ABSTRACT
Gangs are becoming more widespread, and gang-related violence is increasing. Federal, state, and local criminal justice professionals face a number of distinct challenges when dealing with gangs. One of the rst challenges is to agree on what constitutes a gang. –ere is continuing controversy regarding the denition of the term gang. One authority denes gang as any group of people who band together for criminal activity or who commit crime as a group. Various local or municipal jurisdictions have developed their own denition of what constitutes a gang. Many states have statutory denitions of gangs, and these vary from state to state.
