MENU TITLE: General Community Design TA Manual. Series: OJJDP Published: Draft 1/92 88 pages 167,061 bytes Figures, charts, forms, and tables are not included in this ASCII plain-text file. To view this document in its entirety, download the Adobe Acrobat graphic file available from this Web site or order a print copy from NCJRS at 800-851-3420. GENERAL COMMUNITY DESIGN Technical Assistance Manual Irving A. Spergel National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program School of Social Service Administration University of Chicago Distributed by: Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse Box 6000 Rockville, MD 20849-6000 1-800-638-8736 ------------------------------ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The General Community Design Technical Assistance Manual could not have been formulated or completed without the help of a great many people from various agencies and organizations around the country. Many persons made comments on earlier drafts, participated in reviews of the manuals at different conferences, and provided useful material. These persons and their organizations have developed an extensive body of ideas and experience that is important in constructing antigang programs. Special appreciation is expressed for the extensive help provided by: Elizabeth Buhman, Ph.D., Research Specialist, Research and Policy Division, Office of the Attorney General, Austin, Texas Jim Copple, Executive Director, Project Freedom, Wichita, Kansas Mona Gonzalez, Austin Gang Task Force, Austin, Texas Ray Gott, Captain, Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles, California Michael Genelin, Deputy Head, Hard Core Division, Los Angeles County District Attorney, Los Angeles, California Malcolm W. Klein, Professor and Director, Center for Research on Crime and Social Control, Social Science Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California Walter B. Miller, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts Brother Leon Modesto, Soledad Enrichment Action Program, Los Angeles, California Thanks are also expressed to the following for their assistance in the development of the General Community Design Technical Assistance Manual: Xavier Cortada, Chair, City of Miami Task Force, Miami, Florida Miguel Duran, Director of Special Youth Services, Los Angeles County Probation Department, Downey, California Katherine Montgomery, Director of Public Affairs, Humana Hospital-Aurora, Aurora, Colorado Steve Valdiva, Community Youth Gang Services, Executive Director, Los Angeles, California Natalie D. Salazar, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, California Sandra Stehno O'Donnell, Professor, Public Administration Program, Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois Responsibility for the General Community Design Manual, however, must rest with the author. ------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Program Mission and Background Purpose of the Manuals Problem Statement Discussion of Terms and Issues (See also Appendix B Glossary) Approach to the Problem Overview of the General Community Design Summary CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM, POLICY, AND RESOURCE ASSESSMENT Purpose of the Assessment Recognition of the Problem Structure and Commitment to Assessment Gathering Information Findings and Recommendations Resolving Issues of Politics, Policy, and Program Development Funding Criteria: Setting the Stage for Effective Programming Summary CHAPTER 3: DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH GANG POLICY AND PROGRAM STRUCTURE Nature of the Interagency/Community Council Chronic versus Emerging Contexts Public versus Voluntary Agency Sponsorship Inclusivity of Interests Managing the Stages of the Planning Process Influencing Related Social Policy Summary CHAPTER 4: PROGRAM GOALS, STRATEGIES, AND OBJECTIVES Selection of Appropriate Goals and Strategies Implementation Summary CHAPTER 5: RELEVANT CROSS-AGENCY, CROSS COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING Programs that Don't Work Programs that are Promising Principles of "Effective" Programming Summary CHAPTER 6: COORDINATION AND COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION Inclusion of a Broad, Diverse Set of Community Interests Development of Adequate Channels of Communication Creating Consistent Policies Within and Across Organizations Mobilizing Local Citizens and Groups to Deal With the Problem Leadership Development Summary CHAPTER 7: STAFF SELECTION AND STAFF TRAINING Staff Selection Staff Education and Training Summary CHAPTER 8: FUNDING Funding Principles Funding Sources Summary CHAPTER 9: RESEARCH AND EVALUATION Policy Development Research Program Development Research and Outcome Evaluation Summary APPENDIX A: LIST OF PROGRAM REPORTS APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY AND DISCUSSION OF TERMS APPENDIX C: TABLES APPENDIX D: A RESEARCH PARADIGM BIBLIOGRAPHY ------------------------------ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Justice Department, entered into a cooperative agreement with the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, to conduct the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program. Technical Assistance manuals were created as part of a four-stage Research and Development process. The mission of suppression and intervention was specified as requiring five key strategies: community mobilization, opportunities provision, social intervention, suppression, and organizational change and development. The present manual, one of twelve, describes the steps required, particularly at the citywide level, to address the youth gang problem. The assessment of the problem first requires that it be recognized in a particular community. A temporary structure must be established to define the resources available to deal with it. Information must be gathered from various sources. Issues of differences in perception and policy must be addressed. The development of the program and resources must be based on a collaborative and balanced approach in which program operators are held accountable for targeting the problem. A structure and various mechanisms must be created for the development of interagency and communitywide policy and program. The stages of the planning process must be appropriately managed to include: the tendency to deny or exaggerate the problem, initial program development needs, crises of sponsorship, the tendency to goal displacement and community conflict, the development of sustained effective programming, and an adequate impact evaluation. Selection of policies and planning for program implementation required targeting certain types of neighborhoods, gangs, and gang youth. Interagency agreements are called for and measurable objectives developed to achieve program objectives and collaboration among agencies and community groups. Long- and short-term objectives must be clearly spelled out and administering procedures developed. External advisory groups must be created. Some general programming principals must be accepted: gangs should not be regarded as legitimate community organizations; individual gang youth should be treated with respect and sensitivity but held accountable for their actions; parents should be enlisted in efforts to deal with gang members; and the police must be concerned with youth social development as well as crime suppression. Schools must collaborate with human service agencies in coping with a range of individual student and family problems that contribute to school problems, including gang activity. Employers may also have to be closely involved with other agencies in addressing the problem. Coordination and community participation are based on the inclusion of broad community interests and open channels of communication. The development of appropriate mechanisms is necessary for sharing information and contributing to the understanding of the problem and what to do about it. In this process, citizen leaders must participate widely in the various programs developed, including decisionmaking. Gang suppression and intervention planning and programming require the selection of competent professional and grassroots staff. No one type of worker is sufficient to deal with the complexities of the gang problem. Both short- and long-term training and educational programs must be designed. Curricula should deal with such topics as gang structure and dynamics, understanding the community, and ways to develop effective relationships with representatives of various agencies and community groups. High family priority must be given to interagency and collaborative projects that emphasize provision of opportunities, such as remedial education, training, and jobs for high-risk gang- prone youth as well as core gang members. A variety of new funding sources have been recently developed, especially at Federal levels. But multiple sources of funding over time are required for antigang programs to remain viable. Finally, planners of policy and broad citywide programs should encourage the development of sophisticated and rigorous evaluation designs to determine the effectiveness of strategies. ------------------------------ CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION o Program Mission and Background o Purpose of the Manuals o Problem Statement o Discussion of Terms and Issues o Approach to the Problem o Overview of the General Community Design Manual o Summary Program Mission and Background Criminal youth gang activity represents a serious threat to the safety and security of local citizens and impedes positive youth development. In recent years, higher levels of youth gang violence and gang member-related drug trafficking has been reported in an increasing number of neighborhoods, high schools, public housing projects, correctional institutions, and other social contexts throughout the country. In response, the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Justice Department, entered into a cooperative agreement with the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, in October 1987 to conduct the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program. This program is a four-stage Research and Development process: Assessment, Prototype/Model Development, Technical Assistance, and Testing. Three of the four stages have been completed. Stage 1 included a comprehensive review of the research and program literature on youth gangs, a survey of programs in 45 cities, selected site visits, conferences, and special studies. During Stage 2, gang suppression and intervention models were produced for police, prosecutors, judges, probation, corrections, parole, schools, employment, community-based youth agencies, and grassroots organizations. Additionally, separate manuals for comprehensive planning and for community mobilization were developed. Stage 3 involved the creation of 12 technical assistance manuals which provide guidelines to implement the policies and procedures presented in the models. The ten agency manuals specify both organizational and community perspectives for dealing with the youth gang problem. The other two manuals outline specific procedures and processes of planning and organizing a comprehensive community approach to youth gang suppression and intervention. (See Appendix A for a list of documents.) The program models and technical assistance manuals were based on the findings of the initial project assessment stage as well as extensive consultations with policymakers, administrators, and practitioners at local and national levels. Two regional conferences were held with policymakers and administrators from 16 cities who contributed to the development of the final version of the manuals. Purpose of the Manuals The purpose of the technical assistance manuals is to present detailed steps for the control and reduction of youth gang crime, especially gang- motivated violence. The manuals seek to provide governmental authorities, criminal justice organizations, social agencies, and community groups with strategies that encourage gang-prone and gang-involved youth to terminate criminal activity and participate in legitimate social, academic, and employment pursuits. Broad preventive policies that deal with larger social issues such as poverty and racism, housing, education, jobs, and health care are addressed only on a limited basis in the manuals. Key issues of family breakdown, violence in the media, and the proliferation of sophisticated weapons need to be directly addressed as they contribute to the youth gang problem. They are dealt with here mainly as conditions within which special organizational policies and procedures and community mobilization must be developed. Local administrators and policymakers are the primary audience, but the manuals should also be useful to other officials and personnel concerned with the problem, including agency supervisors, front-line workers, and community volunteers. The manuals are not intended to serve in the place of more general models and manuals dealing with delinquent or troublesome youth in the criminal justice and human service fields; they are intended as a supplement to them. Even so, the manuals should be of value in dealing with youth crime more generally. This is because the youth gang problem can be viewed as part of a larger set of crime and delinquency and youth socialization problems. Problem Statement During the 1980's and early 1990's, more criminally oriented and better organized gangs or cliques have become prevalent in many urban communities. More young people from diverse backgrounds and settings are joining gangs to meet social and economic needs not satisfied through existing institutions, e.g., family, school, and employment. The youth gang has become an alternative, mainly antisocial, institution for an increasing number of youth. Why youth gangs have developed and become more criminal and complex organizations is not clear. The type and severity of youth gang problems may be largely a response to two conditions, poverty or limited access to social opportunities and social disorganization, i.e., the lack of integration and stability of social institutions including family, school, and employment in a local community. Certain factors exacerbate these two social conditions to produce varying gang subcultures and systems. They include: o large and rapid population movement of low- income minorities into a community; o intergenerational gang traditions; o defects of social policy and coordination of service delivery at local and national levels; o institutional racism; o insecurities of certain working and middle class populations "threatened" by newcomers; and o the growth of criminal opportunities. Examples are the following: Violent youth gang subcultures often develop when gang-affiliated African-American and Hispanic youth move from central cities to smaller cities and suburban areas without adequate social, family, economic, and educational supports. Violent gang subcultures may also develop when new waves of poor immigrants from Mexico, Central America, the Pacific Islands, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Korea, the Philippines, and other Asian countries arrive in urban communities. The newcomer groups are often met with hatred and resentment, sometimes manifested in physical attacks. Gangs may form and become rapidly entrenched, first as defensive, and then as offensive groups. Furthermore, in ghetto, inner-city African- American, and Hispanic communities, a limited criminal opportunity system often develops. Gangs in these communities may change from status- oriented, conflict groups and assume a highly predatory, criminal-gain character. Over time, sophisticated instrumental rather than traditional or status-oriented youth gangs may develop, with special interest in drug trafficking and other economic criminal activity. In some communities across the country, particularly in the western States but increasingly elsewhere, the influx of low-income and working class Pacific-Islander and Asian groups -- e.g., Tongan, Filipino, Hong Kong, Korean, Vietnamese, Laotian, or Cambodian -- has resulted in other varieties of youth gang problems. Second-generation youths, who were born in this country or who arrived as pre-teens, may seek protection, prestige, and income through gang membership. Some of these gangs adopt African- American or Hispanic gang patterns; others become closely connected to traditional ethnic-based, adult criminal organizations. Criminal activities can include home invasions, business extortion, robbery, rape, intimidation and a range of racket activities. These newcomer youth gangs, and the Asian communities upon which they prey, are difficult for local law enforcement, schools, and community organizations to penetrate or influence because of cultural, communication, and trust problems. Some blue-collar or middle class communities are characterized by growing economic, social, and cultural pressures as well as by increasing family or personal disorganization. Some of these formerly stable, predominately white communities have become centers for youth groups with a "nothing to lose attitude." Youth gangs or their equivalent such as Satanic, Stoner, punk rocker, hate, Neo-Nazi, or racist Skinhead groups may participate in a wide range of loosely organized criminal acts, characterized by perverse and negative behavior, including vandalism, drug use, homosexual assaults, and even homicides. Additionally, in certain stable, lower middle class communities, whether African-American, Latino, Pacific Islander, Asian, white, or Native American, the gang problem may assume a more organized and usually less violent character. Youth may become relatively more involved in extortion, car theft, burglary, robbery, sophisticated drug trafficking, and various lucrative quasi-racket activities which are not necessarily conducted in the "home communities." Legitimate business and criminal interests may be relatively well integrated. Furthermore, specialization of criminal youth gang patterns by race and ethnicity seemingly exists. Economic, social, and cultural factors may, in fact, be the cause. Thus, some African-American youth gang or clique members may be heavily engaged in street-level crack-cocaine trafficking; Mexican-American youth gang members may be relatively more involved in violent turf-based activity, and Asian gang members may be more mobile and closely related to adult crime organizations involved in crimes such as extortion, robbery, and international drug trafficking. However, these youth gang subcultures also exist side by side, interact, integrate with, or succeed each other over time. In some communities youth gangs are interracial and interethnic. In spite of the many and changing varieties of gang subcultures that can be found, a common denominator among them is that most of these groups are comprised of youth who share somewhat similar values and a keen sense of personal failure and low self-esteem. For many gang youth, violence has become an acceptable way of life, partially sanctioned by the larger society. Violence is seen on nightly newscasts, in the movies, on evening television and Saturday morning cartoons, and encouraged by certain "rap" stars. Violence is projected as a means of resolving authority, low self-esteem, and race/ethnic problems. Discussion of Terms and Issues (See also Appendix B Glossary) It is important to accurately identify key components of the youth gang problem in order not to exaggerate, deny, or mythologize them. This is necessary to develop appropriate policies and procedures to deal with the different or varying street gang problems and subcultures encountered. These components are: 1) the criminal youth gang, 2) the youth gang member, and 3) the gang incident. The central focus of the manuals is control and reduction of gang-motivated violence. We are not primarily interested in highly organized drug trafficking by groups concerned only with profit, although there are often important connections between these associations and the youth or street gang. However, we are concerned with drug trafficking or predatory youth cliques to the extent they participate in, depend on, and influence the development of violent gang activities. Youth gang members engage increasingly in both violent, status-related and entrepreneurial or predatory criminal activities. If a youth group engages primarily in criminal entrepreneurial activity and participates periodically in serious violence, it falls within the scope of our concern. Our concern is also with differences between emerging and chronic gang problem communities and the need for prevention and especially early intervention services. 