NCJ Number
148522
Date Published
1993
Length
14 pages
Annotation
The New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety's Youth Gang Initiative have two primary goals: to control existing youth gangs while disrupting their capacity to engage in criminal activity and to prevent the expansion of gang culture and gang identification in the State.
Abstract
The Youth Gang Initiative has proposed a series of interim objectives which will serve as milestones to measure progress toward these goals. Described in detail here, the interim measures include increasing public awareness and recognition of the youth gang problem, identifying New Jersey youth gangs accurately, assessing characteristics of the local youth gang problem in each jurisdiction, prioritizing law enforcement response to the gang problem based on local community conditions and resources, developing local youth gang action strategies, evaluating the effect of these strategies, and mobilizing law enforcement and community resources to counteract the influence of gang culture in New Jersey.