Perceptions of gangs, and crime in general, are affected by a number of different factors including, but not limited to, media accounts, crime trends and rates, and, of course, empirical studies. Law enforcement perceptions, in particular, are influenced by the number of criminal incidents and the heinousness of crimes committed by gang members. Therefore, law enforcement perceptions are likely to reflect the level of criminal activity involving gang members in their jurisdictions.

The 1995 National Youth Gang Survey asked respondents about the severity of the youth gang problem in their jurisdictions. Most respondents (49 percent) believed that the problem was getting worse, 41 percent believed that the problem was staying about the same, and only 10 percent believed it was getting better (see figure 17).

In contrast, 45 percent of respondents to the 1997 National Youth Gang Survey believed that the youth gang problem was staying about the same, and 35 percent felt it was worsening, despite the slight decrease in gang activity reported from 1996 to 1997 (see figure 18). Nevertheless, 20 percent of respondents in the 1997 survey indicated that the problem was getting better, which is twice the percentage of respondents who felt the problem was getting better in 1995.⁹

Table 29 illustrates the perceptions of the youth gang problem in 1997, by area type. The percentage of respondents who felt the youth gang problem was getting worse was highest in suburban and rural counties (43 percent) and lowest in small cities (25 percent). The variation between area types was found to be statistically significant.

Perceptions of the youth gang problem also varied between regions (see table 30). Most respondents (42 percent) in the South indicated that the problem was getting worse in their jurisdictions, and only 17 percent felt it was getting better. The Northeast had the highest percentage (24 percent) of respondents who felt the problem was getting better. These variations were found to be statistically significant.

Population size did not have a significant effect on perceptions of the youth gang problem (see table 31). Perceptions generally varied between population categories in a nonlinear fashion, and no clear trends were apparent. The relationship between perceptions of the youth gang problem and population size is not statistically significant.