYGC will provide training and technical assistance to the grantees.