Separating Fact from Fiction
The truth behind the Justice Policy Institute report
Gang Wars

You will find below the key findings of the Justice Policy Institute report, Gang Wars. After reviewing the report we found several inaccuracies to the point that some of their findings are almost comical and contradict current gang-related activity as reported throughout the nation. Much of the language of the report had an underlying anti-law enforcement view and inflammatory language. The report even suggested that law enforcement was to blame for our nation’s gang problem.

It is important to remember that the nation’s gang problem is not a police problem—it is a social problem. Police officers respond to problems as they are reported or seen. Most youth join gangs during their junior high school years, but are indoctrinated into the gang culture at a much earlier age, long before they have interaction with law enforcement officers.

This report failed to mention or discuss the increasing epidemic of the breakdown of the family structure and the growing failure of parents to adequately teach their children proper values, skills and the concept of consequences.

The report failed to focus on the growing epidemic of the news and movie industry promoting and glamorizing the gang lifestyle. Gangster rap, movies and television programs continue to promote the gangster lifestyle which continues to be the underlying factor explaining the growth of gangs to smaller cities and rural America.

It is unfortunate that with so much time they devoted to writing the report that they failed to produce any new or meaningful suggests at reducing our nation’s gang problems and that much of the information they presented was based on their own anti-law enforcement views.

The bold text below is some of the ‘key findings’ found in their report. To view the summary of their report, click here. Our response is directly below the bold text.

There are fewer gang members in the United States today than there were a decade ago, and there is no evidence that gang activity is growing.

FALSE Law enforcement, educators and social service workers have reported seeing a steady increase of gang activity over the past 10-years specifically in smaller and rural communities, places that one would not normally associate as having problems.

It’s interesting that in this report, they state law enforcement gang statistics are unreliable for the purpose of tracking local crime trends, yet they rely completely on these statistics which are known to be inaccurate. They make their conclusions without even speaking to law enforcement officers to determine why these statistics are not reliable.

The report states in 2004 there were over 740,000 documented gang members.

Our estimates are much higher.

Consider this. We currently have over 2,250,000 people in state or federal prison. We recently randomly polled dozens of prison gang investigators regarding the percentage of inmates who were currently gang affiliated. We received numbers ranging from 20 – 90% depending on the prison. Even if only 20% of our entire prison population was gang-affiliated, that would mean nearly 450,000 gang members are in prison. This number of gang members is not included in any reports collected by any organization.

So how many gang members do we really have in our nation? Let’s take this a step further. Most street gang investigators will tell you that if they pick any gang, about 15-25% of the gang is incarcerated at any time. That would make an estimated gang population of approximately 2 million gang members.

Every gang investigator we have interviewed regarding the number of gang members will say that the numbers within their gang databases are inaccurate and only represent a small percentage of their city’s gangs.

Accurate statistics are impossible. It was just a few years ago that the FBI estimated only 10-15% of gang members are actually documented as such.

There is no consistent relationship between law enforcement measures of gang activity and crime trends.

FALSE There is a relationship between law enforcement and local crime trends. Over the past 30-years there have been numerous changes and additions to our laws pertaining to street gangs. We have implemented stiffer penalties and there are now laws and departmental procedures regarding identifying and documenting gang members and crime.

Here is an example of the difficulty of understanding and interpreting crime statistics. Say for example the city of Smallville had 1000 acts of vandalism in 1998 and made 20 arrests for the offense. In 1999 they realize how bad their vandalism problem is and then formed a vandalism task force. Now in 1999, as a result of the vandalism task force, they made over 150 arrest and the number of reported vandalism cases dropped down to 600.

When the crime statistics would be reviewed it would show 20 arrests for vandalism in 1998 and 150 in 1999, leaving the impression that the problem of vandalism had skyrocketed. In actuality the department reduced vandalism.

What happens to crime statistics when a college widely advertises reporting date rape? The police department will suddenly have an increase in victims reporting the crime, yet it is impossible to determine if there was actually an increase in the number of rapes or because of the increased advertising done by the college, more victims felt comfortable in reporting it.

The same principal applies to violent crime. As we know, most gang crimes are not reported. After a gang unit if formed, more resources and personnel are devoted to investigating and prosecuting violent offenses. With more public attention to the problem, more victims and witnesses feel more comfortable in reporting problems that in the past were ignored.

Gang members account for a relatively small share of crime in most jurisdictions.

FALSE We would agree that if you are speaking about a 13-year-old gang member, they may yet to be heavily involved in the criminal activity, but most gang members are between 18 – 24-years. Most are unemployed and uneducated and reply on criminal activity to support their lifestyle which often includes illicit drug and alcohol use. A review of the criminal record of documented gang members will show that very few of their crimes were flagged as ‘gang-related’ and recorded as such.

