By Delfina Bilello, Lucy J. Swancott, Juliane A. Kloess, Stephanie Burnett Heyes

Introduction: Gang involvement poses serious risks to young people, including antisocial and criminal behavior, sexual and criminal exploitation, and mental health problems. There is a need for research-informed development of preventive interventions. To this end, we conducted a qualitative study of young people’s responses to an educational virtual reality (VR) experience of an encounter with a gang, to understand young people’s decisions, emotions and consequences. 

Methods: Young people (N = 24 aged 13-15, 11 female, 13 male) underwent the VR experience followed by semi-structured focus group discussions. Questions focused on virtual decision-making (motivations, thoughts, feelings, consequences) and user experiences of taking part. Data were analysed using Thematic Analysis. 

Results: Three themes were developed to represent how participants’ perceptions of the gang, themselves, and the context influenced virtual decisions. Social pressure from the gang competed with participants’ wish to stand by their morals and establish individual identity. The VR setting, through its escalating events and plausible characters, created an “illusion of reality” and sense of authentic decisions and emotions, yielding insights for real-life in a safe, virtual environment. 

Discussion: Findings shed light on processes influencing adolescent decision-making in a virtual context of risk-taking, peer pressure and contact with a gang. Particularly, they highlight the potential for using VR in interventions with young people, given its engaging and realistic nature.

Front. Virtual Real., 16 July 2023

By Susan McVie

This report presents key findings on gang membership and knife carrying amongst a cohort of young people based on data collected by the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime (ESYTC). The analysis was commissioned in light of a lack of quantitative data measuring the extent of gang membership and knife crime in Scotland.

Edinburgh: Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR), 2010. 50p.

By John G. Horgan, Paul Gill, Noemie Bouhana, James Silver and Emily Corner

Lone actor terrorists (sometimes referred to as ‘lone wolves’) and mass murderers are more often than not assumed to be distinct, with little validity for comparison. Yet, both engage (or attempt to engage) in largely public and highly publicized acts of violence and often use similar weapons. - Using a series of bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses, we compared demographic, psychological and offense-related behavioral variables across and between 71 lone actor terrorists and 115 solo mass murderers. - Results indicate there is little to distinguish these offender types in terms of their socio-demographic profiles. However, their behaviors significantly differ with regards to (a) the degree to which they interact with co-conspirators (b) their antecedent event behaviors and (c) the degree to which they leak information prior to the attack.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2016. 122p.

By Jonathan Ilan

Crime must be understood as a facet of class-cultural interaction, given that the majority of the convicted are young, urban, disadvantaged males, while the criminal law enshrines and enforces what could be viewed as middle-class behavioural expectations. Class-cultural dynamics have become increasingly complex in late modernity, however, with traditional certainties and class boundaries becoming blurred and indistinct. This thesis examines the social and cultural factors underlying youth offending and justice in an inner-city Dublin community through an ethnographic treatment of the various actors in a locality which has undergone significant change in recent years. The Crew, a group of young offenders, are shown to adhere to a ‘rough’or ‘street’variant of working class values, born of the experience of particularly intense disadvantage and exclusion. The group’s base is in the Northstreet community, which historically condoned a level of petty criminality as a response to the absolute poverty experienced by its residents. Internal divisions, economic resurgence and urban renewal have altered the way of life for the majority of the residents of this public housing complex, which has rendered the young offenders both a symbolic reminder of the past, and an obstacle to community leadership attempts to represent contemporary Northstreet as a ‘respectable area’. While developments in policing strategies have in turn blurred the traditional opposition between the Gardai and working-class communities, The Crew and the police force nevertheless continue to construct each other as opponents, engaging in a game-like conflict fuelled by the clash 'street' and 'decent' values.

Dublin: Technological University Dublin, 2007. 249p.

By The Juvenile Law Center

The United States incarcerates youth at more than double the rate of any other country in the world. On any given day, almost 50,000 young people are locked up in juvenile facilities across the country. Although overall juvenile incarceration rates have been falling, Black youth are still over five times more likely than their white peers to be detained or committed to an institution.

We know these institutions—many of which are over 100 years old—are part of a punitive corrections-oriented approach that does not work for youth. Research shows that institutional settings harm young people developmentally, psychologically, and—far too often—physically. Yet our country continues to rely on this outdated model as the backbone of its juvenile justice system.

