Crime in America.Net
Highlights of the 2008 National Youth Gang Survey
There are approximately 20 indicators of criminal activity involving national data and virtually all point to declining crime.
Per a reader’s request, we created a series on what categories are running contrary to this trend. These include; arrests and incarceration are up for women offenders, incarceration is up slightly (although leveling off and declining in some states). There is one survey (out of several) indicating increased fear of crime and computer crime and teen use of drugs is up.
The data below tells us that gang activity is increasing.
It’s always interesting that different reports will provide unique results which are usually indicative of different methodologies (ways of measuring things). A report on substance abuse stated that there were 900,000 gang members fostering the illegal drug trade in the United States. See http://crimeinamerica.net/2010/03/29/25-million-individuals-reported-using-an-illicit-drug-crime-news-crime-in-america-net/.
Summary of the US Department of Justice report:
Gang activity remains a widespread problem across the United States, with prevalence rates remaining significantly elevated in 2008 compared with recorded lows in the early 2000s.
Approximately one-third of the jurisdictions in the National Youth Gang Survey (NYGS) study population reported gang problems in 2008.
This is a significant change over the 2002 estimate, but a statistically negligible one from 2007.
The National Gang Center estimates that 32.4 percent of all cities, suburban areas, towns, and rural counties (more than 3,330 jurisdictions served by city and county law enforcement agencies) experienced gang problems in 2008.
This represents a 15-percent increase from the 2002 figure.
Approximately 774,000 gang members and 27,900 gangs are estimated to have been active in the United States in 2008.
The number of gangs increased by 28 percent, and the number of gang members increased by 6 percent from 2002 to 2008.
Furthermore, sizable increases are most pronounced for the number of gangs across all population categories over this 7-year span.
See: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/229249.pdf
See: http://crimeinamerica.net/2009/09/24/prevalence-of-gang-problems-in-the-us-us-dept-of-justice/think
You need to be a member of THE STREETS DON'T LOVE YOU BACK to add comments!
Join THE STREETS DON'T LOVE YOU BACK