Introduction

The proliferation of youth gangs since 1980 has fueled the public’s fear and magnified possible misconceptions about youth gangs. To address the mounting concern about youth gangs, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP’s) Youth Gang Series delves into many of the key issues related to youth gangs. The series considers issues such as gang migration, gang growth, female involvement with gangs, homicide, drugs and violence, and the needs of communities and youth who live in the presence of youth gangs.

"Hybrid" youth gangs¹ have existed in the United States at least since the 1920s (Thrasher, 1927). Early hybrid gangs were described mainly as mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity gangs; modern-day hybrid gangs, however, have more diverse characteristics. "Hybrid gang culture" is characterized by members of different racial/ethnic groups participating in a single gang, individuals participating in multiple gangs, unclear rules or codes of conduct, symbolic associations with more than one well-established gang (e.g., use of colors and graffiti from different gangs), cooperation of rival gangs in criminal activity, and frequent mergers of small gangs.

As the new millennium begins, hybrid gangs are flourishing and their changing nature is making it more difficult to study and respond to them. Today, many gangs do not follow the same rules or use the same methods of operation as traditional gangs such as the Bloods and Crips (based in Los Angeles, CA) or the Black Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords (based in Chicago, IL). These older gangs tend to have an age-graded structure of subgroups or cliques. The two Chicago gangs have produced organizational charts and explicit rules of conduct and regulations, including detailed punishments for breaking gang rules (Spergel, 1995:81). They have developed coalitions with other gangs, forming what are called gang "nations," such as Folks (including the Black Gangster Disciples) and People (including the Vice Lords).

Although many communities have gangs that bear the names of earlier gangs that originated in Los Angeles and Chicago, the actual membership of these newer gangs is often locally based and has little or no real national affiliation. These hybrids—new gangs that may have the names but not the other characteristics of older gangs—are one of the new types of gangs most frequently found in communities that had no gang culture prior to the 1980s or 1990s. Because gangs, gang culture, and gang-related activities are dynamic, affected communities need to recognize the new faces of these groups and avoid popularly held, media-influenced misconceptions (see Best and Hutchinson, 1996; Decker, Bynum, and Weisel, 1998; Fernandez, 1998; Fleisher, 1995, 1998; Klein, 1995; Miethe and McCorkle, 1997; McCorkle and Miethe, 1998).

The public continues to perceive youth gangs and gang members in terms of the media stereotype of the California Crips and Bloods rather than in terms of current scientific data (Klein, 1995:40–43, 112–135). Some jurisdictions may erroneously adapt a response that is appropriate for well-publicized Los Angeles or Chicago gang problems but not for gang issues in their own jurisdictions (Miethe and McCorkle, 1997). For example, misreading local gangs as drug trafficking enterprises rather than neighborhood conflict groups could render interventions ineffective. Because the characteristics of local gangs and their criminal involvement may differ from the features of gangs in distant cities, different strategies may be required to address the local gang problem effectively.

This Bulletin addresses youth gangs in the 21st century by considering what constitutes a hybrid gang, whether gangs and individual members are migrating across the country, and how new coalitions such as hybrid gangs differ from stereotypical and traditional gangs. The Bulletin brings together survey data, recent research results, and firsthand reports from the field to examine today’s gangs and their members. For reports from the field, the Bulletin draws heavily on insights shared by author David Starbuck, formerly a Sergeant in the Kansas City Police Department’s Gang Unit, whose contributions are incorporated throughout the Bulletin, especially in the sidebars that give the law enforcement practitioner’s point of view.

The broad range of modern or contemporary gangs, as depicted in research studies and survey data, is discussed in the first section of this Bulletin. The growth of modern gangs provides a social context for the emergence of hybrid gangs. Hybrid gangs are discussed in the second section, and conclusions and policy implications are highlighted in the final section.

Hybrid and Other Modern Gangs	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • December 2001