When one examines the record of most gang members, they will find a handful of arrests, yet dozens of police contacts for public nuisance offenses that diminish the quality of life for the rest of the community.

Even today, many departments require the officer to write on the top page of their report “GANG RELATED* so the record’s clerk knows to document it as such. It does not matter if the report goes on to describe a brutal gangland slaying, it is not a guarantee it will end up properly recorded as a gang-related offense.

Gangs do not dominate or drive the drug trade.

FALSE We can look to the major drug war occurring on both sides of the Mexican American border where hundreds of people are continually murdered including members of the media, government officials and law enforcement. Did they forget about Larry Hoover who in the 1990s controlled the Black Gangster Disciples and the FBI and DEA found the gang was profiting over $100,000,000.00 a year in drug sales. Are they aware of gangs such as the Mexican Mafia and Nuestra Familia who from prison control the drug trade, taxing local street gangs for a portion of their profit.

It appears they concluded their findings by reviewing an old Los Angeles report estimating 25% of those arrested for drug sales were gang members. Again, they failed to take a deeper look at these statistics and how they were collected. Let’s imagine this scenario. An officer receives a call of a group of men selling drugs on the corner in a known gang neighborhood. He responds and arrests one individual for possession of drugs for sell. The individual declines to make a statement and is booked into jail for the charges. In most department’s, this report would NOT be flagged as gang-related, although common sense would indicate he was selling drugs on behalf of the gang. Even if he was wearing gang colors, had several fresh gang tattoos and said “I’m a Crip” does not mean the crime will be charged as a gang-related offense.

If one were to move to Los Angeles and sold drugs, it would be unlikely that they would continue to do so without a violent response from the local gang or forced to pay a portion of the profits to local gang leaders.

The public face of the gang problem is black and brown, but whites make up the largest group of adolescent gang members.

FALSE Currently the fastest growing gang segment is the Hispanic gang population, largely fueled by illegal immigration. The largest gangs in the nation are;

Yes, there are many white teens and adults who belong to the gangs above, we know that. And yes, there are also White gangs throughout the nation, (Skinheads, Peckerwoods, etc.), but none of these White gangs have the membership, organization or leadership as found in the list above.

What about the Aryan Brotherhood and the Nazi Lowriders you might ask? These are two large white gangs that operate almost exclusively within the prison system and have little influence outside of prison and do not recruit children or teens into their gangs. As many gang experts will say, the White gangsters can’t using methamphetamine long enough to organize themselves on the streets in the same fashion as the other gangs.

Today, the Hispanic community is most afflicted with their youth becoming involved in gangs than any other racial group. In the 1990s it was the Black community, just like it used to be the Irish and Italians and maybe twenty years from now we’ll be dealing with Iraqi gangs.

It’s unfortunate that this report tries to put a color on the gang problem. The gang problem is not color or race specific and affects all communities whether rich or poor, Black or White. What would their motivation be in providing false information regarding the racial component of gang membership?

Most youth who join gangs do so between the ages of 12 and 15, but the involvement of younger children in gangs is not new.

TRUE We agree. Most gang members report joining gangs during their junior high school years and their interest starts at a much earlier age.

Leaving the gang early reduces the risk of negative life outcomes, but current policies make it more difficult for gang members to quit.

FALSE We agree that gang membership brings negative consequences, duh.

Do law enforcement officers and school officials make it harder for youth to quit gangs? Given all the many programs, both national and regional throughout the nation, that police departments and educators participate in trying to keep youth away from gangs, this comment seems ridiculous and is not based on any fact.

Let’s a explore a couple more comments they made.

“When representatives of official agencies (e.g., police, school) identify an individual as a gang member, they are sending a powerful signal to rival gang members as well as to people in the community about the gang involvement of that person.”

Since when in the history of tracking gang members do law enforcement or school officials identify gang members and share that information with the public? The reality of tracking gang members is that information is kept confidential. Ask any defense attorney who defends gang members, you’ll find one of their biggest complaints is the lack of access as to the gang database. Information about who is and who is not identified as a gang member is kept confidential and in most states there are specific laws governing when and to whom that information can be released. Even officers outside of the gang units who maintain gang databases are not privy to the information and are only granted access on a case by case scenario as a need to know only basis.

The only time a person’s gang affiliation is every mentioned in public is done by the news media after someone has been charged with a serious offense.

The report also continued to say the following;

“Police and school officials may not be aware of the decision of individuals to leave the gang or may not take such claims seriously, and records may not be purged of prior gang status.”

