Under Part D, OJJDP was mandated to implement two new discretionary grant program initiatives. They pertain to gang- free schools and communities and community-based gang intervention. In response to this mandate, OJJDP established a team of its senior program managers to develop and implement a comprehensive and coordinated approach for implementation of the gang mandate. First, the team reviewed current and previous OJJDP-sponsored gang projects, with attention to the products developed by Irving Spergel and his colleagues at the University of Chicago in their national assessment of gang literature, practices, and promising communitywide approaches. Second, James Howell reviewed the recent gang research and developed an article that highlights the program development and future research implications of the various study findings. Third, the task force commissioned the formulation of recommendations for future OJJDP gang strategies building upon the existing knowledge base concerning the etiology, prevention, and control of gangs. Fourth, the task force examined the legislative history of the amended Part D, as well as conducted interviews with selected Federal program managers regarding their current and planned gang initiatives. Based on the information obtained in these initiatives, the OJJDP Gang Task Force outlined plans for the integrated office-wide efforts to provide national leadership in the areas of gang-related program development, research, statistics, evaluation, training, technical assistance, and information dissemination. This information is synthesized in this background paper. 76 references