Philadelphia: Juvenile Law Center, 2018. 31p.

By John Pitts

This book provides an account of the emergence, nature and impact of armed youth gangs in an East London Borough over the last decade. It describes the challenges these armed young men and women pose to their communities, those charged with preventing crime and those struggling to vouchsafe 'community safety'. While the focus of the book is 'local', the processes it outlines and the effects it chronicles have both a national and international relevance.

It argues that the main reason behind the emergence of the armed youth gang has been the coalesence of two previously discreet socially deviant groups; the rowdy, episodically criminal, adolescent peer group on the one hand and the locally-based organized criminal network on the other.

The book analyses the impact of the globalisation of the drugs trade and the consequent shift in the focus of local organized crime from the 'blag' to the 'business'. It also discusses how socio-economic and cultural factors, as well as family and neighbourhood histories and loyalties and localized racial antagonisms all play their part in the emergence of the armed youth gang.

Cullompton, Devon, UK: Willan Publishing, 2008. 188p.

By Juanjo Medina, Andreas Cebulla, Andy Ross, Jon Shute, and Judith Aldridge

Youth gangs have received widespread political and media attention in the last decade. Gang membership has been linked to violent crime among young people, particularly in cases of gun and knife crime. More recently, this focus on gang membership among young people has been amplified by the rioting in some UK cities in summer 2011. Based on the suspected link between gangs and violent crime, government and different agencies have begun to develop policy responses to gangs. In November 2011, the government published its cross-government strategy to combat gang and youth violence. Alongside this, police forces and local authorities are drawing on US models to tackle gangs, including the formation of dedicated units and multi-agency teams. This study aims to enhance the evidence base for the developing policy context. We have used data from the Offending, Crime and Justice Survey (OCJS) to explore the circumstances that lead to young people joining, remaining, and leaving gangs in England and Wales. The OCJS provides the best nationally representative data available on young people’s victimisation and offending in the UK. Our findings, which are discussed in more detail in this briefing paper, are that gang membership increases the chances of offending, antisocial behaviour, and drug use among young people. This finding vindicates the current policy approach of treating gang membership as a distinct part of crime prevention and youth policy.

Manchester, UK: Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Manchester and NatCen Social Research,, 2013? 13p.

By Kara Apland, Hannah Lawrence, Jeff Mesie and Elizabeth Yarrow

This paper reports the findings from an evidence review ofthe views, perspectives and experiences of children in involved in gangs, on matters related to their subjective wellbeing. The report forms part of a series of studies examining the subjective wellbeing of vulnerable groups of children in England. This series was produced as part of a larger project focused on improving evidence about childhood vulnerability. Objectives of the review The main objectives of the review were:  to identify, appraise and synthesize published qualitative evidence on the subjective wellbeing of children in detention in England  to draw out key findings and conclusions from the evidence, as well as identifying any important gaps.

London: Children’s Commissioner for England, 2017. 39p.

By Children’s Commissioner for England

This report investigates what it means to be a child gang member in England. It estimates how many children in England are in gangs, and looks at the risks factors which make it more likely for a child to end up being groomed for gang membership. Finally, it questions whether those responsible for safeguarding children are responding adequately to the rise in gang violence and how children can better be kept safe. I have been shocked to discover that many of those responsible for the protection of children in their local areas seem to have no idea where to start, despite hundreds of thousands of children being at risk. In this, I draw parallels with CSE a decade ago – before children being sexually exploited were recognised as victims and not perpetrators, and the adults supposed to protect them stopped turning a blind eye to widescale abuse. Our research presented here estimates there are 27,000 children in England who identify as a gang member, only a fraction of whom are known to children’s services. Their experiences vary widely. For some, being in a gang entails little more than putting a hashtag on social media. For others it can be far more serious and dangerous. Many of the children who identify as gang members feel they have no choice or no better options. Some are groomed and exploited by gangs but never identify as members. Often it is these children, described to me once as ‘collateral’, who are the most vulnerable and at risk.

London: Children’s Commissioner for England, 2019. 39p.

