The present Report is part of a general research program conducted by the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, to strengthen the information base on youth gang crime as a national problem. The present Report was being prepared during the time that NYGC was carrying out its first national survey.¹ The two studies are related in several respects. Data in the dataset for this Report were used in the preparation of the 1995 survey in connection with two tasks—the selection of respondent localities and the design of the survey schedule. As noted earlier, the database includes both localities that did not report gang problems and those that did. These two types of localities were treated separately in selecting survey localities and constructing the survey schedule.

The 1995 survey schedule solicited information with respect to the following 10 data categories:

• Existence of gang problems in the 1970's.

• Existence of gang problems in the 1980's.

• Existence of gang problems between 1990 and 1994.

• Existence of gang problems in 1995.

• Number of active youth gangs.

• Number of youth gang members.

• Number of gang homicides.

• Presence of specialized gang units or officers.

• Evaluation of gang problems as worsening or improving.

• Prediction of gang developments in the near future.

The data presented here directly overlap the survey schedule on only two items—existence of gang problems in the 1970's and in the 1980's. The schedule divides the 1990's into two periods—1990 to 1994, and 1995 as a separate year. This Report does not present separate information for 1995, since, as noted earlier, its use of the decade as its major time unit merges data for the 5-year period. Thus, direct comparison of the two studies with respect to the presence of gang problems in the year 1995 is not possible. Comparisons for the 1970's and 1980's, however, are possible.