By Paul Gray, Hannah Smithson and Deborah Jump

While crime has fallen rapidly over the last 20 years, serious youth violence (hereafter referred to as SYV) – defined by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) as ‘any drug, robbery or violence against the person offence that has a gravity score1 of five of more’ – is a growing concern in England and Wales (Home Office, 2018). Despite a substantial reduction in violent crime since the mid-1990s, levels of SYV remain ‘stubbornly high’ (Irwin-Rogers et al., 2020: 16). Alongside this, research has consistently found that justice-involved children have childhoods characterised by disproportionate adverse childhood experiences (hereafter referred to as ACEs) (see, for example, Baglivio et al., 2014; Boswell, 1996; Dierkhising et al., 2013; Jacobson et al., 2010). ACEs are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood. They include, for example: experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect; witnessing domestic violence; bereavement; substance misuse within the family; mental health problems within the family; parental separation; or having a family member in prison (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). ACEs have been shown to have lasting, negative effects on health, wellbeing, and opportunity. They have also been shown to have an impact on the likelihood of both future violence perpetration and victimisation (Fox et al., 2014). There has been a growing awareness in recent years of the importance of being traumainformed when dealing with children who have a history of ACEs. This is especially the case with those agencies who work with justice-involved children (Glendinning et al., 2021; Liddle et al., 2016). Being trauma-informed means recognising and acknowledging the impact that ACEs can have on an individual and providing appropriate support to that person. In essence, a trauma-informed approach necessitates a change of perspective from ‘What’s wrong with you?’ to ‘What happened to you?’ (see the earlier Academic Insights paper 2020/05 by McCartan). Alongside the current emphasis on trauma-informed practice, is the growing call for the participation of justice-involved children in the development of youth justice policy and practice (Ministry of Justice and Youth Justice Board, 2019; Youth Justice Board, 2016; see also Academic Insights paper 2021/10). Participatory working is fundamental to the principle of Child First. Indeed, in Positive Youth Justice: Child First, Offenders Second, ‘children are part of the solution, not part of the problem’ (Haines and Case, 2015: 45). Research evidence indicates that when participation, engagement and inclusion processes are co-created between children and practitioners, this can produce effective practice relationships (Case and Haines, 2015; Smithson et al., 2020; Smithson and Jones, 2021). This Academic Insight presents the findings from a research study that was commissioned by Manchester City Council’s Youth Justice Service and funded through the YJB’s Reducing Serious Youth Violence (Reference Group) Pathfinder programme. Through the SYV pathfinder projects, the YJB aims to develop understanding around the drivers of SYV. To this end, this research brought together the four areas outlined above – SYV, ACEs, trauma-informed practice, and youth participation – to investigate the complex relationship between SYV and ACEs. By working in close collaboration with justice-involved children and youth justice workers in Manchester, the research had the following objectives: • to gauge the nature and prevalence of ACEs among justice-involved children in Manchester • to explore children’s own articulations of the causes and drivers of SYV • to develop a more in-depth understanding of the relationship between SYV and ACEs • to explore children’s experiences of current youth justice practice, in particular their experiences of trauma-informed practice • to co-create a resource to be used by youth justice professionals. To meet these objectives, a mixed-methods approach incorporating quantitative, qualitative, and participatory elements was adopted. The quantitative element of the research was a bespoke ACEs assessment tool, based largely on the 10-point scale used in the original ACEs study conducted in the US in the 1990s (Felitti et al., 1998). The qualitative element had two strands: semi-structured interviews with youth justice workers and drama therapists commissioned by Manchester Youth Justice Service; and narrative interviews – using the McAdams Life Story Interview method (Bauer and McAdams, 2004) – with justice-involved children. The participatory element of the research was a series of workshops involving justice-involved children, the research team, drama therapists from One Education (www.oneeducation.co.uk), and a professional sports coach. Given the sensitive nature of the research topic, the decision was made to use storytelling techniques in the workshops to elicit further discussion around SYV and ACEs: specifically the 6-Part Story Method (Dent-Brown and Wang, 2006). This method was particularly appropriate as it allowed the children to create fictional, third-person accounts and provide metaphors rather than a description of actual lived events (Dwivedi, 1997).

