By James Howell
Youth gangs have been prevalent in schools in large cities since the 1970's. However, they have become even more prevalent in schools in the recent past. In the student survey component of the 1995 National Crime Victimization Survey, more than one third (37%) of the students reported gangs at their schools and the percentage of students reporting the presence of gangs at their schools nearly doubled between 1989 and 1995, and then decreased in 1999, according to a more conservative measure.
About two thirds of the surveyed students reported that gangs at school were involved in one or more of three types of illegal activity, violence, drug sales, or gun carrying. However, just 8% of the students said gangs were involved in all three types of activity. About one in five students (21%) said gangs were involved in two of the three illegal activities, and 40% of the students said gangs were involved in only one of these three types of activity. Thus, only a small fraction of the surveyed students said gangs were highly active in all three types of serious crimes. Thus it is very important for school officials, working in collaboration with law enforcement and others in the community, to assess the extent of gang involvement in criminal activity, so that resources can be targeted on the most criminally active and disruptive gangs.
Gangs contribute significantly to student victimization at school, including having things taken from them by force, having something stolen from them, and being physically attacked. The presence of gangs more than doubles the likelihood of violent victimization at school. Yet it is not clear that gangs are a direct cause of criminal victimization at school. Both gangs and criminal victimization in schools are products of such other factors as disorder in schools, and a host of other risk factors in the school, family, community, peer group, and individual domains. Indeed, gangs may be a type of self-protection employed by students in response to threatening school and community environments.
Unlike overall juvenile violence, which tends to peak immediately after the end of the school day, violent gang crimes begin to escalate sharply early in the school day, peak early in the afternoon, and again in early evening. Thus, gang intervention measures need to be in place in schools and in the surrounding community throughout the school day and in the evenings to effectively prevent and reduce gang violence. School security measures do not appear to be a solution, in and of themselves, to school-related gang problems. Other interventions need to be implemented along with school security measures to combat gangs in schools.
Factors from every domain of children's experiences--the neighborhood, family, school, peer, and individual--predict joining a gang in adolescence. Studies show that youth who join gangs grow up in neighborhoods where gangs are present, where many youth are in trouble, and where they feel unsafe. They are very likely to associate with other highly aggressive youth, and begin dating and engage in sexual activity at very early ages. They tend to grow up in homes with parental or family conflict, not living with both parents, and with parents who have pro-violent attitudes and poor family management practices. Some research suggests that relationships between parents are more important than the structure of the family for youths who are bonded to delinquent gangs. The brothers and sisters of future gang members often are in trouble and they also may be gang members, along with other friends. The gang serves as a sanctuary for troubled youth from troubled families, a peer group that provides street socialization.
In general, young people who are on a path of worsening antisocial behavior are most likely to join gangs. The most bonded gang members have low self-control: that is, impulsiveness, risk-seeking, and physical problem-solving tendencies. Future gang members tend to become involved in delinquency--including violence--and alcohol or marijuana use at an early age. During childhood and early adolescence, friendships with aggressive peers, conduct problems, and involvement in delinquency are stepping stones to gang membership. Future gang members are likely to have other gang members in their school classrooms, they perform poorly in elementary school, and they have a low degree of commitment to school. They often are identified as learning disabled. They show higher levels of normlessness in the family, peer group, and school contexts, and they spend lots of unsupervised time with friends. Many youth gang members have none of these characteristics. These are good kids, from good families, and they are good students; however, these youths do not remain in gangs long. Adolescents' allegiances to friends, gangs, and other peer groups tend to be brief.
We should not wait until adolescence to begin gang prevention efforts. Preventive interventions in problem neighborhoods and troubled families could have a significant impact on gang membership. Early academic success is also very important. For communities to be successful, a continuum of youth gang prevention programs needs to be established that address each of the major risk factors for gang membership, and increase protection against risk factors.
Communities need to develop a comprehensive strategy to address gang problems, one that integrates prevention, intervention, and suppression approaches. Because communities have different risk and protection profiles, all jurisdictions experiencing a gang problem need to assess carefully their gang problem, involving all sectors of the community, including youngsters. Under federal support from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the National Youth Gang Center has developed a protocol communities can use to guide the assessment of their gang problem. Communities will then be in a position to select, from a growing menu of promising and effective programs, those they wish to implement within their comprehensive strategy. The school-based Gang Resistance and Education and Training Program, developed by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, is one of several effective programs for preventing adolescent gang involvement. It has been incorporated in school curriculums in all 50 States and several other countries
