Gangs in Schools

• NCJ Number: 252842
• Date Published: March 2019
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2014-MU-MU-K011
• Agencies: OJJDP-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance); Report (Grant Sponsored); Instructional Material (Programmed)

Annotation

This guide provides schools and law enforcement agencies with proven practices and collaborative techniques for identifying, assessing, and addressing gang activity in schools.

Abstract

Because gang members do not suspend their gang values and behaviors while in school, schools must be prepared by developing a strategic, collaborative, and effective school safety plan that will counter violence and other disruptive behaviors characteristic of gang members. The U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP's) Comprehensive Gang Model emphasizes a collaborative approach that has roles for all agencies and organizations that are responsible for addressing gang-related crime and violence. The three-pronged approach of this model involves prevention, intervention, and suppression. Prevention focuses on the early identification of gang-related occurrences and trends in the community and school. Evidence-based services and activities should discourage a youth from joining a gang. Intervention strategies focus on youth who exhibit some level of involvement in a gang, providing such youth with evidence-based services that facilitate leaving a gang. Strategies for suppression of gangs and gang-related behaviors focus on countering risk factors that stimulate or promote gang behavior in schools. The major sections of this guide address how to recognize gang activity; the creation of a collaboration between schools and law enforcement agencies in addressing gang issues; and examples of school gang prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies. A list of 13 resources