The information was collected by telephone contact followed by direct contact with a representative of the police agency or another crucial agency in each city. The survey focused on the youth gang problem and the response of the community or an organized agency. Community mobilization was consistently perceived as effective in dealing with the youth gang problem. However, agencies consistently fail to base their policy approaches on logically developed strategies based on an assessment of the causes of gang affiliation. Instead, actions tend to be taken with little thought given to the sources of gangs in the community. Therefore, more careful evaluation is needed in developing strategies to address gangs. Tables, notes, and 17 references