line Survey Results

Prevalence of youth gangs

Fifty-one percent of survey respondents indicated that they had active youth gangs in their jurisdictions in 1997.

Fifty-one percent of survey respondents indicated that they had active youth gangs in their jurisdictions in 1997. Figure 2 illustrates the proportion of jurisdictions reporting active youth gangs, by area type. Almost three-quarters of large cities (72 percent) reported active youth gangs in 1997, followed by 56 percent of suburban counties, 33 percent of small cities, and 24 percent of rural counties (see appendix E for a list of all jurisdictions reporting gangs in 1997, by area type). The relationship between agencies reporting active youth gangs in 1997 and area type was found to be statistically significant.

The percentage of respondents reporting active youth gangs decreased by 2 percent between 1996 and 1997. Table 1 shows the percentages for both years, by area type. The largest decrease was in large cities. Small cities, suburban counties, and rural counties had smaller decreases.

table 1

Gang activity also varied significantly by region of the country (see figure 3). The West, which has historically experienced significant gang problems, reported the highest level of gang activity (74 percent) in 1997. The percentage of jurisdictions reporting active youth gangs in the three other regions was as follows: 52 percent in the Midwest, 49 percent in the South, and 31 percent in the Northeast. These differences in gang activity by region were found to be statistically significant.

figure 2

Each geographic region can be further divided into smaller increments called divisions (see appendix F). Figure 4 illustrates the percentage of jurisdictions reporting active youth gangs in 1997, by division. As expected, divisions in the West had the highest percentage of agencies reporting active youth gangs, especially in the Pacific division (80 percent) which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. The Middle Atlantic division in the Northeast had the lowest percentage (26 percent) of agencies reporting active youth gangs. These differences were found to be statistically significant.

The only increase between 1996 and 1997 in the percentage of jurisdictions reporting active youth gangs was in the East South Central division.

Tables 2 and 3 compare the percentages of jurisdictions that reported active youth gangs in 1996 and 1997. Regionally, the largest decrease in the percentage of jurisdictions reporting active youth gangs was in the Northeast. Moreover, a larger decrease was found in the New England division of the Northeast region. The only increase between 1996 and 1997 in the percentage of jurisdictions reporting active youth gangs was in the East South Central division. States included in this division are Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

The larger the population, the more likely the presence of gangs.

table 2

figure 3

figure 4

Tables 4-7 show a direct variation between the presence of active youth gangs in 1997 and population, that is, the larger the population, the more likely the presence of gangs. This relationship was found to be statistically significant for all area types except small cities (the relationship between the presence of active youth gangs and population in small cities is statistically significant at the 0.09 level). The tables also compare the percentages of jurisdictions that reported active youth gangs in 1996 and 1997.

The largest decrease in jurisdictions reporting gangs was for the 250,000 or more population range.

table 3

table 4

As table 4 shows, there was no variation in the 250,000 or more population range. In both 1996 and 1997, 100 percent of respondents in this population range reported active youth gangs in their jurisdictions. As table 6 shows, among suburban counties, the largest decrease in jurisdictions reporting gangs was for the 250,000 or more population range. However, there was a noticeable increase for suburban counties reporting gangs in the 1-9,999 population range.

There were 2,007 cities and counties with active youth gangs in the United States in 1995.

Prior to the 1995 National Youth Gang Survey, the highest recorded number of jurisdictions with active youth gangs was 282, in 1994 (Curry, Ball, and Decker, 1996). However, most previous surveys were limited in size and scope and did not include counties. Results of the 1995 National Youth Gang Survey indicated that there were 2,007 cities and counties with active youth gangs in the United States in 1995. This 1995 survey sample was much larger than that of previous efforts and included more than 4,000 law enforcement agencies.

table 5

table 6

table 7

line

1997 National Youth Gang Survey   December 1999