By Jesse Jannetta; Rod Martinez; Paige Thompson; Janine M. Zweig; Lily Robin; Leigh Courtney; Lindsey Cramer; Storm Ervin; Andreea Matei; Krista White

The recommended strategies are derived from research on the impact of various efforts to reduce shootings and homicides committed by youth between the ages of 10 and 25 in gangs/groups and with the use of guns. Research indicates that a common feature of the most effective efforts involves collaborations among law enforcement agencies, local government agencies, and community organizations in designing, implementing, and testing policies and practices designed to prevent and respond to violence committed by youth gangs/groups. Recommendations are divided into two sections. Those in the first section address how to build anti-violence infrastructure to ensure planned efforts span the entire jurisdiction, have multiple components, are adaptable to variable circumstances, are sustainable over time, and are targeted at violence committed by youth gangs/groups. The second section focuses on how to develop effective programs and interventions that operate within and benefit from the existing infrastructure. Nine actions needed to develop an anti-violence infrastructure are discussed. There are some common titles given workers and types of work done by those employed in these antiviolence efforts outside of traditional justice agencies. Throughout this guide, four common job titles in such work are a “case manager,” “credible messenger.” ”outreach worker,” and a “violence interrupter.” The guide describes the functions of each of these jobs in the context of what research has indicated to be an effective infrastructure for countering youth gang/group violence. Some examples are provided of U.S. cities that have an established infrastructure for addressing violence by youth gangs/groups.

Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2022. 99p.

By Tom Clarke

This analysis aims to provide information on the scale of gang associated children and young people (CYP) identified by statutory services and their characteristics, with a particular focus on overlaps with other vulnerable groups. To do this we present analysis of two groups of CYP:  CYP assessed by children’s services during the year to March 2018. This is taken from the Children in Need Census (CIN) collected by the Department for Education and is matched where possible to the National Pupil Database (NPD).  CYP receiving an Asset Plus assessment in the 12 months to September 2018. This is a bespoke collection from Youth Offending Teams (YOT) in England and received responses from 130 out of 137 areas. Both of these data sources have extensive information on the characteristics of the CYP assessed, including practitioner assessed markers of whether a child is gang associated or not. This allows us to examine the scale of children marked as being gang associated in both data sources and to examine differences between these gang associated CYP and other CYP assessed on other characteristics recorded in the datasets.

London: Children’s Commissioner for England, 2019, 39p.

By José Miguel Cruz, Jonathan D. Rosen, Luis Enrique Amaya and Yulia Vorobyeva

Can a member of a Salvadoran youth gang, locally known as “maras,” leave the gang and start a new life away from crime and violence? To answer this question, the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center and the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University, with the support of the Fundación Nacional para el Desarrollo (FUNDE), conducted a study with Salvadoran gang members and former gang members across the country. The study, which is based on a survey with a combination of a convenience and purposive sample of 1,196 respondents with record of gang membership and 32 in-depth interviews, reveals that desistance from the gang is possible in El Salvador but, in the short-term, it depends on two factors. First, it depends on the individual and active commitment of gang members to abandon gang life and stop partaking in violent activities. Second, it depends on the tacit or explicit consent of the leaders of the gang organization. Hence, in El Salvador, gang desistance—which, according to some authors, is the declining probability of gang membership—involves the acquiescence of the group. The study builds on previous academic scholarship on gangs in El Salvador and Central America as well as on the general criminological literature on youth gangs. The results indicate that youth gangs remain a predominantly male phenomenon and that the average age of joining the gang does not seem to have changed significantly in comparison with data from 10 years ago. Nearly 40% of the subjects interviewed for this study are active members of the gang, while the rest are in different stages of calming down and leaving the gang.

Miami: Florida International University, 2017. 75p.

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.

By Walter B. Miller

That original report dispelled the popular notion that gang violence was no longer a problem in this country. Based on findings from 26 U.S. cities and metropolitan counties, including interviews with over 450 representatives of police departments, public and private youth service agencies, courts, and other groups, the author found that, compared to youth gangs from previous eras, the gangs of the 1970's tended to be more violent, more likely to use guns, less formally organized, and more active within the public schools. The original research provided baseline national estimates of the numbers, locations, and criminal activities of juvenile and youth gangs, and conceptualized the law-violating youth group as a basic unit in the study of gangs and other forms of collective youth crime. The predictions made in the report have been borne out in the intervening years by empirical data: that absent a new commitment to gang control, the youth gang problem would worsen; that the gang situation in California represents the wave of the future for the rest of the U.S.; that social and economic conditions associated with gangs will not change in a direction that reduces gang crime; and that gun control efforts will be ineffective in decreasing the availability of weapons to youth. 3 charts, 33 tables, and 5 appendixes

Washington, DC: U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1982. 177p.