Academic Insights 2021/13. Manchester, UK: HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2021. 18p.

A report from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice provides a comprehensive review of conditions at the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) — California’s state-run youth correctional system— and finds a return to its historically grievous conditions that isolate and traumatize youth.

The report finds:

• Youth live in a climate of fear: Violence and use-of-force rates have increased in nearly all DJJ facilities in recent years. Staff abet violence, reinforce racial and ethnic conflicts, and legitimize institutional gangs.

• Youths’ health suffers due to trauma and violence: A recent spike in attempted suicides and high rates of youth injuries raise concerns for youths’ safety in DJJ facilities

• Education and programs are rendered less effective by violence and prison-like setting: DJJ’s schools and programs fail to provide meaningful rehabilitative opportunities and leave youth subject to substantial time in locked cells.

• DJJ facilities are outdated and costly: DJJ’s aging and poorly-maintained facilities were built according to an archaic institutional design that is out of step with juvenile justice standards.

Remote, restrictive facilities keep families apart: Youth confined at DJJ are unable to maintain close bonds with family and community members due to restrictive policies and far distances from home.

DJJ fails to prepare youth for their release: Youth released from DJJ experience high rates of recidivism and low levels of employment or education after release as they struggle to adjust to life outside of a traumatic institution. This report includes accounts of youth who have experienced life at DJJ directly. Their insights contribute to the report’s findings, alongside information from interviews with family members and facility staff, research, and recent tours of DJJ correctional facilities.

San Francisco: Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, 2019. 102p.

By Tirion Havard

This briefing focuses on serious youth violence within the context of organised crime groups involved in county lines drug dealing. The Government has made “rolling up county lines” a priority for the police in recent years. What is county lines drug dealing? County lines drug dealing describes organised crime groups (OCGs) who supply drugs to suburban areas including market and coastal towns. County lines drug dealers use dedicated mobile phones or “deal lines” to assist in the transport of drugs. This type of drug dealing is strongly associated with the coercion of children and vulnerable people. The dealers uses children and vulnerable people to move drugs, money and sometimes weapons between their hometown and the costal and market towns they are dealing in. In 2020 the NCA said exploitation in county lines drug dealing was “the most frequently identified form of coerced criminality, with children representing the vast majority of victims”. In 2021 they said that “at least 14.5%” of modern slavery referrals were related to county lines activity. The NCA says “violence at street level is often linked to drugs supply” and “continues to be associated” with county lines drug dealing. The Government has concluded that “changes to the drugs market, like the (emergence of the) county lines model of exploitation, is partly fuelling” serious violence.

London: UK Parliament, House of Commons Library, 2022/ 27p.

By Eleno Castro and Randy Kotti

Despite the growing body of qualitative evidence suggesting collusion between gangs and political parties in various parts of the world, little has been done to study quantitatively the extent to which criminal organization may affect political elections in such context. Using police data and voting results in El Salvador, we find that homicides in gang-controlled neighborhoods tend to decrease by 24 percent of the mean during electoral seasons. We also estimate that gang control is associated with a 2.75 percentage point increase in electoral participation. These effects are especially significant in the neighborhoods where political parties have a strong voting base. Consistent with the interviews we conducted, this suggests that parties negotiate with gangs to mobilize electoral participation in the areas where they are more likely to receive electoral support and thus increase their chances of winning. To conduct our analysis, we geolocated the homicides reported daily in the registry of the National Civil Police from 2005 to 2019 crossed with electoral results reported at the voting-center level across El Salvador. We exploit the sudden and exogenous decrease in criminality resulting from the 2012 truce between the government and the two main gangs in El Salvador to identify gang-controlled neighborhoods. We also use penitentiary data from the General Directorate of Prisons for robustness measures. 

Pre-publication, 2022. 51p.

By Nikita Melnikov, Carlos Schmidt-Padilla, and Maria Micaela Sviatschi   

We study how territorial control by criminal organizations affects economic development. We exploit a natural experiment in El Salvador, where the emergence of these criminal organizations was the consequence of an exogenous shift in American immigration policy that led to the deportation of gang leaders from the United States to El Salvador. Upon arrival, the gangs gained control over many urban areas and re-created a system of borders to protect their territory from outsiders. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design, we find that individuals in gang-controlled neighborhoods have less material well-being, income, and education than individuals living only 50 meters away but outside of gang territory. None of these discontinuities existed before the arrival of the gangs. A key mechanism behind the results is that gangs restrict individuals’ mobility, affecting their labor market options by preventing them from commuting to other parts of the city. The results are not determined by high rates of selective migration, differential exposure to extortion and violence, or differences in public goods provision.     