1. Criminal Youth Gang This is a group often comprising both juveniles and young adults who engage in a range of social and anti-social behaviors. Cliques or members engage repetitively or at times spontaneously in violent, predatory, and criminal gain behaviors. The criminal youth gang may be located within a neighborhood or across neighborhoods and even cities. It may be loosely or well organized with established rules of conduct. The youth gang may have a name, turf, colors, signs, symbols, and distinctive dress. The youth gang often promotes mutual support among members and conflict with competing gangs or established authority. Many of these groups are traditional turf-based gangs. Traditionally, the primary function of the youth gang has been to establish or protect the group's reputation and status within a framework of shared or communal values. This continues to be true for many youth gangs today. Some youth gangs, however, do not display colors and are not primarily concerned with social status, but are more gain-oriented and more rationally organized. 2. The Youth Gang Member While the criminal youth gang includes some youth who conform primarily to conventional norms, most engage in a range of criminal behaviors. Most gang participants are in the age range of 12 to 24 years, although some preadolescents as well as persons into their 50's have been reportedly engaged in gang activities. However, the most serious and violent gang activity tends to be committed by older adolescents and young adults. Some gang members may join for period as short as a day, a week, or a month; others are members for years. Some members move from low to high gang status, from less serious to more serious criminal gang behaviors, and vice versa, sometimes in different gangs. Far fewer females than males join youth gangs, although with the increase in number of gangs throughout the country, more female members are probably involved in serious youth gang activities than in an earlier era. Available evidence indicates, however, that females usually join gangs later and leave earlier, and are usually involved in less violent or serious criminal behavior than males. About nine times as many males as females are arrested for gang crimes according to several studies. Less than one percent of gang homicide offenders are female. Female members typically are in groups affiliated with male gangs. Sometimes females are integrated directly as members into the gang proper, and are less frequently involved in independent all-female criminal youth gangs. In a few cities, there is some recent evidence that females have assumed leadership roles in certain gang or criminal group activities, such as drug trafficking. Special attention needs to be directed at high-risk female gang members who are likely to be physically and sexually victimized, or who induce or facilitate male gang member assaults against other gangs. Traditional gangs may have different type of members: identifiable leaders, core, regular, associate, soldier, peripheral, wannabe, floater, veteran, or old-head. The presence and definition of these categories of gang members, however, may be quite variable across the country. Of special interest, for purposes of control and prevention are two categories of gang youth: 1) the more serious, hardcore, often older gang youths, and 2) the younger, high-risk, often less committed gang youths. Agencies need to carefully identify gangs and gang members. This process should depend on use of multiple criteria such as gang member self- identification, statements by reliable witnesses, verification by a second independent agency source, prior police records, and the youth's regular association with a known gang member. Participation by the youth in certain serious gang-motivated criminal incidents such as drive-by shootings must ordinarily precipitate a gang member identification process for gang suppression and intervention purposes. 3. The Gang Incident A gang incident is the unit for classifying and reporting an event as a gang crime, especially for law enforcement purposes. Reported gang incidents become the basis for determining whether a gang problem exists and for assessing its scope. The gang homicide is usually the key and most reliable measure of the seriousness of gang crime. However, identification of gang incidents, e.g., homicide, assault, or robbery, is neither a simple nor a standard procedure. Two different procedures, or variations of them, are currently employed to determine whether a gang incident has occurred and should be recorded for law enforcement, and, consequently, public policy purposes. o Gang-Motivated In this procedure, a criminal act is defined as a gang incident if it grows out of gang motivation, interest, or specific circumstances that enhance the status or function of the gang. Examples include: intergang violence, gang retaliation, turf protection, intimidation, robbery, recruitment, or other criminal activity that affects the gang's reputation or interests as a whole. One or more members of the gang may be involved as a suspect, witness, offender, or victim in these circumstances. In classifying the incident, focus is on the nature of the specific situation in which the illegal act occurs, such as a drive-by shooting or the yelling of a gang slogan in the course of the crime. Crimes such as burglary, car theft, prostitution, and drug trafficking by a gang member are problematic because it is hard to determine whether the act is gang-motivated. Many criminal acts serve individual member needs unrelated to gang interests. On the other hand, seemingly individual or self-serving crimes by gang or aspiring gang youth may be gang-motivated. For example, a youth may be required or feel compelled to commit a particular property or person crime because of pressures by the gang. o Gang-Related This procedure is based on the characterization of a crime or delinquent act as a gang incident when the suspect, offender, or victim is a gang member, regardless of gang motivation or circumstances. Usually any serious criminal act, especially of a violent, predatory, or drug trafficking nature, in which a gang member is involved, can be classified as a gang incident. For example, the crime of a gang member who steals from a store -- even though that act has nothing directly to do with his gang membership -- would be classified as a gang- related incident. (See Appendix B for a discussion of mixed situations and erroneous classification of group delinquency as gang crime.) o Which Definition to Use The argument in favor of using the gang-motivated definition is that it focuses sharply on the circumstances of the incident rather than the identification of the individual as a gang member. It may be more precise and valid than the gang- related definition. It withstands court challenges better. It also avoids excessive labelling or exaggeration of the gang problem. The counter argument is that the gang-motivated definition minimizes the actual scope of the gang crime problem. It encourages organizational or community denial of the problem. A key assumption of the proponents of the gang-related definition is that a gang member is likely to engage in a wide range of serious crimes because gang membership predisposes him or her to do so. Evidence for this argument is not substantial, however. Police and prosecutors generally believe that it is desirable to identify gang members and their activities as completely as possible. Police are particularly concerned that the full range of criminal activities of the gang member be available for efficient tracking and investigation purposes. We recommend a procedure that avoids excessive labelling of youth but ensures protection of the community. A gang-incident procedure should be devised which records and distinguishes between gang-motivated and non-gang-motivated crime committed by the gang member. All serious criminal incidents by repeat gang offenders should be clearly "flagged" on criminal justice computer systems. An effective computerized information system permits use of either or both procedures to track gang-motivated incidents and gang member crime. 4. Gang Problem Contexts, Chronic and Emerging With the growth and spread of the youth gang problem, a twofold categorization of the problem context has come into use: Chronic and Emerging. Our manuals stress the differences in these contexts as a basis for the development of distinctive strategies, policies, and procedures for gang suppression and intervention. Simply put, a more preventive or early intervention approach may be required in the emerging gang problem context, while a more elaborate and formalized suppression, intervention, and prevention approach may be necessary in the chronic context. o Chronic Gang Problem Context This organizational or community context is characterized by persistent or periodic crises of major gang member violence and sometimes related drug trafficking extending over a five- to ten- year or more period, or even decades. Youth gangs are usually better organized in such communities which are often located in larger or older cities. These contexts are likely to be found in impoverished, ghetto, or transitional areas or ports of entry of inner cities, although they are increasingly found in smaller cities and suburban communities. o Emerging Gang Problem Context This organizational or community context is characterized by less well organized and persistent but at times serious forms of gang violence and gang member drug trafficking. The gang problem has usually been present and/or recognized for five years or less. To some extent, the development and spread of the problem may be traced to the influence of new settlers or gang crime entrepreneurs -- for example, drug traffickers -- from chronic problem cities or contexts. Youth gangs in emerging problem areas tend to be fewer in number and most often evolve out of local delinquent, sometimes social groups under deteriorating economic or social situations for minority, newcomer, or socially isolated populations. The distinction between the concepts of chronic and emerging gang problem communities, however, are not sharp. Indicators related to the onset of the problem, its duration, degree of gang organization, severity of gang violence and related gang member drug trafficking, as well as the appropriate response to the problem(s) are not neatly categorized by the terms "chronic" and "emerging." Emerging gang problem communities may develop into chronic; and chronic gang problem communities may go through periods of sharply diminished gang activity before the problem reemerges. Different parts of a community or jurisdiction may be characterized by different stages or degrees of severity of the problem at a given time. 5. Variability of Gang, Drug Trafficking, and Crime Problems For policy and program purposes, it is important to understand that youth gangs involved in gang violence are not necessarily involved in drug trafficking. Some communities that have high levels of youth gang violence may have relatively low levels of drug trafficking; other communities with high levels of drug trafficking may have low levels of youth gang activity. Drug trafficking may succeed, or serve either to diminish or increase, patterns of youth gang violence. Finally, high levels of general criminality in a community do not necessarily indicate high levels of gang activity. Some cities with the highest levels of youth homicide and drug trafficking may have relatively limited youth gang activity. 6. Prevention The focus of this and the other technical assistance manuals in our Research and Development program is on issues of intervention and suppression in contexts where the gang problem is clearly present. Here, prevention refers mainly to secondary forms of prevention, or early intervention, which reduces the likelihood that the highly gang-prone or the younger gang member will commit or continue to commit gang crimes. This is to be accomplished through effective controls, direct treatment or services, and provision of legitimate opportunities. In our conception, prevention requires change and development both by the individual youth as well as his or her social environment. Most youth from low-income and social problem- ridden communities are not involved in delinquent gang activities. Finally, we note that a simple prevention model that emphasizes exclusive concern with younger youth may be unsuccessful. Such a model does not take into consideration system effects, including the influence of older youth on "wannabe" or younger youth. All key components of the problem need to be systematically addressed. Approach to the Problem The manuals specify five major lines of action or strategies: community mobilization, opportunities provision, suppression, social intervention, and organizational change and development. These strategies must be combined or emphasized in different ways depending on the problem context, the specific mission of the organization, and the kind of youth targeted for special attention. 1. Community Mobilization Community mobilization is necessary in socially disorganized communities. Social disorganization, which contributes to the development of criminal youth gangs, may be characterized by the inability of legitimate institutions such as home, school, and employment, to adequately socialize youth. It may also be characterized by the fragmentation of criminal justice or community service delivery systems, within and across communities. Both local and Federal interests must be mobilized for the development of collaborative community and interagency activities directed at the control and reduction of the youth gang problem. In times of restricted local community resources, agency consortium efforts are essential. These should include the full and productive use of local, State, and Federal resources; application of moral and political pressures; and participation by the local citizenry. (See also General Community Design and Community Mobilization manuals.) 2. Opportunities Provision The provision of additional social opportunities, i.e., the development of a variety of targeted educational, training, and employment programs, is the second most important component over the long term for the reduction and prevention of the youth gang problem, particularly in chronic contexts. The schools need to provide remedial and enriched educational programs for gang-prone and hardcore gang youths. Education, training, and jobs are especially critical for older gang youth still in gangs who are not in school but who are at "positive risk" at a certain point in their social maturation for leaving the gangs, or for decreased participation in criminal gang activity. A key objective of these programs should be developing socially competent youth, whether in or out of school. (See School and Employment manuals.) 3. Social Intervention Youth-serving agencies and grassroots community groups must "reach out" and act as a link between gang youth and the conventional world. Staff or adult volunteers of these organizations must develop meaningful relationships with these youth. Community-based youth agencies should facilitate access to pertinent opportunity systems and exercise social controls that contribute to socialization of gang youth. Special efforts are also required to coordinate services for these youth. (See Community-Based Youth Agency manual.) 4. Suppression Social control procedures, particularly those of criminal justice, but also of community-based agencies, are essential for community protection and the prevention and reduction of the problem. Youth gang suppression involves not only law enforcement but a variety of other agencies and community groups in the targeting, monitoring, supervision, and if necessary, restraint of gang offenders. It also requires the anticipation, prevention, and limitation of the effects of gang crime in particular situations to protect both youth participants and the community. Arrest, prosecution, imprisonment, and close supervision of gang youth are insufficient, however, unless joined with other community- oriented strategies to achieve long-term impact on the problem. This means that community-based agencies and local groups must accept and collaborate with criminal justice agencies in patrol, surveillance, and certain information sharing under conditions that protect both youth and the community. Police, prosecution, and other criminal justice agencies must develop a variety of social intervention, opportunities, prevention, and community involvement programs to supplement their primary goal of suppressing gang crime. (See especially Police, Prosecution, and Probation manuals.) Furthermore, policymakers, administrators, and practitioners in the criminal justice system have a special responsibility to withstand pressures from the public and other units of the justice system to carry out an exclusive strategy of suppression to deal with the youth gang problem. 5. Organizational Change and Development Finally, the above strategies need to be appropriately organized based on the nature and scope of the problem in the community and the mission of the particular organization. Organizational development and change requires better use and reallocation of available resources within agencies and neighborhoods. Common definitions, improved communication, resident involvement, and coordination within as well as across agencies and communities are also required. Both community mobilization and organizational development strategies, whether in emerging or chronic gang problem contexts, should be closely interrelated to create efficient and cohesive system arrangements for dealing with the gang problem. 