By Clare Ribando Seelke

The Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and its main rival, the “18th Street” gang, continue to undermine citizen security and subvert government authority in parts of Central America. Gang-related violence has been particularly acute in El Salvador, Honduras, and urban areas in Guatemala, contributing to some of the highest homicide rates in the world. Congress has maintained an interest in the effects of gang-related crime and violence on governance, citizen security, and investment in Central America. Congress has examined the role that gang-related violence has played in fueling mixed migration flows, which have included asylum seekers, by families and unaccompanied alien children (UAC) to the United States. Since FY2008, Congress has appropriated funding for anti-gang efforts in Central America. Central American governments have struggled to address the gang problem. From 2012 to 2014, the government of El Salvador facilitated a historic—and risky—truce involving the country’s largest gangs. The truce contributed to a temporary reduction in homicides but strengthened the gangs. Since taking office in June 2014, President Salvador Sanchez Cerén has adopted repression-oriented anti-gang policies similar those implemented in the mid-2000s, including relying on the military to support anti-gang efforts. El Salvador’s attorney general is investigating allegations of extrajudicial killings committed by police engaged in anti-gang efforts. Successive Honduran governments have generally relied on suppression-oriented policies toward the gangs as well, with some funding provided in recent years to support community-level prevention programs. The Guatemalan government has generally relied on periodic law-enforcement operations to round up suspected gang members. U.S. agencies have engaged with Central American governments on gang issues for more than a decade. In July 2007, an interagency committee announced the U.S. Strategy to Combat Criminal Gangs from Central America and Mexico, which emphasized diplomacy, repatriation, law enforcement, capacity enhancement, and prevention. Between FY2008 and FY2013, Congress appropriated roughly $38 million in International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) funds through a special line item for anti-gang efforts in Central America. Since FY2013, approximately $10 million in Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) funding has been assigned to continue those anti-gang initiatives. Significant additional support has been provided through CARSI for violence-prevention efforts in communities affected by gang violence, as well as for vetted police units working on transnational gang cases with U.S. law enforcement. Recently, U.S. and Salvadoran officials have also targeted the financing of MS13, which the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated as a Transnational Criminal Organization subject to U.S. sanctions in October 2012, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13581. This report describes the gang problem in Central America, discusses country approaches to deal with the gangs, and analyzes U.S. policy with respect to gangs in Central America. Congressional oversight may focus on the efficacy of anti-gang efforts in Central America; the interaction between U.S. domestic and international anti-gang policies, and the potential impact of U.S. sanctions on law-enforcement efforts.

Washington, DC: U.S. Congressional Research Service, 2016. 23p.

By J. Hodgkinson, et al.

Are ‘comprehensive’ interventions more effective at reducing gang related criminal activity and anti-social behaviour than usual service provision? The meta-analysis of nine studies found that, overall, the comprehensive interventions had a positive, but not statistically significant, effect in reducing crime outcomes compared to usual service provision (i.e. whatever was in place either in a comparison area or before the specific intervention).

None of the studies included in the review considered the cost-benefit of any of the interventions. This kind of information is important to facilitate a more informed decision when choosing between different strategies. Any advantage of comprehensive interventions over non-comprehensive interventions may, for example, come at a greater financial cost.

London: Institute of Education, University of London, 2009. 155p.

By Laura Dunbar

Youth gangs are not a new phenomenon in Canada. Theoretical and empirical research and evaluation efforts continue with the goal of better understanding and responding to this issue. Advances have been made in defining the nature of youth gangs and their activities, the motivations for joining, and the risk and protective factors that influence involvement in a gang lifestyle. While a precise measure of youth gang involvement and prevalence of their activities in Canada is not currently available, in the last number of years strides have been made in understanding affiliation among several key populations, namely Aboriginal youth, immigrant youth and young women. Greater insight into specific risk factors, pathways to involvement and desistance, and guidance for prevention and intervention efforts can assist in the future development of solutions to address youth gang involvement and gang-related activities in Canada. Public Safety Canada continues to support effective youth gang prevention and intervention strategies that are known to work based on empirical evidence and lessons learned from past implementation and evaluation experiences.

