ABSTRACT
A number of community policies have been used to reduce instances of gangs and gang life.
Spergel and Curry’s Developmental Community Interventions
Spergel and Curry (1990), two University of Chicago sociologists, surveyed a number of criminal justice and community agencies in over 40 cities. The results of their study show a typology of cities that was based on the extent of gang activity in the cities. Spergel and Curry identified two varieties of cities that were based on the degree of gang problems present in the communities. They referred to the first variety as chronic gang problem cities and the other as emerging gang problem cities. Chronic gang problem cities have had gang problems for several years, whereas, cities with emerging gang problems are those with only recent gang problems. This typology becomes important when trying to understand the effectiveness of various community interventions that are being used to reduce gang issues. In addition to providing the typology for gangs, Spergel and Curry argued that four broad areas might be used to understand the community interventions:
1. Community organization 2. Social intervention 3. Opportunities provision 4. Suppression
From the Spergel and Curry survey, the cities have used these four main strategies.
