Gangs

What is a “gang”?

Miller (1980) interviewed 309 youth service workers and got 1400 total definitional characteristics in all of the interviews. Among these were SIX with which 85% or more of the respondents agreed:

A gang is:

1. a self-formed association of peers

2. bound together by mutual interests

3. with identifiable organizational features

4. who act in concert to achieve specific purposes

5. which generally include illegal activities

6. which further involve control over a territory or a type of enterprise.

“Gangs” in Canada

I. Methodological Challenges in Quantifying “Gangs”

A. When is it a “gang”? (numerical discrepancies among “experts”)

B. Does identification mean membership?

C. Does naming a group make it a gang?

D. Is group crime gang crime?

II. Available evidence suggests gangs do exist in Canada...

A. “outlaw” motorcycle gangs are most prominent, but exclude youth

B. Gangs tend to have ethnic foci and to be distinct by region, not “syndicated”vs Bloods, Crips, or “Peoples” and “Folks” affiliations

C. Gangs vary according to urban/rural ethnic makeup:

1. Rural “gangs” tend to coalesce on reserves (eg Hobbema Mafia)

2. Urban gangs vary by regional ethnicities, eg Toronto vs Windsor vs Winnipeg vs Edmonton vs Vancouver

3. Non-minority members either join neighbourhood-based gangs or racist gangs

III. But the bottom line is that we don’t know how many gangs exist; even police sources admit that gangs are mercurial in nature.

However, even if we can agree on the technical definition of a “gang” or how large the problem is, can we agree on the identification of a particular group as a “gang” or a particular incident as “gang related”?

Decker and Kempf-Leonard illustrated how tricky this problem of definition is: They interviewed police officers, members of a community gang task force, non-gang delinquents and gang members about awareness of gangs and their definition of vignettes as “gang-related” and found little agreement on any of these matters. Findings:

1. All youth report greater rates of victimization and are more likely than police to define incidents as gang-related; however:

2. Youths are much less likely to report that there is pressure to join a gang, and

3. The ‘task force” is much more likely than police officers to believe in extensive gang activity and to define incidents as “gang related.”

Identification of Gang-Related Scenarios
Task Force (n=75) / Police Officers (n=22) / Non-gang Delinquents (n=47) / Gang Members (n=32)
The Projects / 32% / 1% / 76% / 59%
The Softball Game / 6% / 0% / 11% / 34%
The Park / 83% / 50% / 76% / 69%
Older Brother / 90% / 50% / 82% / 91%
Younger Brother / 15% / 5% / 9% / 9%