6. Targeting To conserve resources and most effectively deal with the youth gang problem, it is important to target certain communities, organizational contexts, gangs, and gang members or gang-prone youth. Special emphasis on community mobilization is required in both emerging and chronic gang communities. Opportunity provision must also be emphasized for chronic problem communities and contexts. Neighborhoods and organizations, particularly schools, experiencing serious gang problems, should be priority targets for suppression and intervention efforts. Certain youth gangs or gang-like groups clearly committed to violent and serious criminal activity should receive priority attention. This is to avoid unnecessary labelling and widening the net of gang delinquency and crime through inappropriate criminal justice and community-based agency attention. It is also to concentrate resources on the heart of the present problem. Finally, individual youth should be targeted in the following order of priority purposes: o First, leadership and core gang youths -- to disrupt gang networks, protect the community, and facilitate the reintegration of these youths through community-based or institutional programming into legitimate pursuits; o Second, high-risk gang-prone youth who are often younger or aspiring gang members who give clear indication of beginning participation in criminal gang activities -- to prevent further criminal gang involvement through early intervention, preferably community-based services; and o Third, regular and peripheral gang members -- to generally address their needs for control and intervention services. Finally, a caution! The policies, procedures, and steps recommended in the manuals should be viewed as promising but as yet not systematically researched through field testing. Overview of the General Community Design This manual identifies the key steps to be taken by the planner in the design of a community approach to dealing with the youth gang problem. It stresses the importance of problem and resource analysis and the development of appropriate structures, including policy and program mechanisms. It focuses on the nature of relevant programming and targeting by certain youth area agencies for purposes of suppression and intervention. How to coordinate agency, program, and local community leaders and residents is described. Issues of funding and program evaluation are also stressed. This manual is distinguished from the Community Mobilization and Grassroot Organization manuals by its emphasis on technical planning and analysis required by the policymaker or administrator who must take a broad city or areawide interagency view of the problem and develop a coordinated approach to it. It deals with, but does not emphasize, issues of organizing support for the overall plan of suppression and intervention; it does not primarily address neighborhood issues of organizing. The three manuals are complementary. The General Community Design Model should also be referred to, since it provides rationales for many of the steps and procedures recommended in this manual. The action areas covered in the manual are: I. Problem, Policy, and Measure Assessment II. Development of Youth Gang Policy and Program Structure III. Program Goals, Strategies, and Objectives IV. Relevant Cross-Agency, Cross-Community Programming V. Coordination and Community Participation VI. Staff Selection and Training VII. Funding VIII. Research and Evaluation Summary The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Justice Department, entered into a cooperative agreement with the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, to conduct the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program. The scope and seriousness of the problem was analyzed from both an organizational and community perspective. Models or prototypes were developed. Technical Assistance manuals were created that focussed on the implementation of policies and procedures in emerging and chronic gang problem communities and contexts. The manuals address the gang problem in terms of critical characteristics of the youth gang, its members and the way the problem is defined. Focus is on controlling, reducing, and preventing gang- motivated violent and serious criminal youth gang activity. The mission of suppression and intervention is specified as requiring five key strategies: community mobilization, opportunities provision, social intervention, suppression, and organizational change and development. Key targets of a program should be gang leaders and core members as well as high-risk gang-prone youth. This manual describes the steps required in the planning process, particularly at a citywide level, to address the youth gang problem. Issues of analysis, organization, policy, and evaluation are emphasized in planning. There has been an increase in the youth gang problem and the need for information and guidance. This technical assistance manual is part of a four-stage research and development process. Twelve manuals have been produced. The purpose is to present a set of guidelines to reduce youth gang crime. Administrators and policymakers are the primary audience. The gang problem has changed and grown more serious in most regions of the country. Poverty and social disorganization are key conditions contributing to the problem. Under different community conditions, different types of gang problems appear to develop. There are variations in the gang problem by race/ethnicity, class, and newcomer status. Growing economic, social, and cultural pressure can contribute to the development of youth gangs. Violence projected by the media may exacerbate the problem. Key components of the problem are the youth gang, youth gang member, and the gang incident. Gang-motivated violence is the key but not exclusive concern of the manual. The traditional youth gang is turf-based and status-oriented, but other kinds of gangs have developed. The focus of concern is the youth gang member, 12 to 24 years of age. Fewer females than males are gang members. Attention needs to be directed at high-risk female gang members. Different types of gang members should be carefully identified. Different definitions of the gang incident exist. The gang-motivated definition focuses on the nature of the criminal act. The gang-related definition focuses on identification of the criminal suspect as a gang member. The narrow gang-motivated definition avoids excessive labelling. The gang-related definition may be more useful to criminal justice officials. Emerging and chronic gang problem contexts may require different suppression and intervention approaches. The gang problem has had a longer history and is usually better organized and more severe in the chronic context. The gang problem is recent, less well organized, but sometimes very serious in the emerging context. High levels of general crime and gang crime are not necessarily closely associated. Secondary prevention is included in the manuals' perspective. Different strategies of suppression and intervention have been identified. Community mobilization is critically important. The opportunities provision strategy focuses on the importance of education, training, and jobs for high-risk gang-prone and gang member youth. Social intervention is based on an "outreach" and linkage approach of gang youth to the conventional society. The strategy of suppression is defined in broad social control terms and requires more than the involvement of criminal justice agencies. Criminal justice strategies must also include community mobilization, social intervention, and opportunities provision. Organizational development and change focuses on better use of internal agency resources to deal with the youth gang problem. Targeting of certain communities, gangs, and gang members is necessary to make best use of limited resources for dealing with the problem. High gang crime neighborhoods, certain types of gangs, and gang members should receive priority attention. Key targets of community agency and grassroots attention should be leadership and core gang as well as high-risk gang-prone youths. ------------------------------ CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM, POLICY, AND RESOURCE ASSESSMENT The specific topics to be covered in the development of the assessment are: o Purpose of the Assessment o Recognition of the Problem o Structure and Commitment to Assessment o Gathering Information o Findings and Recommendations o Resolving Issues of Politics, Policy, and Program Development o Funding Criteria: Setting the Stage for Effective Programming o Summary Purpose of the Assessment The assessment is the first, and probably the most important, step in the design and implementation of a plan to address the youth gang problem. The purpose of the assessment is to identify the specific components of the problem, analyze their causes, and determine the resources available and needed. Assessment sets the stage for the creation of goals, strategies, and objectives; management and community participation structures; relevant programming; training; and, especially important but often ignored, program monitoring and evaluation procedures required to deal with the problem. Recognition of the Problem The problem of youth gang violence and crime must in fact exist, be perceived, and be communicated as a problem or threat to the community; otherwise there is insufficient basis for dealing with it. o Gang graffiti, gang recruitment, intimidation, or the threat of a serious gang event such as a drive-by shooting must be observed in some preliminary or advanced form. o The gang event must be considered a danger to citizens lives, property, or public order as well as the social development of youth involved. o The threat must be recognized by a respected and influential member or group of citizens in the community, e.g., a minister, principal, youth agency director, police chief, public housing manager, politician, grassroots organization, or civic or businessmen's association. o The violent event(s) or their threat must be clearly described, communicated, and emphasized, along with expressions of a need for action. o The news media must report the event or threat in accurate terms. o Important neighborhood organizations and agencies must request action. o Influential government and community leaders should concur that a youth gang problem exists and that some kind of action, or remedy, is required. o There must also be a shared sense by agency and grassroots leadership of a need for fuller analysis and understanding, as well as deliberate planning in order to find answers to the problem. Structure and Commitment to Assessment A preliminary structure should be established to carefully define the youth gang problem in a manner that is sanctioned by authority and acceptable to citizens in the community. A variety of mechanisms can be employed to establish this structure, including a committee of an already existing association of agencies and community groups, or an ad hoc study or action group. o An influential government or community leader connected to this organization can call a meeting of representatives of criminal justice, community- based agencies, and grassroots organizations, and other respected citizens from the local or larger community concerned with the youth gang problem. o The chief executive of the city, county, or State or the head of a confederation of agencies or community groups in a major social organization should call the meeting and/or be represented at the meeting(s) or conference(s) that ensues. o The intent of the meeting(s) should not be ceremonial or used as a way to deny or exaggerate the nature and implications of the problem, but to effectively find ways to understand and begin to deal with it in community collaborative terms. o Discussions should demonstrate that adequate concern is present with regard to the problem but that sufficient knowledge about the scope of the problem and what to do about it does not yet exist. o Efforts by an individual or group of agencies and organizations may arise to use or exploit the problem for organizational or political interest purposes. They should be countered through: - inclusion of the widest possible group of respected agencies, organizations, and individual citizens legitimately interested in the problem. - avoidance of "quick-fix," opportunistic solutions by individual organizations, whether law enforcement or a community agency. o A special representative and competent committee of the larger organization should be established to sponsor, find the funds, and supervise the fact-gathering and assessment process. Funding for assessment should be sought from foundations, public agencies, or local business sources. o To the extent feasible, especially in a chronic problem situation, a university group, a nonprofit research organization, or an expert research consultant should be employed (or volunteer their expert services in whole or part) to gather and analyze data and present findings to the special committee and the larger organization. Gathering Information The committee should assist the researchers to gather appropriate information on the nature and scope of the youth gang problem and facilitate access to available data. o Reports and data on the scope of the youth gang problem should be gathered initially from criminal justice agencies, especially the police, as well as from schools, community-based youth agencies, and grassroots organizations. A formal or informal survey of community opinion and also agency experience with respect to youth gang crime can be conducted. o An essential function of the larger planning group should be to sponsor a set of public hearings on the problem. o A wide range of witnesses, including those in direct contact with the problem -- e.g., criminal justice, youth agency, and community representatives including parents, as well as former gang members and gang members -- to provide: - descriptions of the problem; - analyses or explanations; and - recommendations for programs of suppression, intervention, and prevention. o Expert witnesses and program operators from outside as well as inside the community should be asked to provide an analysis of the local or of a relevant comparable gang problem in another community or city, and recommend approaches for dealing with it. Special attention must be directed to the development of a clear and precise use of the terms gang, gang member, and especially gang incident, with preference for a gang-motivated or functional rather than a broad membership definition. The presence of groups of youth involved in illegal acts that may not be gang- motivated does not automatically mean that a gang problem exists. o A survey of programs, opportunities, and services accessible to gang youths should also be conducted. This survey should indicate the characteristics of gang and nongang youths -- e.g., gender, age, race/ethnicity -- who are being served by these programs, and particularly whether hardcore gang members are among this served group. It is possible that gang youths and their families are socially isolated and not receiving services and the kind of opportunities that contribute to conventional social status and personal esteem. (See Table 1, Appendix C.) Findings and Recommendations The results of the hearing(s) and data gathering efforts, and their interpretation, have to be organized in coherent fashion, with recommendations for policy and programs not only from the sponsoring committee and members of the community, but from funding agencies as well. Specifically: o The scope, seriousness, location of the problem and characteristics of target groups have to be identified. o The perceived immediate and long-term causes of the problem have to be developed in appropriate priority order. o A sophisticated explanation of the problem that provides a feasible basis for action must be determined. o The relation of existing resources and programs to the problem has to be developed with some specificity, with regard to: - classification of the components of the problem, - gaps in suppression activities and tactics, - gaps in opportunities, - gaps in services, and - the relationship of these factors as they affect particular categories of youth. o Recommendations for changed, additional, or new types of services, opportunities, and organizational arrangements have to be made. o The realistic actual and potential funding sources to support the recommendations must be identified. (See Funding Criteria, this chapter; also Chapter 8.) Resolving Issues of Politics, Policy, and Program Development Issues related to organizational interests, ideology, and politics will tend to interfere with the development of rational and effective means for addressing the youth gang problem. It is important, therefore, to identify the principal obstacles to community-oriented problem-solving and the ways to overcome them (See also Community Mobilization Technical Assistance Manual). o The key impediments to problem resolution are: - denial of the problem; - exaggeration of the problem; - single factor explanations such as insufficient police, racism, poverty, single parent families, or recreational programs; - claims that a single, particular strategy or program is all that is needed to cure the gang problem, such as police sweeps, more recreation, more prisons, counseling, better jobs, etc.; and - a fatalistic attitude that nothing works and therefore nothing should be done. o The most appropriate ways to deal with these obstacles must include: - development and use of objective data, - debate and discussion by experienced and qualified experts and community leaders, - open discussion and participation by community residents, and - careful and deliberate decisionmaking by responsible community and government leaders, Funding Criteria: Setting the Stage for Effective Programming Funding agencies -- public and private/religious -- should be involved in the community assessment process as soon as possible to assist in understanding the nature and scope of the gang problem as well as planning meaningful funding options for dealing with it. o Representatives of funding agencies should be invited to participate in the various public hearings, assessment, and later planning sessions. o Key community influentials and/or managers of the assessment process should explore with funding sources the kinds of programs that would be of interest to them. o The basic assumption of the assessment should be that not only poverty but a major breakdown of key social institutions -- especially family, school, employment -- and the fragmentation of criminal justice or community service patterns, has occurred and requires special attention. o Community, agency, and political leaders should communicate the importance of a comprehensive and communitywide approach to the problem, i.e., all key components of the program must be interrelated. o Key agencies and organizations, particularly police, schools, business and industry, grassroots organizations, community-based service and health agencies, and others should demonstrate that they speak with one set of interrelated voices, as they suggest or recommend an ongoing structure to plan antigang programs, accept funds, carry out program operations, and deal with issues of agency accountability and program effectiveness. Furthermore, it's important for planners and funders to be aware that a particularistic approach that provides for funding of only one type of strategy or even a component of a strategy can throw a system out of kilter and defeat the intent of the funding arrangement. For example, funding additional gang crime police will cause an overload on other parts of the justice and correctional systems. Therefore, a balanced approach to policy development, funding, and programming is required. Summary The assessment is the first and probably the most important step in the design and implementation of a plan to assess the youth gang problem. It requires recognition or perception that a problem in fact does exist. A temporary structure must be established to define the problem and resources made available to deal with it. A range of information must be gathered through such sources as the police, a survey of experts, information and community attitudes, witness testimony, and available agency programs dealing with the problem. The relation of existing and needed resources to specific components of the problem must be addressed. Issues of differences in policies and approaches as well as conflicting agency interest have to be resolved to establish a set of consensual findings and recommendations for action. The development of program and resources must be based on the notion of a collaborative and balanced community approach and the establishment of accountability mechanisms to ensure program integrity. Identifying and analyzing the specific youth gang problem and the resources available and needed to address it. The problem must be real and communicated. The threat must be recognized by respected community members. Community leaders must request action. A temporary structure must be established. A