Evaluation of the Tucson Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention and Suppression Program

• NCJ Number: 209190
• Author(s): Irving A. Spergel; Kwai Ming Wa; Rolando V. Sosa
• Date Published: October 2004
• Length: 261 pages
• Grant Number(s): 97-MU-FX-K014-S4
• Agencies: OJJDP-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation

Annotation

This report presents the methodology and findings of the evaluation of the Tucson (Arizona) Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program, which was part of the national evaluation of the model gang program promoted under grants from the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).

Abstract

The OJJDP model involved multiple agencies interactively addressing individual youth, family members, and gang peers. The five core model strategies were community mobilization, social intervention, provision of social opportunities, suppression/social control, and organizational change and development. The Our Town Family Center in Tucson received an OJJDP grant to test this model under a project entitled the Las Vistas/Pueblo Gardens Gang Project. The grant extended from 1996 through 1999. Comparison neighborhoods similar to the project neighborhoods were selected for the purposes of the project evaluation. The targeted areas had an increasing concentration of low-income Hispanic families and a growing youth population, placing them at high risk for an increasing crime rate and gang problems. The project attempted to use an existing coalition of agencies as the project's Steering Committee, but the effort failed, as the project involved only a limited number of social agencies, schools, and community groups, which met sporadically to provide token support and receive information about the project's progress. The program consisted primarily of services to at-risk youth by case managers and outreach youth workers, with an emphasis on early-intervention services for younger juveniles. The evaluation used a series of multivariate analyses to determine any significant differences between project and control areas in total arrests, serious violence arrests, total violence arrests, drug arrests, property arrests, and other minor arrests. The evaluation concluded that project efforts were not sufficient to modify arrest patterns at the individual or community levels. Extensive tables and figures and 60 references