  NBER Working Paper No. 27832  

Cambridge, MA:; National Bureau of Economic Research, 2022. 123p.

By Charles Puzzanchera, Sarah Hockenberry, and Melissa Sickmund  

  Youth and the Juvenile Justice System: 2022 National Report is the fifth edition of a comprehensive report on youth victimization, offending by youth, and the juvenile justice system. With this release, the report series has adopted a new name (the series was previously known as “Juvenile Offenders and Victims”), but the focus of the report remains unchanged: the report consists of the most requested information on youth and the juvenile justice system in the United States. Developed by the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the National Institute of Justice, the report draws on reliable data and relevant research to provide a comprehensive and insightful view of youth victims and offending by youth, and what happens to youth when they enter the juvenile justice system in the U.S. The report offers—to Congress, state legislators, other state and local policymakers, educators, juvenile justice professionals, and concerned citizens— empirically based answers to frequently asked questions about the nature of youth victimization and offending and the justice system’s response. The juvenile justice system must react to the law-violating behaviors of youth in a manner that not only protects the community and holds youth accountable but also enhances youth’s ability to live productively and responsibly in the community. The system must also intervene in the lives of abused and neglected children who lack safe and nurturing environments. To respond to these complex issues, juvenile justice practitioners, policymakers, and the public must have access to useful and accurate information about the system and the youth it serves. At times, such information is not available or, when it does exist, it is often too scattered or inaccessible to be useful. This report bridges that gap by pulling together the most requested information on youth and the juvenile justice system in the United States. The report draws on numerous national data collections to address the specific information needs of those involved with the juvenile justice system. The report presents important and, at times, complex information using clear, nontechnical writing and easy to-understand graphics and tables. It is structured as a series of briefing papers on specific topics, short sections that can be read independently   

 Pittsburgh, PA:  National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2022. 226p.

By Veronica Frisancho,  Alejandro Herrera and Eduardo Nakasone

This paper analyzes the relationship between the presence of LGBTQI students in the class-room and the prevalence of violence in the school setting. We rely on a representative sample of secondary schools in Uruguay and exploit variation in the share of LGBTQI students across classrooms to study how their presence affects the individual experience of violence. Our results show little support for the contact hypothesis: a larger share of LGBTQI students in the classroom has no impact on the individual experience of violence. On the contrary, a greater share of female LGBTQI students in the classroom is associated with greater psychological and physical violence among girls, irrespective of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 2022. 31p.

United States. Public Health Service. Office Of The Surgeon General

From the document: "This Advisory calls attention to the growing concerns about the effects of social media on youth mental health. It explores and describes the current evidence on the positive and negative impacts of social media on children and adolescents, some of the primary areas for mental health and well-being concerns, and opportunities for additional research to help understand the full scope and scale of social media's impact. This document is not an exhaustive review of the literature. Rather, it was developed through a substantial review of the available evidence, primarily found via electronic searches of research articles published in English and resources suggested by a wide range of subject matter experts, with priority given to, but not limited to, meta-analyses and systematic literature reviews. It also offers actionable recommendations for the institutions that can shape online environments--policymakers and technology companies--as well as for what parents and caregivers, young people, and researchers can do."

United States. Public Health Service. Office of the Surgeon General. 2023. 25p.

