By Washington Office of Latin America

A sk someone to describe a “gang member” and the response will be almost immediate. Most people, whether they have ever encountered an actual gang member or not, will describe a gun-toting, tattooed criminal. Ask someone to explain what a “Central American youth gang” is and the respondent is likely to paint an image of a dangerous network of criminal gangs, based in Central America and spreading their tentacles from there into the United States and other countries. Fueled by sometimes one-sided media coverage, these terms carry with them a strong set of prejudices and assumptions. The reality is far more complex. Gangs and gang members are very serious threats to public security in some communities both in Central America and in the United States. But the character and the origins of Central American youth gangs, and the problem of youth gang violence, are not simple to understand or address. They have both local and transnational aspects and are a social as well as a law enforcement issue. In Central America, youth gangs have existed since at least the 1960s, although their character changed significantly in the 1990s. To understand youth gangs in Central American immigrant communities in the United States, one must recognize that youth gangs in the U.S. can be traced back as far as the 1780s,

Washington, DC: WOLA, 2006. 32p.