Historical Analysis of Gangs and Gang Control

Abstract

Youth gangs are not now or should not become a major object of concern…. Youth gang violence is not a major crime problem in the United States … what gang violence does exist can fairly readily be diverted into “constructive” channels especially through the provisions of services by community agencies. – National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, 1976 The four cities we studied – Albuquerque, Inglewood, Las Vegas, and Phoenix – are located in the Southwestern United States, where gangs have been predominately comprised of Mexican Americans and Mexican Nationals. This differentiates our research from that conducted in communities where the character of the gang problem has been substantially African American (New York, Chicago) or Asian (San Francisco, Seattle). In this chapter, we describe the context of gangs and their activity, identify characteristics of area gangs and gang members, and explain the historical police response to the gang problem, in each of the four cities. We examined gang behavior within an historical context in order to determine how communities and police have perceived it over time. In describing how police have responded to gangs historically, we focused on the organizational and environmental factors that influenced their responses, and the conditions that ultimately gave rise to each department's gang unit. INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA Of our four sites, Inglewood was the first to have developed a gang problem.