Ottawa: Public Safety Canada, 2017.30p.

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By Daniel Gunnell, Joseph Hillier and Laura Blakeborough

As part of the Home Office’s Ending Gang and Youth Violence programme a commitment was made to help police forces better understand their local gang issues (HM Government, 20131 ). This research aims to meet this commitment by testing the use of social network analysis using police intelligence data, as a tool to more systematically understand gangs and to help direct law enforcement activities. As such, the report serves as one example of how social network analysis can be used, but the approach could also be applied to other types of crime and disorder to explore the networks of people involved (such as those connected to acquisitive crime or sexual abuse). The research was undertaken in partnership with Great Manchester Police and addresses two research questions: 1. What can social network analysis tell us about gangs? 2. How useful are the social network analysis outputs for the police? For this, five individuals living in Manchester and identified as having gang links were chosen as the starting point for the network analysis. Further details about how to conduct social network analysis can be found in the ‘How to guide’ 2 published as an annex to this report.

London: Home Office, 2016. 34p.

By Emma Disley and Mark Liddle

The aim of this study was to understand perceptions of the nature of urban street gangs and whether these gangs have changed in recent years in the 33 areas1 that make up the Government’s Ending Gang and Youth Violence (EGYV) programme (HM Government, 2011a). The EGYV programme aims to improve the way that gangs are tackled locally through providing peer support to local areas to help prevent young people becoming involved in violence; providing exit routes for those already involved in gangs; and ensuring that appropriate enforcement responses are put in place to address challenges associated with gangs. The study was based on the perceptions of practitioners working on gang-related issues as well as individuals who were current or ex-gang members, or associated with, or affiliated to gangs (referred to throughout as gang associates). It investigated the extent to which there were perceived similarities or differences in the nature of street gangs in EGYV areas and whether or not gangs were thought to have changed in the last two years. It also explored the extent to which there were common or divergent trends in perceptions at national or local levels. It was not the purpose of this study to evaluate the effectiveness of the EGYV programme or local measures to address gang and youth violence. The findings, based largely on practitioners’ perceptions, highlight issues and possible trends that could be more fully explored and investigated locally or nationally, using a wider range of evidence and information.

London: Home Office, 2016. 107p.

By Edward Connors, Barbara Webster, Neal Miller, Claire Johnson, and Elizabeth Fraser

Gangs have been a major contributor to the growth of violent crime in the past decade. Heavily armed with sophisticated weapons, gangs are involved in drug trafficking, murder, witness intimidation, robbery, extortion, and turf battles. Gangs now operate in cities of all sizes, as well as suburban communities throughout the United States; gang violence no longer is limited to major cities. What is being done to stop gang activity? Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies across the country have implemented innovative and resourceful initiatives to stop gangs from terrorizing our communities. Interagency and multijurisdictional efforts range from special units dedicated to investigating and prosecuting gang-related crimes to state-of-the-art surveillance equipment and sophisticated data collection and analysis technologies. Our purpose in developing Model Strategies for Urban Street Gang Enforcement was to create processes and strategies that would be useful in many jurisdictions. No one method will solve the gang problem; however, some methods are more effective and better suited to certain situations. This monograph presents strategies to enhance prosecution of gang related crimes. It focuses exclusively on enforcement and prosecution strategies against urban street gangs. The model programs introduced here offer strategies largely based on the practical experiences of agencies that participated in a demonstration program funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and designed to establish model approaches to prevent and suppress gang violence. This monograph offers a step-by-step guide for designing and implementing a program based on Model Strategies for Urban Street Gang Enforcement. It identifies and explores innovative methods of prosecuting gang members involved in criminal activities. Program examples and case studies from the seven demonstration sites illustrate how local objectives were met. By documenting and disseminating effective strategies to combat gang violence, BJA hopes to assist law enforcement agencies.

Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance . 1997. 133p.