Title: Youth Gang Homicides in the 1990's Series: Fact Sheet Author: G. David Curry, Cheryl L. Maxson, and James C. Howell Published: March 2001 Subject: Gangs, Homicide, Juvenile violence 7 pages 10,000 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 800-638-8736. ------------------------- Youth Gang Homicides in the 1990's by G. David Curry, Cheryl L. Maxson, and James C. Howell The overall number of youth gang homicides in U.S. cities declined during the 1990's, but trends varied in the early and later parts of the decade and by city. This Fact Sheet discusses the results of a study of youth gang homicides in U.S. cities in the 1990's, which was conducted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP's) National Youth Gang Center. The study combined results from multiple years of National Youth Gang Surveys and previous law enforcement surveys of gang activity in general and gang homicides in particular. Throughout this Fact Sheet, the word "gang" refers to "youth gangs." The term "gang homicides" refers to incidents that involve gang members as victims and/or offenders; some cities reported figures on more narrowly defined, gang-motivated incidents. Because the study used several databases, gang homicide trends during the decade were examined in two parts: the early to mid-1990's and the late 1990's. Results Gang Homicide Trends in the Early to Mid-1990's The study used three gang databases to examine gang homicides in the first part of the decade. These databases included cities surveyed in 1991 by either Maxson and Klein or Curry[1] that also provided homicide data in the 1996 National Youth Gang Survey. Trends for the early to mid-1990's reflect data for 408 matched cities. The matched-city comparison for 1991 and 1996 was the only explicit comparison that could be made, because the three surveys used different samples. If no 1996 data were available for one of the cities, data from the 1995 National Youth Gang Survey were used for the mid-1990's comparison. During these years, the total number of gang homicides decreased among the cities in the survey by nearly 15 percent, from 1,748 to 1,492 incidents. Thirty-two percent of the cities reported a decrease, 29 percent reported an increase, and 39 percent reported no change. Gang Homicide Trends in the Late 1990's For the late 1990's comparison, data from the 1996, 1997, and 1998 National Youth Gang Surveys were analyzed.[2] The study looked at data from 1,216 cities with populations greater than 25,000 that reported on gang problems and gang homicides between 1996 and 1998. A total of 237 cities reported both a gang problem and a gang homicide statistic in all 3 years. Forty-nine percent reported a decrease in gang homicides over the 3-year period, 36 percent reported an increase, and 15 percent reported no change. The total number of gang homicides for these cities was 1,293 in 1996, 1,260 in 1997, and 1,061 in 1998. Relatively few cities reported large numbers of gang homicides. From 1996 to 1998, 88 percent (383) of the 436 responding cities[3] had a maximum of 1-10 gang homicides in any single year, 10 percent (45 cities) reported a maximum of 11-50, and 2 percent (8 cities) had more than 50 gang homicides in any of the 3 years. The trend in cities with the most gang homicides overshadows the patterns in cities with low numbers of gang homicides. Los Angeles, CA, and Chicago, IL, stand out among cities with the highest rates of gang homicide. In 1998, Los Angeles reported 173 gang homicides and Chicago reported 180. Although the two cities use different reporting methods (Los Angeles reports gang-related homicides and Chicago reports gang-motivated homicides), both cities reported substantial decreases in gang homicides from 1996 to 1998, with a far greater decrease reported in Los Angeles (41 percent) than in Chicago (19 percent). Thus, these two cities contributed significantly to the overall drop in gang homicides from 1996 to 1998.[4] Summary From the early to mid-1990's, the total number of gang homicides reported in more than 400 cities decreased 15 percent. This 15-percent drop provides little comfort when two other findings are considered. First, just one city--Los Angeles-- accounts for 29.7 percent of the 256-homicide decrease nationwide from 1991 to 1996 (or 1995, if 1996 data were not available). Second, the number of cities with decreases in gang homicides during this period is counterbalanced by a similar number of cities with increases. More cities (39 percent) reported no change in the number of gang homicides than reported either an increase (29 percent) or a decrease (32 percent). Thus, gang homicides remained a serious problem in most U.S. cities during the first part of the decade, increasing and decreasing in almost the same proportion of cities. Gang homicide trends from 1996 to 1998 were more dynamic. One-half of the surveyed cities reported a decrease in homicides, 36 percent reported an increase, and 15 percent reported no change. The finding that more cities reported a decrease over these recent years should encourage law enforcement and social service practitioners to continue their efforts to reduce and prevent gang violence. However, the overall decrease in the numbers of homicides is strongly influenced by the trends in Chicago, Los Angeles, and a handful of other cities with substantial numbers of gang homicides. ---------------------- For Further Information For more information about youth gangs, contact the National Youth Gang Center or call OJJDP's Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC), 800-638-8736. National Youth Gang Center P.O. Box 12729 Tallahassee, FL 32317 800-446-0912 850-386-5356 (fax) www.iir.com/nygc/ (Internet) ----------------------- G. David Curry, Ph.D., is Professor, Department of Criminology and Sociology, University of Missouri-St. Louis. Cheryl L. Maxson, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine. James C. Howell, Ph.D., is Adjunct Researcher with the National Youth Gang Center, Institute for Intergovernmental Research, Tallahassee, FL. ------------------------- For a list of sources cited in this Fact Sheet, call JJC. The list is also available as an addendum through Fax-on-Demand at the toll-free number and from OJJDP's Web site, www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org. --------------------- The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime. ----------------------- FS-200103 ---------------------- 1 Klein, 1995a; Maxson, 1998; Maxson, Woods, and Klein, 1995, 1996; Curry, Fox, Ball, and Stone, 1992; Curry, Ball, and Fox, 1994. 2 See National Youth Gang Center, 1997, 1999a, 1999b, 2000. 3 Cities with populations over 25,000 that reported a gang problem and gang homicides in at least 1 year between 1996 and 1998. 4 Gang homicides in Los Angeles were reported to be increasing in 2000, reflecting the cyclical pattern of gang homicides (Klein, 1995b). ------------------------ References Curry, G.D., Ball, R.A., and Fox, R.J. 1994. Gang Crime and Law Enforcement Recordkeeping. Research in Brief. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice. Curry, G.D., Fox, R.J., Ball, R.A., and Stone, D. 1992. National Assessment of Law Enforcement Anti- Gang Information Resources. Final Report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice. Klein, M.W. 1995a. The American Street Gang: Its Nature, Prevalence, and Control. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Klein, M.W. 1995b. Street gang cycles. In Crime, edited by J.Q. Wilson and J. Petersilia. San Francisco, CA: Institute for Contemporary Studies, pp. 217-236. Maxson, C.L. 1998. Gang homicide. In Studying and Preventing Homicide, edited by D. Smith and M. Zahn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 197-219. Maxson, C.L., Woods, K., and Klein, M.W. 1995. Street Gang Migration in the United States. Center for the Study of Crime and Social Control. Los Angeles, CA: Social Science Research Institute, University of Southern California. Maxson, C.L., Woods, K., and Klein, M.W. 1996. Street gang migration: How big a threat? National Institute of Justice Journal 230:26-31. National Youth Gang Center. 1997. 1995 National Youth Gang Survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. National Youth Gang Center. 1999a. 1996 National Youth Gang Survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. National Youth Gang Center. 1999b. 1997 National Youth Gang Survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. National Youth Gang Center. 2000. 1998 National Youth Gang Survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.