government or community leader should call a meeting. Data should be gathered from all relevant sources. External as well as internal community experts should analyze the problem. A survey of specific program and services in contact with gang youth should be conducted. The relationship of available programs and resources to gang youths has to be developed. Potential factors should be involved in the assessment and planning process. A comprehensive community approach should be the basis for funding. Advanced approach to funding is required. ------------------------------ CHAPTER 3: DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH GANG POLICY AND PROGRAM STRUCTURE o Nature of the Interagency/Community Council o Chronic versus Emerging Contexts o Public versus Voluntary Agency Sponsorship o Inclusivity of Interests o Managing the Stages of the Planning Process o Influencing Related Social Policy o Summary Nature of the Interagency/Community Council A structure must be developed to coordinate and integrate ongoing efforts based on the interests, needs, and resources (present and potential) of the particular community. Some mechanism for the development of interagency and community policy, strategy, and program must be created. The specific form of the mechanism will depend on various considerations: o whether the problem is chronic or emerging; o the availability of proactive political, governmental, voluntary agency, and/or community group leadership; o the political, organizational, and economic interests at stake; o the extent to which all key larger components and local impacted area interests can be represented on the task force or council; o the means to fund the structure; and o the importance of related social and economic development policy. A structure must be developed that represents key community concerns and agency interests for dealing with the youth gang problem, focused on a range of meaning-fully interrelated strategies. Chronic versus Emerging Contexts In chronic gang problem jurisdictions, often (but not always) large cities with several impoverished or ghettoized areas, a complex, formal, broadly based set of organizational coalitions may be required. o Local neighborhood as well as overall city, regional, and State coordinating mechanisms should be established, depending on the scope and complexity of the problem(s). o These conditions should be generated by State law, decisions of the local city council, Mayor or City Manager's office, the United Way Board, or some combination of these and other generating mechanisms. o Of special importance is the development of an influential citywide or larger community coalition to set policy, accept and allocate funds, and coordinate programs. o While a full range of strategies and programs must be planned and implemented by a wide variety of agencies and community groups, there must be basic acceptance of the notion of targeting core gang members and high-risk gang-prone youth (See Chapter IV). In emerging, usually smaller jurisdictions, a less formal and more limited structure and set of strategies will be required. o An interagency council should be created based in the school or a youth agency with representation from a range of other agencies, especially the police and probation. o Special emphasis should be on a strategy of community mobilization but also better utilization of existing resources in relation to high-risk gang-prone youth (See Chapter IV). o In both chronic and emerging contexts, the interagency task force or community council established should contain: - an executive or decisionmaking group, and - a set of committees that recognizes both distinctive organizational as well as cross- agency and community group communication needs and information-sharing restrictions. o Finally, a basic assumption of the planning and organizing priorities locally is that a fully effective approach will not be possible without interagency coordination of the antigang effort at State and especially at national governmental levels. (Fragmentation of approaches and funding arrangements may be as much a problem at national as at local community levels.) Public versus Voluntary Agency Sponsorship A highly respected and influential leader(s) of a public or nonprofit organization(s) must take responsibility for moving the process of planning and organization forward, whether in chronic or emerging gang problem communities. Public and voluntary agencies and grassroots groups, particularly their leaders, must collaborate and play a proactive role on behalf of community interests in sponsoring the task force, interagency, or community council to deal with the youth gang problem. o In chronic problem situations, centralized public agency sponsorship is preferred because of the long-term duration of the problem, the relative lack of local community resources, and the need for strong coordination. o In emerging problem situations, sponsorship should be localized involving a community-based youth organization and the schools, with special support from a variety of voluntary and public agencies. This is preferred because of the limited scope of the problem and the relative strength of existing local community institutions and resources. o In both types of contexts, maximum involvement by grassroots organizations in decisionmaking and problem design is strongly advisable, if not required. Inclusivity of Interests Because the gang problem results from a complex set of causes that indicate a breakdown of community institutions and poverty, as well as defective social policy, it is imperative that a comprehensive approach to the problem be developed. The interests of a variety of organizations and community groups relevant to the gang problem in a particular context should be represented on the task force or council structure. o In the chronic problem context, the following suppression and intervention agency and community interests should be inclusively represented: - local government executive's office - police/sheriff - prosecution - public defender - judge - probation/court services - parole - corrections - business/industry/labor unions - schools - parent organizations - community-based youth agencies - other community service and mental health agencies - hospitals, especially trauma units - United Way - grassroots organizations - churches - public housing - criminal justice planning - civic/fraternal organizations - etc. o In the emerging problem context, the following interests minimally should be represented: - schools - parent organizations - community-based youth agencies - police - probation - grassroots organizations - business/industry/labor unions - etc. Managing the Stages of the Planning Process The community institution building process often goes through various stages, not necessarily in the order indicated below, which should be adequately managed so that significant positive results to occur. These stages include: denial; initial policy and program development; sponsorship crises; goal displacement and community conflict; sustained effective programming; and impact evaluation. o Denial. Denial refers to a process of ignoring or minimizing the youth gang problem, when there is evidence that youth gangs are present and committing serious criminal activity, especially interagency and drug trafficking-related violence. The denial may occur because of concerns about reputation and standing of the affected city, business, police, or school. o Initial Policy and Program Development. In this stage, the interagency or community council or task force moves ahead with a full assessment of the problem; the development of appropriate strategies, goals and objectives; and specific program and project designs. o Sponsorship Crises. Because of local political circumstances and key staff or policy changes, initial task force sponsorship, structure, or arrangements may no longer be feasible. An alternate structure may be required. o Goal Displacement and Community Conflict. Policies and programs may be implemented in such a way that key priorities or target groups are ignored. Agencies and community groups may seek primarily to maintain existing, narrow interests or even avoid dealing with the gang problem. Inter-agency suspicion, competition, and conflicts over organizational and community group interests grow. o Sustained Effective Programming. In this stage common policies, reciprocal agency and community group strategies, and objectives develop, and a program supported by all key elements of the community and agency system is carried out for a sustained period of time. o Impact Evaluation. In this sometimes final stage of the cycle, a systematic attempt is made to determine whether community mobilized efforts have occurred and whether the results are effective in reducing the problem over both the short- and long-term. These stages generally seem to occur and require that specific roles and processes be developed: o The denial or "cover-up" of the problem should be countered by: - proactive leadership, - extensive and accurate media reporting of gang incidents, and - the task force or council and its committees meeting on a regular and frequent basis to articulate and address the problem. o The process of initial policy and program development must be facilitated by: - continual examination of alternate approaches and then deciding upon appropriate strategies and policies in consensual fashion; - site visits to promising programs within or outside the jurisdiction; - experts involved in structure and program development discussions; - program orientation, and training across agencies; and - preliminary reports of individual program process efforts. o Sponsorship crises: - Key leaders must reexamine the purpose of the organization when certain political or agency backers "pull out" or the gang problem reduction priority is no longer at the top of the city administrative or political agenda. The reaffirmation should be based on reliable data. - Alternate sources of support must be sought, especially from business and industry, and a wider net of political leaders developed. - A shift to an independent, broad, community- based structure, not dominated by local government, political ad hoc, or opportunistic interests should probably be sought. o Goal displacement and community conflict should be managed through: - a clear and strong programming emphasis on the gang problem and those youths who require priority attention; - a sensitive distribution of resources to agencies and community groups representing minority group, low-income interests, especially if they demonstrate they are dealing "effectively" with targeted gang youths; - confronting key decisionmakers in regular open community meeting discussions; and - hiring or using pressures from a multiracial and multiethnic staff strongly identified with local community. o Sustained and effective programming through: - the provision of long-term funding, e.g., a minimum of three years; - a specific set of agreements between and among agencies as to program responsibilities; and - the involvement of gang and former gang youths under careful and sufficient supervision by agencies and community groups in various programs contributing both toward the resolution of gang- related and community development problems. o Impact evaluation takes place through: - systematic evaluation of program operations, - development of quasi-experimental designs by academic researchers to test major strategies or policies, and - development and circulation of reports about changes in gang problem situations or concurrent with and subsequent to program inputs (See also Table 2, Appendix C). Influencing Related Social Policy The youth gang problem is usually related in complex ways to a variety of more "basic" social problems and therefore cannot be effectively resolved except as other social policies are also addressed. However, the linkage between the gang and other social problems is not always direct or inevitable. It is a mistake to assume that the youth gang problem will be automatically reduced simply as "larger" issues of racism, education, unemployment, housing, and health are addressed or resolved. Criminal justice policy, more specifically directed to the youth gang problem must be joined to general social policy development and program implementation, especially education, training, and job creation. o The task force or council must attempt to influence governmental leaders and policymakers to expand educational opportunities, with special reference to the social needs of gang youth. Special educational development programs targeted at "underclass," or low-income, and immigrant youth are required, for example: - remedial reading and mathematics; - world of work and job orientations; - apprenticeship training; - social and health issues; and - related social control programs, as necessary, e.g., community or problem-oriented policing. o A variety of job development programs of local and national scope should be initiated, utilized, or expanded, to include and meet the interests and needs of gang youth, for example, - Neighborhood Job Corps type programs, - Civilian Conservation Corps, - Domestic Peace Corps, and - Tax incentives for employers to employ inner- city youths. Summary A structure and various mechanisms must be created for the development of interagency and communitywide policy, strategy, and program. The specific structure and its policies will depend on whether the problem is chronic or emerging, the availability and quality of community leadership, the political and economic interests at stake, the scope of representation on the interagency task force or community council, funding constraint, and the relation of the gang problem to other more basic social and economic problems in the particular community. The stages of the planning process must be appropriately managed to include: the tendency to deny the problem; initial program development needs; crises in sponsorship of the interagency council; the tendency to goal displacement and community conflict in the implementation of cross- agency and cross-community antigang programs; the development of sustained, effective programming; and impact evaluation. A chronic gang problem context requires a complex, formal organizational arrangement. An emerging gang problem context requires less inclusive formal agency representation. A coordinated structure to deal with the gang problem is required at all government levels. The organizational approach in chronic problem areas should be public and centralized. The organizational approach in emerging problem areas can be relatively more localized. The community institution building process is difficult and complex. Five stages of the planning process are developed. These stages should be dealt with in appropriate ways. Goal displacement should be avoided. Related social policy must be influenced. Policy concerns must extend to improved school and job opportunities generally, in low-income areas, with special interest in gang youths. ------------------------------ CHAPTER 4: PROGRAM GOALS, STRATEGIES, AND OBJECTIVES o Selection of Appropriate Goals and Strategies o Implementation o Summary Program goals, strategies, and objectives, evolve as part of the development of the youth gang policy and program structure. More specific planning for dealing with the youth gang problem requires: A. Selection of Appropriate Goals and Strategies B. Implementation 1. Targeting 2. Specifying Strategies by Context 3. Specifying Strategies by Type of Youth 4. Particularizing Strategies by Nature of the Community Problem, Social and Cultural Needs, and Resources Present 5. Interagency and Intergroup Agreements Selection of Appropriate Goals and Strategies Goals and strategies should be related to specific agency mission, type of community gang problem(s), task force community or interagency or council composition and structure, and program feasibility. o Long-term community-oriented as well as short- term, crisis-oriented, agency-oriented goals should guide efforts to deal with youth gangs in chronic and emerging gang problem contexts. Gang problems require both an immediate and a sustained effort to reduce and prevent criminal gang activities. o Multiple interrelated goals and strategies should characterize the efforts of communities, agencies, and grassroots organizations as they address the problem. o Complementary strategy combinations are required within a particular community regardless of the different types of problem contexts and agencies. Single-purpose goals, whether suppression, social intervention, or opportunities provision by organizations, are insufficient in dealing with gang youth. For example, - While suppression should be the primary strategy of law enforcement, complementary strategies of community mobilization and social intervention are also required. - While social intervention should be the primary strategy of community-based youth agencies, complementary strategies of community mobilization and suppression or social intervention are also required. o In chronic gang problem contexts, the goals selected should be formal, varied, and complex to deal with greater numbers of agencies and organizations involved with more intransigent and long-term gang problems. o In chronic gang problem contexts, there is a special need to avoid further community social breakdown and fragmentation of agency goals, programs, and operations; more general, broader based rather than highly specialized service functions and worker roles are required, even within particular organizations. o Also, in chronic gang contexts, feasible goals, such as the reduction of gang recruitment and gang violence, and gang-related drug trafficking, rather than the unrealistic goals of elimination of all gangs or all gang-related criminal behavior, serious or nonserious, should be adopted. o In emerging gang problem contexts, the goals selected can be less formal and complex to deal with fewer numbers of agencies and organizations involved with relatively recent, acute, and moderately serious gang problems. Communication and agency turf problems are expected to be less severe than in chronic problem areas. o In emerging gang problem contexts, the structure of informal relations among a range of agencies and organizations must be utilized and invigorated to emphasize the sense of community and mutual responsibility for dealing with a problem such as criminal gang behavior. o In emerging gang contexts, relatively more attention should be given to younger gang-prone or high-risk youths than to hardcore older gang youths. Implementation Careful attention must be directed to the following implementation objectives and procedures so that goals and strategies are appropriately carried out: 1. Targeting of criminal behavior. 2. Specifying strategies for different contexts. 3. Specifying strategies for different types of youth. 4. Particularizing the community's gang problem in relation to community needs and resources required to deal with it. 5. Establishing long- and short-term objectives. 6. Interagency/intergroup agreements. 1. Targeting Who is to receive what kinds of services and deterrent actions should be specified. Youth who are not gang members or who have a low probability of committing gang crimes should not be primary targets of suppression and intervention programs. It is important not to waste resources, and also to avoid dysfunctional program effects, such as "netwidening," "creaming," relabelling, or increasing or reducing the problem through changes in reporting procedures. o Classification of neighborhoods, schools, youth gangs, and individual youths in or connected with gangs, as to the degree of their criminal gang problem, should be based mainly on gang arrest and gang crime records. o Those neighborhoods, schools, and youth gangs, and their members with the highest gang crime records should be targeted for the most attention and use of resources. o High-risk, gang-prone youth already involved in delinquency, particularly in high gang crime neighborhoods, and schools, and in locations with high-profile gangs should receive the second highest degree of attention. 