NCJ Number
144800
Date Published
1993
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This paper assesses efforts to address the problem of street gangs in the United States.
Abstract
Starting in the 1930's, the typical U.S. response to street gangs was to develop community-based intervention programs to draw gang members into society's mainstream and prevent at-risk youth from joining gangs. This was done by working on employment opportunities and job skills, education opportunities and learning skills, family problems, interpersonal relations, and illegal behaviors. This involved the assignment of youth workers to the gangs to provide counseling and other interventions designed to transform gang values, attitudes, and perceptions. For the most part, law enforcement agencies were not involved in these gang intervention programs. This effort did not stem the growth and criminality of street gangs. The police then took their turn at countering the gang problem through traditional criminal justice means: arrest, conviction, and sentencing. This effort has likewise failed to counter the gang problem. A merging of the two approaches is now occurring, as police realize they cannot deal with the problem alone and as community policing has become the current popular policing strategy. Community policing aims at a cooperative police-community effort that addresses the multiplicity of factors that underlie crime and delinquent behavior. More permanent and pervasive control may better be achieved by building on the community's strengths rather than relying only on the repressive strategies typical of policing.