By Emily A. Vogels

Nearly half of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online, with physical appearance being seen as a relatively common reason why. Older teen girls are especially likely to report being targeted by online abuse overall and because of their appearance

Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, 2022. 24p

By InSight Crime

President Maduro’s plan to help governors fund their states by gifting them each a gold mine soon ran into trouble. In the sprawling state of Bolívar, this led to immediate conflict. The criminal gangs that ran Venezuela’s mining heartland would never surrender. One group, in particular, has led the resistance. On November 5, 2019, threatening pamphlets appeared on the streets of El Callao, a mining town in Venezuela›s eastern state of Bolívar. The town was already on edge. A week before, a severed head was found on a road in El Callao. The pamphlets contained a message from a local gang leader, Alejandro Rafael Ochoa Sequea, alias “Toto,” to the municipal mayor, Alberto Hurtado. “You handed over your land to the government,” they read. “Resign, you have 48 hours to pack your bags because there is going to be more death, and if you don’t go, I’m coming for your head.” That night, armed men on motorbikes raced around the streets, firing off their weapons and setting off a grenade. This investigation exposes how the Maduro regime’s attempts to control Venezuela’s mining heartland in the state of Bolívar has led to criminal chaos, as guerrilla groups, heavily armed gangs and corrupt state elements battle over the country’s gold. Toto’s message and his gang’s terror campaign came shortly after President Nicolás Maduro had announced an unusual new policy: He would give each state governor a gold mine to help fund their administrations. There was one problem. Bolívar’s gold mines were controlled by brutal criminal gangs known as sindicatos (unions). And the sindicatos such as Toto’s had no intention of giving up the mines without a fight.

Washington, DC: InSight Crime, 2021. 31p.

By Ben Fisher and Anthony Petrosino

One common policy in response to concerns about school safety is to regularly employ police in school buildings. Although many schools have had some regular presence of police in their buildings, the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 led to more scrutiny of law enforcement across the board. As a result, several districts across the nation began to reconsider the use of police in schools. However, as schools began returning to full-time, in-person teaching, concerns about the safety of students and staff led several districts to reverse their decision and bring officers back to campus. Clearly, more research is needed to guide this important policy decision. To respond to this research need, the WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center, in collaboration with Professor Ben Fisher of Florida State University, conducted a systematic review of research on the effects of school policing on safety, perceptions, and academic outcomes. This brief summarizes results from this synthesis of 32 evaluations.

San Francisco, CA: WestEd,  2022. 5p.

By Thomas Hanson, Jo Ann Izu, Trevor Fronius, Anthony Petrosino

Bullying affects large numbers of U.S. students in elementary schools and is associated with short and long-term harms for both victims and bullies. Although prevention is critical, schools also need effective interventions for dealing with bullying once it occurs. Funded by the National Institute of Justice and in collaboration with the Oakland Unified School District and No Bully, WestEd conducted a two-year study of the impacts of the No Bully System (NBS) - a promising set of interventions designed to activate adult and peer support systems within the school for the targets of bullying – using a cluster randomized experimental design involving 24 elementary schools. No Bully trains staff to prevent and interrupt student harassment and bullying and ensure school-wide anti-bullying policies are in place. The core component of NBS is the Solution Team where a trained adult facilitator (Solution Coach) brings together a group of 6-8 students (Solution Team) that includes the bully or bullies, bystanders and pro-social peers, and leads the team through a series of three brief meetings to end the bullying of one of their peers by cultivating empathy and developing peer-driven solutions. The target is not included in the initial meetings though s/he is invited to attend the final session.  

Los Alamitos, CA: WestEd, 2019. 29p.

By Daniel P. Mears; Sonja E. Siennick; George B. Pesta; Andrea N. Montes; Samantha J. Brown; Nicole L. Collier

Findings and methodology are reported for a process and impact evaluation of the School Safety and Student Performance Program established in the School District of Palm Beach County (Florida) from 2015 to 2018 in an effort to improve at-risk students' behavior and academic performance, as well as to improve school-wide safety and academic performance. The project involved a collaboration between the schools, the schools' police department, the juvenile court, and several service providers. The focus was on at-risk youth, including those with some type of contact with the police or the juvenile justice system through probation or diversion programs. The intervention placed juvenile probation officers (JPOs) in schools, along with family counselors and case managers. JPOs provided school-based supervision in schools only for the youth on probation. Intervention plans were developed by a team for youth who were randomly assigned to the intervention group. Student participation was voluntary, based on assent and consent protocols. Services were matched to the needs of each participant. Evaluation analyses suggest that although the intervention was well-grounded in theory and research on adolescent behavior, no consistent beneficial or adverse effects of the intervention were found for either student or school outcomes; however, some of the analyses suggest that the intervention may have been partially effective for some of the participants. The report notes that the process evaluation identified a number of potential intervention benefits that were not directly measured in the study, such as improved advocacy for at-risk students. The process evaluation also identified a range of factors that may have contributed to some of the null intervention effects. Evaluation methodology, research implications, and implications for policy and practice are discussed. 