2. Specifying Strategies by Context Different kinds of strategies, programs, and services are required for chronic and emerging contexts or communities. o In chronic gang problem or serious gang situations, strategies characterized by high levels of surveillance, arrest, prosecution, and extended prison sentences should also be accompanied by intensification of social opportunity and social service programs for youths whether the youth is in a correctional facility or still in the community. o In emerging gang problem situations, strategies characterized by relatively higher levels of social intervention than opportunities provision and suppression may be required for gang member and gang-prone youths. Moderately increased levels of surveillance should be necessary. 3. Specifying Strategies by Type of Youths Core gang members and gang-prone youths, in either chronic or emerging problem communities, should be subject to different strategies and programs. o Higher levels of suppression should be directed to older, hardcore gang youth, i.e. those engaged in repetitive criminal behavior, with special attention directed to the provision of social opportunities and social intervention activities for those who give evidence of readiness to cease criminal gang patterns and leave the gang. o High levels of social intervention and social opportunities should be directed at high-risk gang-prone youths, particularly those in middle school, and such services or activities should be accompanied by moderate levels of surveillance or supervision. 4. Particularizing Strategies by Nature of the Community Problem, Social and Cultural Needs, and Resources Present Different types of community mobilization and levels of resource provision are required in various communities depending not only on the level of the gang violence problem, but the degree of population mobility, level of poverty, and social perceptions of the problem, cultural resources, and extent of criminal organization. For example, o In communities or contexts characterized by large population movements of low-income, newcomer, and minority groups; community mobilization involving positive community outreach by established agencies and groups; and also increased participation by local residents should be emphasized to revitalize local social institutions and promote legitimate community norms and values. o In communities or contexts with stable but highly impoverished and socially isolated minority groups, special sensitivity and relationships as well as substantial resource inputs are required to create social opportunities and enhance social contacts and identification with the larger society. Issues of civil rights and civil liberties must be vigorously addressed. o In communities where youth gangs and especially criminal opportunity systems are well-developed, but the level of gang violence may be modest, high levels of community values reeducation, community reorganization, and targeted suppression of adult criminal leaders are required. Vigorous enforcement of antiracketeering laws is necessary. In all communities, local citizens and grassroots groups should be encouraged to work closely with law enforcement and vice versa to control gang activity. Special problems of communication due to class, race, ethnic, cultural, and immigration status need to be addressed. 5. Establishing Long- and Short-Term Objectives Specific long- and short-term objectives must be established taking into consideration particular community interests, needs, and available or required resources and targeting particular types of youth and levels of the gang problem. Specific strategy combinations and timelines must be selected for each of the short-term objectives that are required to meet the longer term objectives. (For an example of the integration of goals, objectives, and strategies for a particular gang problem, see Table 3, Appendix C.) 6. Interagency and Intergroup Agreements A coalition or network of agencies and community groups must formulate goals, strategies, and objectives in an accountable manner. Accountability can be ensured through a series of official and informal contracts calling for joint and interdependent activity. Therefore, o A clear and consistent set of written goals, strategies, and objectives should be stated and signed by the concerned program agencies or community organizations, particularly in chronic gang problem communities. o Mutual responsibilities, resource exchanges, and anticipated benefits to each organization should be set forth in appropriate detail and periodically revised. o Each of the agencies or organizations that deals with gang youth should also participate in the council and/or on special interagency or task force committees specifically addressing their particular component program. o Measurable objectives as to program inputs and expected individual, youth gang, and community outcomes should be established and their achievement periodically reviewed. o Appropriate technical assistance must be provided to organizations not fully capable of achieving objectives. This is especially necessary in very low-income or newly arrived culturally different communities. o Periodic community council or task force reviews of the nature and achievement of the particular projects based on interorganizational agreements should be carried out and the results widely disseminated. o In due course, however, agencies and communities that are consistently unable to meet stated objectives should not receive task force or council-related resources nor permitted to participate in task force-sponsored or initiated programs. Summary Goals and strategies should be related to agency mission, type of community gang problem, and the scope and nature of interagency structure and concerns. Objectives, short- and long-term, evolve mainly from goals and strategies selected. Selection of policies and planning for program implementation requires targeting certain types of neighborhoods, gangs, and gang youth. Certain policies and procedures may be more appropriate in certain contexts and with certain youth than in other contexts and with other kinds of youth. Different kinds of planning will be called for. Interagency and intergroup agreements are called for so that all key participants are "on board" in terms of mutual responsibilities and resource exchange need. Measurable objectives for the collaborative programs are needed. The results of the program, particularly the activities developed, should be reported periodically to a wide range of community agencies and citizens. Emphasis should be on both long-and short-term objectives. Complementary strategies are important. In chronic problem contexts, goals should be formal and varied, but not overly specialized. In emerging problem contexts, informal community and interagency relations must be strengthened. Targeting is important to avoid program dysfunction. Different strategies are required based on context and kind of youth involved in criminal gang activities. Different kinds of mobilization are required in different types of communities. Grassroots organizations and law enforcement should work closely together. Interorganizational contracts must be developed. Program evaluation and technical assistance are necessary. Certain programs and approaches that don't work should not be refunded. ------------------------------ CHAPTER 5: RELEVANT CROSS-AGENCY, CROSS COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING o Programs that Don't Work o Programs that are Promising o Principles of "Effective" Programming o Summary Programs that Don't Work Various programs, services, procedures, activities, tactics, and delivery systems have evolved over decades for dealing with group delinquency and gang youth. Past experience and evaluations suggest that certain programs or approaches do not reduce delinquency or gang activity, especially when they are not targeted and used in relation to other programs or approaches. We have no evidence that any of the following approaches, singly applied, have been successful: o simple recreational activity; o social group work with formed gangs; o counseling alone; o psychotherapy alone; o simple empathy for gang youth and their problems; o simple mediation of gang conflicts without additional programming; o use of the gang structure, itself, for controlling and redirecting criminal behavior -- except in a brief, time-limited situation; o arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment alone; o nontargeted short-term crisis deterrence or intervention activities; o simple referral of gang youths for jobs without sufficient support and supervision; o community mobilization that is directed at general issues of housing, health, youth employment, afterschool programs, and improved social service, but not targeted at the youth gang problem. Programs that are Promising Certain programs are reported to have had some success or, at least, are promising. They are characterized by comprehensive and sustained approaches that are usually quite complex. However, these programs have not been rigorously evaluated. The promising programs appear to share certain characteristics. They require: o High levels of community, agency, and resident participation. o Consensus by agency and community representatives on what the nature of the gang problem is and what needs to be done about it. o Program participation in some form by those who were formerly gang members or who were directly affected by the problem. o Use of external advisory groups to programs or projects to monitor them and contribute to their development. Principles of "Effective" Programming The following principles, we believe, are "effective" when directed at individual youth, gangs, families, and various types of agencies and organizations: Individual Youth o The basis for the youth's gang problem should be assessed with focus on dealing with the issues of lack of adequate control, support, and opportunity provision. o Youths should be individualized. For each gang youth the problems and context for social development are different. Gang members or gang- prone youths should be treated with respect and sensitivity. At the same time, they should be expected not to commit serious criminal behavior and be required to live up to appropriate norms of legitimate conduct, or else suffer immediate and fair consequences. o Wherever possible, the situation or context in which the gang youth is having difficulty should be modified to assist him or her to achieve self- respect, self-esteem, and social standing in his or her immediate legitimate community context, e.g., family, school. o A social educational process is required in which each gang youth is assisted and supervised step by step, sometimes over a substantial period of time, to learn appropriate norms of conduct in realistic social opportunity-providing contexts. Gang Gang structure and process should be viewed as facilitating or enhancing the behavior, or tendencies to certain behaviors, that the youth brings to the gang. Not all gangs or delinquent groups are the same. o No effort should be made to accept the legitimacy of a criminal youth gang structure. o Efforts should be made to decohere or diffuse the criminal gang structure by focussing attention on individuals or subgroups who can be separated from the group through targeted social intervention, social opportunity provision, and suppression. o Continual surveillance and harassment should be carried out against violent and criminally active gang youths, especially those who are highly influential or leaders. Family o Parents and family members should be enlisted, whenever possible, to more adequately control and socially support gang-prone and gang member youth. o Pressures on parents to better control and support their gang children can be provided by neighborhood residents and other parents who have successfully dealt with their gang member offspring. o Parents of gang youth should be provided with a variety of opportunities and services to meet their own needs and resolve social and personal problems that affect their appropriate support and control of gang member or gang-prone offspring. Law Enforcement o Law enforcement should focus not only on community safety protection through suppression of criminal gang youth, but also on the social development of youth, including gang-prone youth and those ready to leave the gang. o The community or problem-oriented function of the police can be facilitated by: - An effective gang data collection and analysis system capacity that identifies different types of gangs and gang youth to be targeted in different areas; - The development of suppression tactics that are targeted, rapid, and effective, especially during gang crises; - Open and positive communication with neighborhood groups, agencies, and influentials; - Open and positive communication with gang youth and their parents; - Intimate knowledge of gang culture and gang systems in the community; - A system of social and instrumental relationships with neighborhood groups, agencies, and influentials directed at dealing with a variety of social and community problems that bear directly on the gang control problem. o To the extent possible, law enforcement officers should assist gang youth with referrals for services, remedial education, training, and job development. Schools o Social support, remedial and enriched education, and close supervision should be provided to high- risk or gang-prone youth in the early grades. A team approach with other human service providers should be developed. o Special job orientation and world-of-work exposure, collaborative apprenticeship training with business and industry, accompanied by probation or parole supervision, as necessary, should be provided especially to older hardcore gang youth. o Teachers and staff should understand and be prepared to influence gang norms and activity in the classroom through: - use of knowledgeable student grouping procedures in order to diffuse gang influence; - provision of special learning opportunities, particularly those that offer the gang youth legitimate status and prestige; - close relationships with gang youth, characterized by helpfulness and a fair and firm application of rules; - use of clearly developed emergency or crisis procedures; and - involving administration and security personnel. o Use should be made of parents, community residents, and if necessary, former gang youths to facilitate communication and legitimate learning processes for active gang youths as well as to maintain order in the school and classroom. o To the extent possible, teachers, staff, and administrators should be involved in community outreach activities that contribute to the education, socialization, and development of gang youth. Employment Settings Employers and unions have a community responsibility to collaborate with schools, community, and justice system agencies in addressing the youth gang problem. Ultimately, this will contribute to improved business productivity, particularly if the business or union is directly located in or indirectly associated with high-gang crime communities. o Employers should be persuaded that under appropriate circumstances gang youths can become a reliable, productive labor pool. o Special work orientation, support services, and supervision are required to sustain gang youth on jobs. o Flexible hours of work, access to transportation, and remedial education should be components of an effective approach to ensure productive employment. o The costs of such initial and extra employer efforts should be derived through special tax relief and contract services with public authorities, and in collaboration with special project efforts -- local or national. Youth Agencies o Youth agencies should develop programs that reach out to gang youths on the streets. o The programs should focus on connecting gang youth productively to school and employment. o Youth agencies may need to provide alternative education and employment opportunities on their own physical premises, particularly for gang youth on probation or parole. o To the extent possible, the youth agency should, in appropriate sequence, target gang youth to provide them with mainstream and enriched programs. Grassroots Organizations o Local community organizations should organize residents "to take back the streets," e.g., patrolling neighborhoods where gang youth hang out and where various criminal activities are conducted; provide assistance to schools, police, and businesses in the suppression of gang activities, especially through supervisory and antigang demonstration activities; and develop direct services, social development, and community service activities targeted at gang youths. o Local organizations should encourage agencies and businesses to expand and target programs that can provide employment and educational opportunities, to gang members and gang-prone youths. o The local organization should also make its setting and resources available to mediate conflicts between gangs to the extent that such mediation efforts do not serve to cohere or raise the status of gangs. (See also Chapter 6.) o Local organizations, especially ethnic organizations, should direct authorities and assist newcomer families who are often victimized by gangs, or whose children are gang members, to more effectively communicate and constructively relate to each other to reduce gang activities. Local Politicians o The local politician should serve as an important link between older gang youth, prepared to leave the gang, and legitimate society. They can directly provide or facilitate access to jobs to assist these youth, and engage in various community and citizen development activities, including the political process itself. o The local politician should encourage and assist citizens to express and organize their concerns with regard to increased police activity, as well as take measures to protect themselves against gang crime. o The local politician must also act to pass legislation that increases budgets for improved social planning, remedial education, job development and relevant social services that target the youth gang problem. Media o The media should be accurate and not exaggerate the scope and seriousness of the gang problem. They should pay special attention to issues of gang-motivated versus gang member-related crimes. o The media must not provide, intentionally or unintentionally, mixed messages that may encourage youth to engage in gang activity. o Picturing or reporting gang events should neither enhance gang status nor provide a basis for further gang activity, such as retaliation and escalation of gang incidents. o The media should also educate the community about complex issues related to understanding, preventing, and controlling the problem. Finally, it is possible to recommend types of interrelated programs and strategies that appear to be promising across settings and organizations that deal with gang youth. (See Table 4, Appendix C.) Summary Certain programs will be more relevant than others in dealing with the youth gang problem. Cross- agency and cross-community programs appear to be primary. They involve high levels of participation by agency and community residents, consensus on what the problem is and what needs to be done, the involvement of former gang members and the use of external or independent advisory groups. Some general programming principles require that the legitimacy of gangs, especially criminal youth gangs, not be accepted; that