Conclusion
Gangs are very prevalent in schools. More than one-third (37 percent) of the students surveyed in the 1995 SCS reported gangs in their schools. This number included nearly two-thirds of Hispanic students, almost one-half of black students, and one-third of white students. Students in middle to late adolescence who lived in households with incomes of less than $7,500 and who had been victimized personally were most likely to report gang presence. These students were most likely to attend public schools that they (or their parents or guardians) had chosen in cities with populations between 100,000 and 1 million. These largely urban schools employed a large number of security measures, had high rates of victimization, and were places where drugs were readily available. The most criminally active gangs were reported by 15- to 17-year-old students of either gender.This analysis shows a fairly high level of consensus among students with respect to indicators of youth gangs. Gang indicators used by students should be researched further to develop empirical indicators of gangs in schools that school officials and others could use in developing community-wide antigang programs and strategies.
The students reported that most of the gangs they see at school are actively involved in criminal activities. About two-thirds of the students reported that gangs are involved in none or only one of three types of criminal acts: violence, drug sales, or carrying guns. Nevertheless, students said that a small proportion of gangs in schools (8 percent) are involved in all three types of crimes, and these gangs are probably responsible for the most disruption and violent victimization in and around schools.
Readers should note that only three types of crimes—violence, drug sales, and carrying guns—were included in this study. Data from the National Youth Gang Surveys (National Youth Gang Center, 1999a and b) and studies of representative urban samples of adolescents (see Thornberry, 1998, for a summary of four major studies) show that youth gangs are actively involved in a wide variety of offenses not analyzed in this Bulletin.
Nevertheless, many of the gangs in and around schools that are not actively involved in the criminal activities discussed in this Bulletin may not be actively involved in serious crimes. These gangs may be qualitatively different from typical youth gangs that have a large proportion of adult members and are fully committed to a "criminal orientation" (Klein, 1995, 30; see also, Wiebe, Meeker, and Vila, in press). Thus, it is very important for school officials, working in collaboration with law enforcement and others in the community, to assess the extent of gang involvement in criminal activity so that resources can be directed toward efforts that address the most criminally active and disruptive gangs.
The presence of gangs is correlated with criminal activity and the use of self-protective measures that indicate an atmosphere of perceived danger in the school environment. It is not clear, however, that gangs are a direct cause of criminal victimization at school. Belonging to gangs may be a type of self-protection employed by students in response to threatening school and community environments. In the original report on the SCS, the study team noted that "various types of problems tended to co-exist. For instance, student reports of drug availability, gang presence, and gun presence at school were all related to student reports of having experienced violent victimization at school" (Chandler et al., 1998, p. 12). The analyses presented in this Bulletin found a high correlation between student victimization of all types and gang presence. Both gangs and criminal victimization in schools are products of disorder in schools (see Gottfredson and Gottfredson, 1985; Welsh, Green, and Jenkins, 1999) and a host of other factors in the school, family, community, peer group, and individual domains (Hill et al., 1999; Loeber and Farrington, 1998). This could account for the positive relationship between gang presence and the use of self-protective security measures in schools.
Nevertheless, gangs contribute significantly to school-related victimization. An analysis of gang arrests reported by 22 law enforcement agencies throughout Orange County, CA, showed that violent gang crimes began to escalate early in the school day and peaked early in the afternoon and again long after the schoolday ended (Wiebe, Meeker, and Vila, in press). In contrast, overall juvenile violence has been found to peak immediately after the end of the schoolday (Sickmund, Snyder, and Poe-Yamagata, 1997). The Orange County data suggest that schools and surrounding communities need to implement gang intervention measures throughout the school day to prevent and reduce gang violence. The school security measures analyzed in this study do not appear to be solutions, in and of themselves, to gang problems. Other interventions need to be implemented along with school security measures to combat gangs in schools (see Howell, 2000; Gottfredson and Gottfredson, 1999, for promising and effective interventions).
| Previous | Contents | Next |
 |
|
| Youth Gangs in Schools | |