Tallahassee, FL: Florida State University, 2018. 92p.

By April K. Lewis; Cindy Nguyen; Carrie Freshour; Cindy Schaeffer; Eric Slade

Findings and methodology are reported for an evaluation of the impact on school safety of a new comprehensive emotional and behavioral health crisis response and prevention (EBH-CRP) intervention implemented in Baltimore County (Maryland) public schools. The EBH-CRP intervention is a comprehensive training, organization, and support protocol for school and community stakeholders intended to increase school and community competence in preventing and responding to student emotional and behavioral health crises. The primary goal of the evaluation was to measure changes in specific school safety and discipline outcomes in intervention schools compared to schools that did not participate in the intervention. Data collection and analysis for the evaluation covered two intervention school years. The impact of the EBH-CRP intervention on stakeholder knowledge and preparedness to address emotional and behavioral health across the continuum was measured by comparing pre-post change in diverse stakeholder perceived knowledge and preparedness to address emotional and behavioral health concerns in intervention schools compared to non-participating schools. Intervention school participants in specific training components also reported on their pre-post change in knowledge, preparedness, and benefits of the EBH-CRP intervention over the project period.

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  Poisson regression models predicted student suspensions, office referrals, bullying reports, and juvenile justice referrals. The evaluation encompassed participant and control middle schools and high schools. A secondary aim of the evaluation was to assess the impact of the EBH-CRP intervention on emotional and behavioral health crisis incidents and service-use outcomes. A cost-benefit analysis assessed the net benefits (dollar benefits minus costs) of the EBH-CRP intervention. Schools that implemented the EBH-CRP model had fewer student suspensions and office referrals in intervention year 2, and they were more often recognizing, assessing, and addressing emotional and behavioral crises among students.

Final Report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2019. 56p.

By Joshua R. Polanin, Dorothy Espelage, Jennifer K. Grotpeter

This is the Final Summary Overview of the methodology and findings of a study with the goal of finding, collecting, and synthesizing all available published and unpublished research reports that quantitatively analyze the longitudinal relationship between a measure of school violence and later mental health, school performance, or crime/delinquency outcomes. The study used state-of-the-art systematic review and meta-analysis methods to assess the variation in the relationships across studies through multiple-meta-regression modeling. These methods included combining effect sizes by estimating a random effects model with robust variance estimation. A total of 131 research reports from 114 independent studies were included in this meta-analysis. The findings indicate that experiences of various types of school violence are related to adverse outcomes in mental health, school performance, and crime/delinquency. This study distinguished the effects that stem from perpetrating school violence from those attributed to being a victim of school violence. The perpetration of school violence was strongly linked to numerous mental health issues, poor academic performance, and involvement in criminal/delinquent behaviors; on the other hand, being a victim of school violence was associated with only adverse mental health outcomes. Thus, strategies to prevent school violence should view student perpetrators of school violence as having mental health needs, being disconnected from school, and being resistant to school policies. Victims of school violence should be viewed as at risk for mental health disorders, including suicidal ideation.

Washington, DC:  U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2020. 30p.

By Moriah Taylor, Jeremy Bilfield, Zoe Livengood, Melissa Sickmund

This study examined factors influencing decisions that lead from a school-based incident to exclusionary discipline, an arrest, and a referral to the juvenile court. Phase 1 involved interviewing groups of key stakeholders including school administrators, district administrators, discipline coordinators, juvenile court judges and other staff, law enforcement officers, Positive Behavior Intervention Support coordinators, and child welfare agencies to understand their approaches to behavior management. For each set of interviews, researchers used the information from the structured interviews to create diagrams outlining the sequence of potential decisions involved in responding to behavior incidents. This report presents the qualitative analysis resulting from Phase 1.

Pittsburgh, PA:  National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2019. 45p. 