individual gang youth be treated with respect and sensitivity but held accountable for their actions. Parents or family members should be enlisted in efforts to deal with gang youth. Law enforcement needs to focus on issues of youth social development as well as community protection. Schools need to be involved in a team approach, especially with human service agencies, in dealing with the problem. Employers and employment agencies have to interact with schools, criminal justice, and community agencies. All agencies, the media, and local politicians must utilize the knowledge and resources of each other in targeting specific gang problems and ways to address them that will be beneficial both for youth and the community. Many programs are unrelated to other essential programs, and not targeted at gang youths. Certain comprehensive and sustained programs appear to be promising. Certain principles characterize "effective" programming. Respect for the gang youth but not his criminal behavior is necessary. The criminal gang should not be recognized as legitimate, and its cohesion should be weakened. Parents should be helped to control gang youths. The main job of the police is community protection, but an important secondary function is social development of gang member and gang-prone youth. Teachers must also expand their functions in dealing with gang youths, often in collaboration with human service. Community outreach by school personnel is important. Gang youth can be productive employees with appropriate support and supervision. Youth agencies need to reach out to gang youths and provide them with access to relevant social opportunities. Local organizations need "to take back the streets" through various patrol, social control, and community development activities. The local politician should serve as an important link to conventional jobs and community development. The media should attempt to understand the gang problem, report gang events accurately, and do so in a way that does not aggravate the problem. ------------------------------ CHAPTER 6: COORDINATION AND COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION o Inclusion of Broad, Diverse Set of Community Interests o Development of Adequate Channels of Communication o Creating Consistent Policies o Mobilizing Local Citizens and Groups o Leadership Development o Summary The creation of a cohesive community in which there is widespread participation, consensus, and competence concerning what to do about the gang problem should contribute to its reduction. Such coordination, participation, and capacity-building can be achieved by: A. Inclusion of a broad and diverse set of community interests in efforts to deal with the problem. B. Development of open channels of communication across agencies and community groups, especially sharing information that contributes to understanding of the gang problem. C. Creating consistent policies within and across organizations. D. Mobilizing local citizens and groups to deal with the problem. E. Citizen leadership development (See also Chapter 8, Funding). Inclusion of a Broad, Diverse Set of Community Interests in Efforts to Deal with the Problem o The range of representatives of organizations that should be involved in dealing with the youth gang problem includes: - Criminal justice agencies: police, prosecution, judges, probation, corrections, parole, and public defenders; - Schools: superintendents, principals, teachers, and security personnel; - Community-based agencies: youth and recreational centers, settlement houses, Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs and YWCAs, libraries, hospitals, health services, child welfare, local public aid, and other human service agencies; - Grassroots organizations: churches; ethnic, fraternal, and civic organizations; PTAs; businessmen's associations; tenant unions; block clubs; improvement associations; local political offices; and antigang mother's and parent groups; - Low-income housing project representatives and resident management groups; - Planning and funding agencies; - Mayor/governor's office and relevant departments; - Special efforts should be made to include representatives of minority groups and resident groups highly concerned and close to the problem; o Criminal organizations or gangs should be excluded. The legitimate interests of individual gang youths should be represented through a variety of grassroots organizations and youth agencies. Participation by former gang influentials and selected current gang members is appropriate, but should be carefully scrutinized. Development of Adequate Channels of Communication Across Agencies and Community Groups, Especially Sharing Information that Contributes to Understanding of the Gang Problem Special information management relationships must be established across and within criminal justice, community-based agencies, and community groups. o Regular, open meetings of the interagency/inter- community group should be held. o A variety of channels of communication should be developed to report activities and the state of the gang problem. These include: - media reporting; - newsletters; - public meetings at schools, churches, and various places of assembly in the community; - annual reports; and - presentations to other organizations. o Special information and technical assistance materials for community residents and other organizations should be developed on how to deal with gang youths. Creating Consistent Policies Within and Across Organizations o Units within as well as across particular organizations should share information about gang youths and develop consistent and reciprocal procedures with regard to the gang problem. o Of special importance is the understanding and leadership of the executive or head of the antigang task force and of particular agency executives in implementing cross-agency policies and procedures with regard to the problem. o Systematic meetings by policy and operational staff across agencies should be held and exchanges of relevant information about gang youths provided within the limits of law and for the purpose of protecting the community as well as stimulating the social development of gang youths. Mobilizing Local Citizens and Groups to Deal With the Problem o Special community meetings should be held to advocate certain policies and programs, to protest the activities, or lack of activities of certain key organizations, e.g., schools, police, youth agencies, in adequately dealing with the gang problem. o Door-to-door canvassing of neighbors in the community should be conducted to involve them in various gang control activities. o A variety of special events -- parades, picnics, marches, festivals, graffiti paint-outs -- should be used to focus attention not only on control of the gang problem but to elicit neighborhood support for and involvement in targeted service and opportunity development activity on behalf of gang youth. Leadership Development o Various leadership development workshops and conferences across the community groups and agencies should be developed to: - facilitate understanding of the gang problem; - develop consensus on what to do about it; - plan antigang activities in which volunteers can play a significant role; and - create specific community mechanisms for interagency and intergroup handling of the gang problem. o Local leadership should be recruited for key organizational positions, both volunteer and paid. o Such positions at appropriate levels should be open to former gang youths. o The development of local leadership around the gang problem should be related to leadership development with regard to other local problems as well. Summary Coordination of agency programs and community participation can be achieved by including a broad and diverse set of community interests in efforts to deal with the problem; development of open channels of communication, especially appropriate sharing of information that contributes to its understanding; creating consistent policies within and across organizations; mobilizing local citizens and community groups; and developing citizen leaders. Adequate interagency coordination in conjunction with local community participation can contribute to a reduction of the gang problem. A wide range of interests in the gang problem should be incorporated into implementation efforts, including minority group and resident participation. Various meetings, reports, and technical assistance materials should communicate the problem widely. Sharing of information about gangs and what to do about them is important. Various procedures and mechanisms can be used to develop local leadership. ------------------------------ CHAPTER 7: STAFF SELECTION AND STAFF TRAINING o Staff Selection o Staff Education and Training o Summary Gang suppression and intervention planning and programming require a thorough understanding of the complexity of gang activity in the local community. It calls for a high level of technical competence, commitment, and creativity, as well as courage to overcome gang crises, organizational, and political obstacles. o The planner, administrator, and community leader must energize apathetic or "burned-out" agencies and community groups to deal with the gang problem in a rational, coherent, and community-oriented manner. o At the same time, staff and community leaders must operate within a well-conceived framework of gang-oriented agency policies and procedures. An appropriate balance between the ideals of social change and the reality of contextual and resource limitations is needed by policymakers and program designers. Staff Selection The efficiency and effectiveness of gang control and intervention programs depend on the selection of competent professional and local community personnel concerned with the youth gang problem. Outside, well-trained professional staff must be employed to bring the interests, concerns, and energies of the wider community into often ghettoized or socially isolated high gang crime community. Local people must not only participate in decisionmaking and design of local programs, but be provided with an opportunity to obtain and develop on project job(s) and to qualify, through formal education, for advancement within the agency or other programs. No one type of staff person -- based on race/ethnicity training, experience, or residence -- has sufficient ability or background to deal with the gang problem. Staff selected should include individuals who: o Are highly interested and motivated to serve and deal with problems of gang suppression and intervention. o Possess both relationship and technical or administrative skills to administer, develop, or staff the programs that are created. o Have been residents of a target gang crime neighborhood or an area similar to it, with appropriate work experience; or nonresidents with training and experience relevant to the youth gang problem. o Have high levels of energy and who are able to deal in a flexible, outreach manner with a variety of complex and difficult gang and related community policy and program development situations. Staff Education and Training Since many workers in gang programs, whether policymakers, administrators, or direct practitioners, have little knowledge about approaches to gang suppression and intervention, both short- and long-term educational and training programs may be needed: o Significant long-term curriculum development efforts are required at universities, colleges, and special training institutions to educate and train a range of personnel, including teachers, police, social workers, lawyers, ministers, health practitioners, and business managers, about the nature of the problem and any promising approaches that exist. o High-quality, short-term in-service training courses should be developed both within and across local agencies and community organizations. o Curricula should cover topics related to: - history of gangs; - current scope and seriousness of the problem; - characteristics of gang problems in different community and cultural contexts; - gang structure and dynamics; - basic causes of gangs; - the differential relationships of gangs and drugs; - precipitating factors of gang incidents; - different agency missions and relevant organizational factors relevant to the problem; - goals, strategies, and techniques for dealing with gang problems; - development of appropriate communication skills with individual gang members, the gang as a whole, community agencies, and community residents; and - cross-agency collaborative techniques. Summary Gang suppression and intervention planning and programming require the selection of staff who have a thorough understanding of the complexity of gang activity as well as technical competence and commitment to the program. Both competent professional and local community staff must be employed. No one type of staff person has sufficient ability and background to deal with the problem, particularly within a particular type of organization. Staff training requires the design of both long- and short-term curriculum efforts. Curricula should cover a range of topics, including current scope and seriousness of the problem in the community; gang structure and dynamics; basic kinds of gangs; the differential relationships of gangs and drugs; precipitating factors of gang incidents; goals, strategies, and techniques for dealing with the gang problem; and ways to relate to other staff or citizen representatives across agencies and community groups. Gang projects require a multi-talented staff and appropriate staff arrangements. Both indigenous and outside as well as formally trained and street-level experienced workers are needed. Staff with varied qualifications are needed. Long- and short-term training are required. A good training curriculum has many components. ------------------------------ CHAPTER 8: FUNDING o Funding Principles o Funding Services o Summary Policymakers and funding agency administrators should not support and/or fund policies and programs that are unidimensional and unrelated to other key strategies or programs in the community, such as: simple recreation, directive or nondirective counseling, simple or exclusive youth outreach in street gang work, and nontargeted massive arrest and incarceration. Funding Principles Program funding should be guided by the following principles: o Priority agencies or organizations to receive funding should include: law enforcement, schools, employment and training programs, and community- based youth agencies and grassroots organizations. o Priority strategies to be supported should include community mobilization and, in chronic problem communities, opportunities provision. o Core gang and high-risk gang-prone youth should be primarily targeted for appropriate activities. o The programs of key agencies or community groups targeting these youth must be interrelated through explicit organizational and accountability mechanisms. o The community or program to be supported must clearly demonstrate the presence of a gang crisis or an impending one. o Needs assessment and relevant resource and development must be part of a three- to five-year plan for dealing with the problem. o A local neighborhood or community advisory group and appropriate committees should be established to hold criminal justice, community-based agencies, and grassroots groups accountable for the gang-oriented programs. Representation on the program advisory group should be from a variety of organizations outside as well as inside the target community or program responsible agency. Funding Sources A successful community planning and mobilization effort is not possible without additional resources. Resources include the will power, energies, and skills of many people, including citizens, politicians, bureaucrats, professionals, former gang members, and even gang members ready to leave the gang. Additional resources usually must be acquired for staff and facilities, and to augment the efforts of existing agencies and community groups, or to develop new programs and organizational arrangements. These resources or funds can occasionally be developed locally, based on a reordering of existing program priorities and agency or community commitments. Generally, more than a single source of funds must be developed to assure the continuity and stability of program operations. A variety of local and nonlocal funding organizations must be contacted, proposals developed, and new program funds acquired. These sources include: 1. Local o Businesses, including banks o Civic organizations o Hospitals and health care, including drug prevention and treatment facilities and programs o City planning and human service agencies o Public housing, park and recreation departments o United Way o Religious federations and funding organizations 2. Foundations Local foundations are present in certain large cities. They also provide funds for a great variety of projects and programs in communities and agencies around the country. Each foundation has a set of interests, concerns, and procedures that govern its allocations. Grants can be large or small, for short or long periods of time. It is important to seek guidance about which foundations to contact. The Foundation Center has main offices in several cities and libraries in all 50 States. To locate the nearest library, call 1-800-424-9836. When a particular foundation of interest is identified, it should be contacted by phone or a letter of inquiry written in order to obtain information about how to submit a grant proposal. Personal contacts may be of value in some cases. 3. State Funding Various State agencies provide grant and contract funds to local organizations for certain services. Federal funds are often provided to the States in the form of block grants, and are available through certain State agencies, which could be used for antigang programs. These agencies include: o State Criminal Justice Planning Agency o Department of Youth or Children Services o Health Department, especially alcohol, drug abuse, and Mental Health units o Labor department o Education department The Governor's office and State legislative representatives should also be contacted for assistance in obtaining contacts for special State-supported antigang funding programs. 