NCJ Number
223347
Date Published
July 2008
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This fact sheet summarizes National Youth Gang Survey (NYGS) findings from the 2006 survey.
Abstract
Key findings estimated that 3,400 jurisdictions served by city and county law enforcement agencies experienced gang problems in 2006; it is estimated that approximately 785,000 gang members and 26,500 gangs were active in the United States. The 2006 NYGS requested each respondent to provide both specific gang-homicide data and general trends for other serious gang-related crimes in the respondent’s jurisdiction. Among agencies reporting gang problems in smaller cities and rural counties, a large majority (89 and 86 percent respectively) recorded zero gang-related homicides for the year. By comparison, most cities with populations over 100,000 experienced 1 or more gang homicides during the year. For two offenses, aggravated assault and drug sales, more than half of the agencies reported an increase. These two offenses were followed, in descending order, by robbery, larceny/theft, burglary, and auto theft. More than half of the law enforcement agencies reported that intergang conflict (between-gang conflict) and drug-related factors directly affected levels of gang-related violence in their jurisdictions. Somewhat frequently reported (25-50 percent of the agencies) were the following three factors: gang-member migration across U.S. jurisdictions, emergence of new gangs, and the return of gang members from secure confinement. Infrequently reported (less than one-quarter of the agencies) were factors associated with intragang conflict (within-gang conflict) and gang-member migration from outside the United States. Of the 2,551 survey recipients, 2,199 (86 percent) responded to the survey. 1 table and 1 figure