By Jillian J. Turanovic, Travis C. Pratt, Teresa C. Kulig and Francis T. Cullen

This is the Final Summary Overview of the methodology and findings of a meta-analysis of empirical literature on school violence to determine the key individual-, school-, and community-level factors that influence violence and related problems (victimization, offending, and aggressive behavior) within primary and secondary (K-12) schools. This study's analyses are based on 8,551 effect sizes identified from 693 studies of school violence. The authors note that this is the largest meta-analysis on this issue conducted in the field of criminal justice and is among the largest compiled in the social sciences. A total of 31 predictors of school violence were assessed at the individual, institutional, and community levels. Separate analyses were conducted in assessing the major predictors of any victimization at school, bullying victimization, violent victimization, any aggressive/delinquent behavior at school, bullying perpetration, violent offending, and bringing a weapon to school. The research reviewed indicates that the strongest and most consistent risk factors for various forms of aggression/delinquency at school are antisocial behaviors, deviant peers, victimization, peer rejection, and antisocial attitudes. The strongest predictors for victimization at school are prior victimization, low social competence, peer rejection, violent school context, and negative school climate. LGBT students and those with disabilities are at higher risk for victimization at school. School target-hardening practices, such as security cameras, metal detectors, and school resource officers or security personnel were not found to have any association with any type of violence or victimization at school. 18 tables, 37 references, and a listing of the studies reviewed.

Final report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2019. 63p.

By Véronique Irwin. Ke Wang and Alexandra Thompson

Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2021 provides the most recent national indicators on school crime and safety. The information presented in this report serves as a reference for policymakers and practitioners so that they can develop effective programs and policies aimed at violence and school crime prevention. Accurate information about the nature, extent, and scope of the problem being addressed is essential for developing effective programs and policies. This is the 24th edition of Indicators of School Crime and Safety, a joint effort of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This report provides summary statistics to inform the nation about current aspects of crime and safety in schools.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, and Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, 2022. 39p.

By Jillian J. Turanovic and Sonja E. Siennick

Although school violence is on the decline, it remains a significant concern for the general public, policymakers, and researchers. This report commissioned by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) takes a comprehensive look at the state of the research on school violence and includes additional discussions about research on serious violence and studies that were funded by NIJ’s Comprehensive School Safety Initiative. It is based on an empirical review of 55 meta-analyses and a supplemental review of the methods and findings of 362 recent research studies. The research found that the strongest predictor of school violence perpetration was delinquent/antisocial behavior. Other strong predictors were attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, child maltreatment, peer rejection, and moral disengagement. The reviews identified several other moderately strong predictors of school violence, including deviant peers, callous unemotional traits, narcissism, exposure to domestic violence, agreeableness (inverse association), prosocial behaviors (inverse association), positive school climate (inverse association), and victimization.

Washington, DC: U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2022. 86p.

By the U.S. Department of Justice

La Mara Salvatrucha (“MS-13”) is a violent street gang that operates as a transnational criminal organization (“TCO”) and has been designated as such by federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of the Treasury. MS-13 operates in the United States, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and other countries. Each year, MS-13 is responsible for violent crimes in the United States, including murders, extortion, arms and drug trafficking, assaults, rapes, human trafficking, robberies, and kidnappings. For decades, MS-13 has exploited weaknesses in U.S. immigration enforcement policies to move its members in and out of the United States and to recruit new members who have arrived in the United States illegally.3 Moreover, MS-13 has infiltrated both cities and suburbs of the United States and established cliques in California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia,

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  This report describes the Department’s work to dismantle La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) in the United States and abroad. The data show that since 2016, the Department has prosecuted approximately 749 MS-13 gang members. So far, more than 500 of these MS-13 gang members have been convicted, including 37 who received life sentences. Department prosecutors are using more than 20 federal criminal statutes to prosecute MS-13 members, including, for the first time, filing terrorism charges against MS-13’s leadership. The data also show that for decades MS-13 has exploited weaknesses in border enforcement policies, as approximately 74 percent of the defendants prosecuted were unlawfully present in the United States. The report also describes the Department’s efforts to combat MS-13 internationally through increased partnerships with law enforcement in Mexico and Central America. Through international cooperation, hundreds of MS-13 members have been arrested abroad and more than 50 MS-13 members have been extradited to the United States.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2022. 17p.