4. Federal Programs The following Federal agencies have recently initiated antigang initiatives directed to agencies and agency consortia in local communities. Sometimes various units in a particular Federal department fund different types of local programs. Knowledge of these Federal agency programs and their application procedures can be obtained through notices in the Federal Register and the Commerce Business Daily. Subscriptions to these publications can be ordered from the Government Printing Office (202) 783- 3238. Some city agencies, corporations, and universities already subscribe and may be persuaded to provide access to their own copies. Some of the following Federal Agencies may be directly contacted for information about current types of programs and procedures for obtaining funds for anti-gang or gang prevention programs: o Housing and Urban Development (202-708-1197) o U.S. Justice Department, especially Bureau of Justice Programs, including the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (202-307-1150) and the Office of Justice Assistance (202-307- 5914) o Department of Health and Human Services, especially the Office of Human Development and its Administration for Children, Youth, and Families (202-245-0347) o Division of Injury Control, Center for Disease Control (404-488-4646) Summary Certain policies should guide the selection of agencies or organizations, types of antigang programs, and strategies to be funded. High priority must be given to funding interagency or collaborative agency projects. Furthermore, even within an organization, special attention should be given to funding multiple- rather than single- purpose programs directed at the gang problem. While a successful community mobilization effort is not possible without additional resources, it should be recognized that resources include the determination or will power, the skills, and the energies of a great many community persons, including residents, bureaucrats, and professionals. Nevertheless, external resources must usually be obtained. Access to multiple- funding sources is essential. Sources of funding include local agencies, city organizations, citizen groups, businesses, and State and Federal agencies as well as foundations. Policymakers and funding agency administrators should not support and fund policies and programs that are uni-dimensional and unrelated to other key strategies or programs in the community. A successful community planning and mobilization effort is not ordinarily possible without additional resources. Sometimes these resources can be obtained through a reordering of existing program priorities. More than a single source of funding must be developed to ensure stability and continuity of program operations. Sources of funding can be local, State, Federal, and through foundations. A variety of funding opportunities are presently available through new Federal agency initiatives. Certain policies should guide the selection of agencies or organizations and the types of programs to be funded. Different sources of funding must be developed. Local foundation and Federal funding appear increasingly available. Specific funding sources are identified. ------------------------------ CHAPTER 9: RESEARCH AND EVALUATION o Policy Development Research o Program Development Research and Outcome Evaluation o Summary A rigorous quasi-experimental cross-neighborhood or general community research design should be encouraged whenever possible to evaluate programs and determine which specific strategies, procedures, and program mechanisms are most effective. A common assumption of policymakers and planners is that tested or proven ways of dealing with youth gang problems exist, and that the only requirement is to apply these "tested" models. But such successful models do not yet clearly exist. We do not know with sufficient confidence what specific policies, strategies, and programs work in different types of community and gang problem situations. One theoretically based general research model is indicated in Appendix D (A Research Paradigm). The long history of apparently failed or defective gang policy and programming will not be broken without the aid and commitment of informed policymakers, planners, administrators, and community leaders as well as competent research and evaluation. Policymakers and gang researchers must adapt the paradigms of the industry, business and industry, and medicine, which emphasize research and development. No solutions to the gang problem are likely without a long-term commitment to research and program evaluation. Two types of research and evaluation are recommended: policy development and program outcome. Policy Development Research o A variety of national criminal justice agencies, especially FBI, DEA, and NIJ as well as key local law enforcement jurisdictions should strive to establish a common national definition of such terms as criminal youth street gang, youth gang member and gang incident. o Basic national and local policy assessment studies should be regularly conducted on the scope and seriousness of the gang problem. o Basic causal research should be interrelated with policy development and program evaluations, using a combination of cohort study and program intervention arrangements across communities, types of agencies, and gangs. Program Development Research and Outcome Evaluation o Comparative descriptive studies should be conducted on program processes and program effectiveness, using "soft" and "hard" data approaches, including the development of: - basic computerized information on community, gang, and individual member or client characteristics; - description of program activities provided to particular youth and gangs, and their purpose; - descriptions as to program inputs including staffing, organizational, and interorganizational arrangements; - analyses of short-term process and longer term outcome results; and - case studies of program efforts to deal with the gang problem. o Various research techniques should include: - use of official statistics; - special surveys; - participant observation, especially of program impact on gang structure and dynamics; - quasi-experimental designs. o Priority attention should be directed to the comparative effectiveness of certain policies embodying, e.g., comprehensive and interrelated strategies versus single-purpose strategies, suppression, social intervention, opportunities provision, and community mobilization. o Priority attention should be directed to particular organizational and program issues, e.g., - use of local or indigenous versus professional or nonlocal staffing or leadership; - gang member targeted versus nongang member approaches in high gang crime areas; - use and non-use of gang structure with regard to suppression, intervention, and community development objectives; and - specialized versus less specialized organizational approaches. o Wherever possible, outside researchers from various academic institutions as well as from independent research organizations should conduct policy and program research. Summary Planners should encourage the development of sophisticated and rigorous research evaluation designs to determine whether cross-agency and cross-community strategies and programs are effective. Various types of research and evaluation are required: i.e., policy development research and program evaluation. Priority attention should be directed to examining the comparative effectiveness of certain policies. Outside researchers, particularly from universities as well as independent research organizations, should be employed to test the value of program approaches. Whenever possible, quasi-experimental designs should be used. Research and evaluation are needed. Basic policy research is needed. Various types of program research are needed. A variety of research procedures and techniques are required. Independent researchers should conduct the research and evaluation. ------------------------------ APPENDIX A List of Program Reports from the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program The following is a list of draft reports developed by the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program, University of Chicago, in cooperation with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), U.S. Department of Justice. Stage One Assessment of this research and development program identifies promising community and organizational responses to the youth gang problem. Stage Two Prototype/Model Development focuses on developing twelve promising prototype models to address the problem. These models specify policies and practices for the design and mobilization of efforts at the community and criminal justice levels. Stage Three Technical Assistance manuals provide guidelines for implementing the models. All reports are available in draft form from the National Youth Gang Information Center (NYGIC), 4301 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 730, Arlington, VA 22203. NYGIC is OJJDP's central dissemination point for all gang-related information. NYGIC provides the above reports in hardcopy and on high-density computer disks in WordPerfect 5.1. Call NYGIC toll- free at 800-446-GANG or 703-522-4007 locally for assistance. ASSESSMENT: STAGE 1 Full Reports Available: 1. Literature Review: Youth Gangs: Problem and Response, 1991, 357 pages. This comprehensive literature review covers what has been written on the youth gang issue from a research and program standpoint. 2. Survey of Youth Gang Problems and Programs in 45 Cities and 6 Sites, 1990, 297 pages. This survey reports aggregate gang or community level data on youth gang problems and programs in 45 cities and 6 institutional sites for the year 1987. 3. Community and Institutional Responses to the Youth Gang Problem, 1990, 184 pages. This report consists of case studies of how five communities and one correctional institution addressed youth gang problems in promising ways. 4. Report of the Law Enforcement Youth Gang Symposium, 1988, 152 pages. This report describes the gang intervention activities of fourteen police departments located across the United States, particularly with respect to their attempts to reduce the gang problem. 5. Law Enforcement Youth Gang Definitional Conference - Transcript, 1990, 138 pages. This is a proceeding of a conference at which gang experts from law enforcement and academia from Los Angeles city and county, Chicago and New York City were brought together in an effort to develop a uniform set of definitions (i.e., gang, gang member, gang incident) applicable to street gang phenomena across the country. 6. The Youth Gang Problem: Perceptions of Former Youth Gang Influentials. Transcripts of Two Symposia, 1990, 139 pages. These are the proceedings of two symposia at which former gang influentials -- Black and Hispanic -- describe why they joined the gang, what activities they were involved in while gang members, what factors caused them to depart from the gang, and what recommendations they had for community, policy and agency changes. 7. Client Evaluation of Youth Gang Services, 1990, 53 pages. This document reports on the perceptions of current and former youth gang members concerning the nature and efficacy of services provided by some of the programs located at our field visit sites. 8. Preventing Involvement in Youth Gang Crime, 1990, 173 pages. This report identifies indicators of Black and Hispanic youth at risk of becoming gang members in inner-city Chicago communities with high gang crime rates. 9. Stage 1: Assessment Executive Summary, 1990, 25 pages. This report summarizes the findings of the Assessment Stage of the National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program. MODEL DEVELOPMENT: STAGE 2 Gang Intervention Models recommend policies and procedures for addressing youth gang members 12 to 24 years of age. Strategies of suppression and intervention are described. Issues of prevention, although essential, are not highlighted in these documents. The models emphasize mobilizing community interest and developing distinctive institutional missions within the local juvenile justice system. Gang Intervention Models Available: D0001 Executive Summary: Prototype Models, 33 pages. D0002 Community Based Youth Agency, 24 pages. D0003 Community Mobilization, 20 pages. D0004 Corrections, 19 pages. D0005 General Community Design, 56 pages. D0006 Grassroots Organization, 19 pages. D0007 Judges, 15 pages. D0008 Parole, 14 pages. D0009 Police, 21 pages. D0010 Probation, 16 pages. D0011 Prosecution, 12 pages. D0012 Schools, 19 pages. D0013 Youth Employment, 17 pages. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE MANUALS: STAGE 3 Technical Assistance Manuals provide detailed step- by-step guidelines for implementing the models. Strategies are designed to encourage gang-prone and gang-involved youth to terminate criminal activity and participate in legitimate social, academic, and employment pursuits. It cannot be sure the policies and practices proposed to reduce the youth gang crime problem are effective until they are tested. Gang Manuals Available: D0014 Community Based Youth Agency, 92 pages. D0015 Community Mobilization, 102 pages. D0016 Corrections, 84 pages. D0017 General Community Design, 110 pages. D0018 Grassroots Organization, 92 pages. D0019 Judges, 102 pages. D0020 Parole, 98 pages. D0021 Police, 98 pages. D0022 Probation, 116 pages. D0023 Prosecution, 74 pages. D0024 Schools, 150 pages. D0025 Youth Employment, 120 pages. ------------------------------ Appendix B: GLOSSARY AND DISCUSSION OF TERMS There is much variation in the definition of youth gang or its equivalent terms depending on particular agency, city, or region of the country, race/ethnicity, gang generation, and cultural factors. The terms delinquent group, gang, and criminal organization need to be distinguished for policy and program purposes to the fullest extent possible. 1. Gang. This term generally refers to a group or collective of persons with a common identity whose members interact on a fairly regular basis in cliques or sometimes as a whole group. The activities of the gang may be regarded as legitimate, illegitimate, or criminal in varying combinations. o Street Gang. This term preferred by law enforcement, emphasizes the organized character of a group of persons on the street, often engaged in significant illegitimate or criminal activity. The ages of members of these street gangs vary; some street gangs are more street-based than others. Some authorities report arrests of street gang members in their 30's, 40's, and 50's. o Youth Gang. This term may refer to a youth segment of a street gang, usually between the ages of 12 and 24. Some youth gang members are younger or older. The term youth gang is often used as equivalent to street gang, and is somewhat preferred by community-based agencies. o Traditional Youth Gang. This term refers to a youth gang comprising mainly adolescents, juveniles, and some young adults primarily concerned with issues of status, prestige, and turf protection. The youth gang may have a name, a hangout, codes of conduct, colors, special dress, signs, symbols, etc. Traditional youth gangs often have a leadership structure (implicit or explicit), differ in degree of a gang activities, and may persist over several generations. Traditional youth gangs vary by community as to characteristics of age, gender, race/ethnicity, scope, and nature of delinquent or criminal activities. The traditional youth gang contains many types of subgroups engaged in various delinquent, criminal, and social group activities. o Posse/Crew. The terms posse and crew are sometimes equivalent to street or youth gang. The posse or crew, more often than the traditional youth gang, is characterized by a commitment to criminal gain activity, particularly drug trafficking, rather than to status-based conflict. It may be loosely organized and/or connected to an adult criminal organization. It emphasizes employer-employee relationships and has fewer social status-related or symbolic interests or characteristics than the traditional youth gang. o Other Types of Youth "Gangs". Other types of groups or "quasi" gangs may include Stoners, Punk Rockers, Neo-Nazi Skinheads, Hate Groups, Satanic Groups, Motorcycle Gangs, Prison Gangs. They may be similar to traditional or street youth gangs in various ways, but have distinctive organizational, cultural, political, religious and institutional lifestyles, perspectives, and biases. They can be loosely organized or ephemeral and engage in group- oriented violent or criminal behavior to sustain or defend these beliefs. They may also be characterized by distinctive dress, leadership structure, and concerns with status and turf. o Other Youth Group Considerations. It is important to distinguish these gangs and gang-like groups from youth or street groups of an earlier era, which are still present today. These groups have been called street clubs, youth organizations, or social and athletic clubs are usually less violent or delinquent, generally contain fewer regular mem- bers, and are not as often regarded as delinquent youth gangs by local residents. They serve to socialize low-income, working-class, sometimes first-generation youths in transition from childhood to adulthood. Their activities may constitute acceptable behaviors that are considered normal rites of passage in the particular community. "Copycat" gangs may be increasingly present in some low-income and middle-class communities, often located in smaller cities, suburban, and rural areas. Youth in these groups may identify and attempt to imitate the mannerisms and behaviors of youth gangs in urban centers. Identification with gang culture, in significant measure through media influence, may be a source of novel experience and excitement for youth. The behavior of such groups constitute a challenge to authority in communities undergoing change and where family disruption is increasing. The activities of copycat gangs may sometimes have serious violent or criminal consequences. Most of these youth gangs, however, are ephemeral, engage in relatively minor delinquent acts and have little if any actual or ongoing contact with other criminal juvenile or adult groups. The threat these groups pose to the community and to the social development of their members should be carefully assessed so that a problem is not created or exag- gerated where no, or very little, evidence of a sustainable or serious gang problem exists. 2. Delinquent Group. This refers to a group or collectivity, mainly of juveniles and/or adolescents, engaged usually in less serious law- violating behavior. This law-violating behavior is sometimes of a wider range, particularly with respect to property crimes, than those of youth gangs, posses, crews, and other "quasi" gangs. The delinquent group is usually less organized and more ephemeral than a youth gang. It is characterized by none of the special characteristics of gangs such as turf, distinctive dress, colors, signs or symbols. The delinquent group is the most prevalent of all deviant youth groups in most communities. 3. Criminal organization. This is usually a relatively well-organized, stable, and sophisticated clique, group, or organization of youths and/or adults committed primarily to systematic, income-producing activity of a criminal nature. Its members are essentially employees of a criminal business organization. The criminal organization may at times use intimidation and violence to achieve or protect its economic interests. The organization often provides employment for current or former gang members. Such organizations may provide illegal services or goods to the community and acquire rewards from local residents in mutually acceptable and reinforcing ways. The Loose Crew Triad and Mafia are subtypes of criminal organizations. 4. Gang clique, set, klika. The gang clique and set are terms sometimes used as equivalent to youth gang. On the other hand, a klika on the west coast may represent an entire cohort or age sector of youth (e.g., 13- and 14-year-old males) who join or are "jumped into" a street gang. The clique in its smaller-size connotation may signify a "tight" grouping of two or three youths who have similar characteristics or criminal interests. 