About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 Dennise Orlando-Morningstar, Street Gangs 1 (1997)

handle is hein.congcourts/spenbusg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: here are certainly hun- dreds, very probably thousands, of street gangs in the United States. In 1994, the Justice Department estimated that the United States had close to 1,500 gangs with a total of more than 120,000 members. A 1992 sur- vey of the 79 largest metropoli- tan police departments, con- ducted by G. David Curry for the National Institute of Jus- tice, estimated that there were over 4,800 street gangs with al- most 250,000 members. More recently, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Pre- vention's National Youth Gang Center estimated that the United States has nearly 23,500 street gangs with 665,000 mem- bers. Nor, studies show, is gang activity confined to large cit- ies. Gang expert Malcolm W. Klein estimates that 1,100 U.S. cities have street gangs. The National Drug Intelligence Center reports that two of the largest national street gangs are active in 115 cities-nearly half of which have populations under 100,000. Membership in a gang is not by itself proof of criminal activ- ity. Many experts and law en- forcement officials report, how- ever, that street gang members as a whole have higher rates of criminal offending than non- gang youth. Gang membership also appears to be linked to criminal activity in adulthood. One study found that a large portion of dangerous juvenile offenders who were gang mem- bers became even more serious adult offenders. A California study found that convicted gang members typically contin- ued their lives of crime after being released from detention. Worse, law enforcement agencies report that the num- ber of felonies-assaults, batter- ies, robberies, burglaries, grand thefts, auto thefts, murders, and weapons violations-commit- ted by street gang members is on the rise. As James C. Howell states in a report prepared for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the gang problem is increasing from the standpoint of more violent offenses, more injuries, and use of more lethal weap- ons. Law enforcement officials expect this trend to continue. Implications for the Federal Judiciary The juvenile justice system is generally considered inade- quate for dealing with hard- core street gang members who are minors. Statejuvenile codes were not designed for the seri- ous violence that characterizes street gang crimes. Gang stat- utes, on the other hand, gener- ally do not cover juveniles. In addition, many state and local prosecutors have expressed frus- tration at the lack of detention facilities forjuveniles and at the corresponding frequency with which juveniles receive proba- tion for felony convictions. Street gangs are aware of the significant differences between the juvenile and adult justice systems and often usejuveniles to commit crimes. To address these and related (continued on next page)

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most