If a person made the commitment to join a gang and then engages in the criminal activities for that group, the authors of the report would suggest that the gang member need only call the police department and say, “I’m no longer a gang member, take me off your records” and with the wave of a magic wand the person’s prior gang affiliation is removed.

Back in the real world, all gang databases have law and/or departmental procedures governing how someone can be entered into the database and how long they can remain. Records are automatically purged as long as the gang member is no longer found to be engaging in gang-related crime, associating with known gangs members, getting new gang-tattoos, etc.

The authors of the report give the impression that it is the gang members themselves who should decide if their names should be on record at the police department.

So what’s the big deal with having your name in the gang database? As long as you don’t commit any serious offenses there is virtually no harm at all. Gang databases are used for tracking and identifying gang members. The information is put into use once that individual commits a crime that is considered a gang-related offense. It is then, the information is used for increased sentencing and consequences.

Don’t forget, even before a search warrant is issued as a result of information in the gang database, that information must be reviewed by a judge as being legal with sufficient evidence presented to the accuracy of the information..

Police gang units are often formed for the wrong reasons and perceived as isolated and ineffectual by law enforcement colleagues.

FALSE What wrong reasons would an agency form a gang unit for? Cities form gang units when there is an increase in gang-related crime. The need for someone with increased training in a specific field is important not only for officers combating gangs, but traffic officers, narcotics officers, homicide investigators—just like there are specialist in all professions.

To determine if a gang unit or officer is ineffectual would require examining their day to day activities. Are they spending their days doing surveillance and building a case against their city’s gang leaders, who control the drug market or are they working street level crimes and maintaining a high visibility.

Heavy-handed suppression efforts can increase gang cohesion and police-community tensions, and they have a poor track record when it comes to reducing crime and violence.

FALSE Increased law enforcement always comes after public outcry as a result of lawless behavior. Does increased enforcement in a specific neighborhood sometimes alienate some people, yes. If Mr. Joe Neighbor likes to sit on his front lawn drinking beer all afternoon and suddenly his neighborhood has a dozen officers in that area, chances are he’s going to get a citation for violation of a city ordinance about drinking in public. Is he a gang member? No. Is he upset? Yes and he’ll probably complain. The people who benefit the most from increased police enforcement are those who law enforcement officers hear the least from.

In most gang infested neighborhoods, there is this misconception that gang crimes are reported to the police. In many neighborhoods across the nation, shootings, stabbings, robberies and home invasions go unreported to the police. Witnesses and victims refused to provide information out of fear of reprisal from the gang. Do they want justice? Of course, they just do not have the courage to cooperate.

We have found that most gang crimes are under reported. If you investigate a gang homicide, there are often numerous criminal acts that lead up to the homicide that were never reported to the police. There will then be cases of witness intimidation, where even family members of the victim’s are too scared to cooperate, which again, will not be reported to the police. We don’t need to look too far back to the recent example in New Jersey. Who shot girl? Witnesses silent

In summary do we need more people and money devoted towards prevention? Of course and we don't think there is a law enforcement officer alive that would disagree. Is prevention the key to getting to the root of the gang problem? Of course it is. We learned that back in the 1850s when the United States Congress first studied our nation's gang problem, which has been studied and restudied every few years for the past 150 years.

We keep coming up with the same conclusion-- --prevention, intervention and suppression. We agree, let's put more into prevention, law enforcement has been crying out for more prevention efforts for years and even created programs such as DARE, GREAT (Gang Resistance Education And Treatment), 'Wake Up' programs, Scared Straight programs, tattoo removal programs and many, many more programs.

The gang problem needs to be recognized as a community problem, not a police problem. We need to address the gang problem at all levels--suppression, prevention and intervention, but to focus 100% on prevention and ignoring our current problems is flat out wrong. How would it be if we stopped treating cancer patients and said, “We are only going to be working on a cure, so I’m sorry no more chemotherapy is offered!” We need to help those wanting to be helped and those who have choosen to be urban terrorist, need to be treated as such.

What makes this Gang War report so incredibility stupid is the notion that law enforcement officers need to back off on gangs. Their report seems to suggest that law enforcement officers should turn a blind eye to problems, give their local crack dealers a job instead of consequences and leave the gangs alone. Maybe the next time there is a rash of drive by shootings in your neighborhood over a conflict of drug territory, let's invite the Justice Institute to organize a meeting between the gangs where they can properly divide the city into drug territories and they call all sing Kum by-ah and randomly embrace each other with loving hugs.

So the lesson the Justice Institute teaches, the next time you see a gang member shooting at your neighbor’s home, dealing drugs, robbing your family store or etching graffiti on your property, remember it’s not their fault—blame your local police department. C'mon Justice Institute wake up!

That’s our opinion, what’s yours?