5. Youth Gang Member. This term can indicate various types of members who engage in a range of legitimate, illegitimate, criminal, and/or violent behaviors. Leaders and core members of youth or street gangs are often (but not always) more serious and frequent offenders than are other kinds of gang members. Arrested gang members are more likely to become career criminals than arrested nongang delinquents. The following represent membership categories of the more traditional turf-based gang. In the course of a gang member's career, he or she may assume several roles: o Gang leader. This individual makes central or important decisions that affect the gang's behavior. The leader may be formally recognized as President, King, Queen, Prince, Ambassador, Old Gangster, or have no title. Leadership may also be a function shared by different members of the group, depending on particular situations, such as initiating a social or athletic affair; starting or sanctioning a gang fight; conducting a drug transaction; or negotiating criminal deals. o Core or Hardcore gang member. This is an attribution assigned, often by law enforcement, to gang members who engage consistently in gang violence and other serious gang-motivated crime, e.g., a shooter. It refers to the few gang members who are most influential in the development or implementation of the gang's violent patterns of criminal behavior. o Regular member. This gang member participates in the gang's criminal activities on a consistent and frequent basis. He or she is recognized as a member in good standing or status. o Associate. This term refers to a youth who occasionally associates with gang members on the street or elsewhere but who neither recognizes himself nor is usually, or fully, recognized by others as a gang member, except sometimes by law enforcement officials when a gang crime is committed and the particular youth is located nearby. o Soldier or peon. This is a reliable but low- status gang member. o Peripheral or Fringe member. This gang member participates periodically and selectively in gang events. He or she usually does not have high status and is not regarded as a reliable or committed gang member. The gang member may readily leave the gang and be excused from participation in many of the gang's activities. o Wannabe. This refers ordinarily to a younger (less frequently to an older) youth who wants to join the gang. He or she may be a friend or relative of a gang member or former gang member, or already be a member of a "tot" or a juvenile gang- related group. The wannabe may be sought after to join the gang and participate in its activities. o Recruit. A recruit may at times be an older youth recruited for certain skills or talents useful during crises, e.g., gang fighting. He or she may be requested to join for a limited period of time. o Youth at risk of gang membership or gang-prone youth. This is a youth who is not yet a gang member. He or she may not explicitly aspire to gang membership, nor be a target for gang recruitment. However, certain social characteristics and condi- tions within his or her immediate environment make the youth likely to become a gang member, such as: he or she lives in a gang neighborhood; a member of his or her family is a gang member; he or she experiments with drugs; he or she commits delinquent acts; he or she is failing at school; he or she has certain physical or social attributes which are attractive to the gang; he or she is knowledgeable about gang lore; he or she occasionally flashes gang signs or wears gang colors; he or she is suspected by school or police of being a gang member. These characteristics or conditions, singly, may be insufficient to predispose the youth to gang membership or actually identify him or her as a gang member. The National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program is primarily concerned with the high-risk, gang-prone youth or incipient gang member who gives clear evidence of likely or actual criminal gang involvement. o Floater, go-between, operator, broker. Such a youth or adult is ordinarily not a member of a specific gang, but is well-known and has high status or respect among several gangs in the community. He or she has certain knowledge, talents, or resources useful to gangs, e.g., access to other gangs, capacity to mediate a gang fight, ability to provide legal advice, access to weapons or drugs. o Veterano, Old Head, O.G. (Old Gangster), Senior, Advisor, Counselor. This is usually an honorific status assigned to or taken by a young adult who was (or was reported to be) a gang member when he or she was younger. These adults are often no longer active gang members. They may be junkies, drug dealers, informers, racketeers, legitimate business operators, human service workers, a parent, or other respected members of the community. They sometimes attempt to influence the group or its membership to maintain gang tradition, increase or reduce gang violence, or leave the gang and pursue a legitimate (or illegitimate) adult career. A few may participate selectively on occasion in gang-motivated criminal activity. 6. Group delinquency and gang crime incidents. Not all group delinquency or crime should be classified automatically as a gang incident, e.g., purse snatching, disturbing the peace, mob action, or group assault by nongang members. Group delinquent acts are often incorrectly classified as gang motivated incidents, particularly in emerging gang problem contexts where the problem is just starting and officials do not clearly recognize or understand the distinctive character of the problem. Authorities may initially over-react and classify co-offending youth as members of a gang when their delinquent activity is neither gang- motivated nor gang-related. o Labelling gang-motivated and gang-related incidents. The police in practice often employ a combination of gang-motivated and gang-related procedures to define gang crime incidents. We believe that a system should be developed to gather and record information on gang crime which neither exaggerates nor denies, but accurately and meaningfully describes a gang event. A definition should be devised which emphasizes the gang- oriented nature of the incident, i.e., preferably using gang motivation criteria, and not simply the fact that the participant is a gang member. The argument that the gang member is influenced by his experience in the gang even when he commits a nongang crime must be balanced by two counter arguments. Often the gang member was a serious delinquent before he joined the gang. Subsequent gang-related activity should not thereby be regarded as simply those of a gang delinquent. More importantly, excessive reference to the individual as a gang member simply enhances his prestige and exaggerates the threat of the gang or gang member to the community. However, since the gang member, especially the leadership or core member is likely to be a serious offender, an information system should be developed that records both gang-motivated and gang-related crime of certain types of offenders. Special justice system attention should be paid to the gang member who is a repeat serious offender whether he commits gang-motivated or non-gang-motivated crime. Due regard must be given to the fact that not all gang members are delinquent or criminal, and not all delinquent or criminal gang members will be hard-core offenders. The complexity of the gang problem as well as due process and civil rights require that the individual gang youth should be correctly identified as a criminally-oriented gang member. He or she should not be subjected to excessive labelling and punishment, which will probably contribute neither to the protection of the community nor to the social development of the gang member in the long run. 7. Social Disorganization. As used in this manual, social disorganization refers to a lack of integration across the individual, family, organizations and community. It indicates, for example, an inability to mesh motivations, norms, values, and activities by the individual youth with those of his or her family; by family units with organizations such as the school; by units within a particular agency or organization; and across organizations in a community. At the societal and community levels, social disorganization is often associated with large and rapid population movements and social changes or disruptions, e.g., the influx of a new minority population, the outflow of middle-class families, and the failure of key institutions such as schools, law enforcement, and employers to understand and meet the needs of a new or changing population. Gangs, or even certain communities, may be regarded as coherently organized for their particular purposes. However, the predominant norms and values of these gangs and communities are usually in con- flict with the legitimized norms of the larger society. Gangs meet the social and often economic needs of people in ways not approved by the dominant culture. Variables of social disorganization may not be related to variables of poverty, racism, cultural conflict,[1] and social isolation.[2] We believe the interaction of at least two variables, particularly social disorganization and poverty, creates high risks of gang involvement. Social disorganization may also refer to changes that bring about excessive stress or crises in patterns of transition from one state or social situation to another. These transitional patterns may be normal, expected, and desirable under circumstances of stable relationships at home and in the community. They include the transition from: childhood to adolescence; adolescence to young adulthood; one level of schooling to another; and a segregated to an integrated school system, which may require bussing. Early gang involvements are likely to occur during the transition of youth from elementary to junior high, and from junior high to high school in certain neighborhoods. Social disorganization may also be inherent in the changing of seasons. For example, gang activity seems often to rise in the fall as youth begin school, just before and after holiday breaks, and during the late spring before summer vacation. 1. For example, differences in cultural values between those of immigrant groups and those of the dominant community group. 2. For example, significant separation of a housing project from the neighborhood, or the neighborhood from the city. ------------------------------ APPENDIX C: TABLES [There are four tables in this document. The configuration of tables 1 and 4 does not permit their inclusion in this plain-text ASCII file.] Table 2 Summary: MANAGING THE STAGES OF THE ANTI-GANG PLANNING PROCESS Stage 1 Countering Denial or "Cover-Up" o proactive leadership o accurate media reporting o organized articulation of the problem Stage 2 Initial Policy and Program Achievement o examination and selection of policies o site visits to promising programs o use of experts o program orientation and training across agencies o reporting Stage 3 Addressing Sponsorship Crises o dealing with lower political priority of the gang problem reduction program o reexamining the purpose of the gang problem o seeking alternate sponsorship services o shifting to an alternate sponsoring arrangement Stage 4 Dealing with Organizational Goal Displacement and Community Conflict o program emphasis on target youth o utilizing agencies that successfully target the problem o confronting administrators at open community meetings o pressures from multiracial staff identified with community Stage 5 Impact Evaluation o systematic program evaluation o development of quasi-experimental design o circulation of reports Table 3 EXAMPLE OF INTEGRATION OF GOAL, STRATEGIES, AND OBJECTIVES I. Goal. Reduction of felony violent gang-motivated crime in an isolated, predominantly Hispanic, high gang crime (chronic problem) community. II. Strategy. Utilization of a combination of strategies, especially community mobilization and opportunities, but other strategies as well. III. Long-Range Objectives. Reduce violent gang- motivated crime by older core gang youth (17-24) 10% and key juvenile gang members (16 and under) 25% in one year in a target area containing one high school and 3 elementary or middle schools. IV. Short-Range Objectives. A. Develop a coalition of agencies and community groups committed to a range of interrelated suppression, social intervention, and opportunity provision objectives in three months. B. Develop a set of outreach teams comprising representatives of different agencies to deal with problems related to suppression, intervention, and prevention of gang violence in four months. C. Create 50 full-time jobs within a one-year period, for core gang youth (16-24 years) which they should hold for a minimum of six months. D. Reach out to 50 high-risk gang member youth in elementary and middle schools within six months, providing them and their families with counseling, social service, and referral to deal with social development problems. E. Develop special remedial and academic/vocationally enriched programs for low achievers in the seventh and eighth grade, with special targeting of 30 gang member and high-risk gang-prone youths within six months after the start of the new school year. ------------------------------ APPENDIX D: A RESEARCH PARADIGM I. Assumptions and Constraints 1. The youth gang problem is an indicator and extreme manifestation of a very large social and economic problem that includes rising rates of violent delinquency, school dropout, unemployment, drug trafficking and addiction, single parenthood, child abuse, and unstable families, particularly in certain inner-city or changing communities. 2. Youth gangs are alternative or surrogate social institutions that satisfy, at least partially, basic human needs of youth for social, emotional, academic, and economic achievement when existing institutions of family, school, legitimate employment, and neighborhood organizations fail to function adequately. Youth gangs result from cumulative failures of key social institutions. 3. Youth gangs signify the extreme breakdown of specifically local, organizational, and community functions, especially of legitimate social control, socialization, and social support. 4. Larger societal conditions contribute to institutional breakdown and local community disorganization. They include population movements, market economy changes, poverty, defective national social policy, and racism, particularly as they impact minority groups. 5. These larger social conditions that generate community and institutional breakdown must be addressed even as we focus locally on the gang- related aspects of these interconnected problems. 6. We should primarily target those youth who are committed gang members and high-risk gang-prone youth through a set of policies and programs that includes social intervention, provision of social opportunities, community mobilization, and organizational development and modification as well as suppression. 7. Thus, a Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program will target gang youth a) 12 to 24 years old; and others who directly influence youth gangs, particularly with regard to traditional turf-based violent gang activity. b) male and female youth primarily engaged in turf- based violence, and secondarily in mobile gangs engaged in a variety of serious crimes including drug trafficking, property crime, and with connections to organized crime, but whose identification with the youth gang is primarily for symbolic, communal, or status development purposes. 8. The Program will not target the following groups a) youths under age 12 years, particularly wannabees, including those not connected to high- profile, police-identified serious street or youth gangs; b) older youth or adults where primary identification is with criminal organizations for purposes of economic gain; c) delinquent groups generally those that are ad hoc, ephemeral, or engage in property crime or minor criminal behavior. 9. At the same time, because of the systemic character of youth gangs, younger and older gang youth, male and female, will be targeted in some interrelated fashion. In other words, gang youth will be targeted at both earlier and later points in their gang commitment and development, but not prior to actual police contact or after the youth or the gang is primarily committed to criminal gain opportunities. 10. A key interrelated focus of the program will be reintegration of gang youth into mainstream society as well as community protection. II. General Hypothesis The interrelated application of strategies of mainly community mobilization and social opportunities provision, also including culturally sensitive suppression, organizational development, and social intervention, will lead to a reduction in the youth gang problem. III. Specific Hypothesis 1. These five strategies will be present in appropriate organizational and program combinations in any city or social context for the problem to be reduced. 2. Certain approaches and priorities in use of strategies will occur in situations where the problem is to be reduced, based on cultural, community organizational, poverty, and population mobility factors. Special strategic attention will be directed to the nature of the level of development of the community's gang problem: a) In chronic youth gang problem contexts, emphasis will be on strategies of community mobilization and opportunities provision. b) In emerging youth gang problem contexts, emphasis will be on strategies of community mobilization. c) Issues of criminal opportunity system, criminal tradition, culture, and institutional pressure will also `have to' be considered in the possible modification and prioritization of strategies. 3. Furthermore, for a relative reduction and nonconversion of the youth gang problem, for example, drug trafficking to occur, strategies will be implemented in such a way that: a) There is consensus by key community actors on perceptions of the nature of the problem, its causes, program goals and objectives; and b) Accountability is achieved through such mechanisms as informed and proactive advisory groups comprising both public, nonprofit, and community-interest groups. IV. Dependent Variables (Desired Outcome) A. Primary 1. Reduction of serious youth gang violence; 2. Reduction of less serious youth gang violence. B. Secondary 1. Reduction of youth gang-related drug trafficking; 2. Reduction of other youth gang-related activity 3. Reduction of other non-youth gang-related criminal activity. V. Intermediate Variables (individual youth level) 1. Improved school performance; 2. Satisfactory participation in training programs; 3. Satisfactory performance on a job; 4. Nonparticipation in criminal youth gangs; 5. Increased participation with non-youth gang peers; 6. Improved self-esteem; 7. Improved family support group functioning; 8. Improved physical/mental health. VI. Program Process Independent Variables (organizational level) 1. Provision of additional social/educational/vocational resources to programs targeting gang youth; 2. Development of fair and equitable social control relationships with gang youth; 3. Improved initial and sustained access to remedial and enriched education for gang youth; 4. Improved initial and sustained access to vocational training for gang youth; 5. Improved initial and sustained access to adequate job opportunities for gang youth; 6. Improved initial and sustained access to supervised recreational activities for gang youth; 7. Improved initial and sustained access to health services for gang youth; 8. Also, improved access for gang youth's family to educational, social, and vocational services directed at sustaining support for the youth to make a legitimate social adjustment. VII. Intervening Impact Variables (Those variables may affect the dependent variables, unrelated to program process variables) 1. Social Disorganization a) individual youth (behavioral disorder or illness); b) family (disruption); c) gang/group process (status conflicts); d) organization (extreme lack of coordination); e) interorganization (service competition and conflict); f) community (political fragmentation, social isolation, rapid influx of low-income minority groups, racism. 2. Poverty a) high level of deprivation (e.g., low family income, unemployment, inadequate housing, and educational deprivation); b) relative status and attitudinal deprivation ------------------------------ BIBLIOGRAPHY Gonzalez, Maria and Robert Mendoza. 1991. Code Blue: Youth at Risk: Partnership for Reclaiming our Community. The Mayor's Community Task Force on Gangs, Crime and Drugs. Austin, Texas, May. Spergel, Irving A. and Ron L. Chance. 1990. Community and Institutional Responses to the Youth Gang Problem. Case Studies Based on Field Visits and Other Materials. Chicago: School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, January. Spergel, Irving A. 1990. General Community Design for Dealing With the Youth Gang Problem. Chicago: School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, September 30.