ABSTRACT
There is nothing romantic, glamorous, cute, or “cool” about youth gangs. They pose a dramatic threat to the health and welfare of society in general, and minority communities in particular. Joining a youth gang means full commitment to a life of perpetual criminal activity and engaging in behavior that is abhorrent to American society. But what is a gang? How many gangs are operative in the United States? Acker, Johnson, & Selkirk (1997) have noted that although no standard definition of “gang” exists, they usually consist of a group of three or more persons gathered together on a continuing basis for the purpose of engaging in criminal acts and/or antisocial behavior. Spergel (1995) contends that the term “gang” is often referred to as a “delinquent group,” “a criminal organization,” and sometimes as a simple “aggregation of youth, ages 11-25” (p. 25). But the question of immediate concern is how widespread are gangs in the United States?
