Gangs in the United States

Street gangs
When one conjures up an image of street gangs in the United States it is usually influenced by media portrayals of gun-toting youths engaged in disputes over territory and disrespect.&lt;ref&gt; Muncie, J. (2000) &quot;Youth &amp; Crime&quot; 2nd Edition, Sage, ISBN=&lt;/ref&gt; The most publicized street gangs in the U.S. are African-American; black gangs were not recognized as a social problem until after the great migration of the 1910s.&lt;ref name=&quot;Adamson&quot;&gt;Adamson, Christopher(2000), &quot;Defensive localisms in white and black: a comparative history of European-American and African American youth gangs&quot;, Ethnic and Racial Studies 23 (2): 272-298.&lt;/ref&gt; An exception was noted in 1853 Philadelphia.&lt;ref&gt; Davis, Susan, G. (1982), &quot;Making night hideous&quot;:Christmas revelry and public order in nineteenth-century Philadelphia', American Quarterly, 34 (2): 185-199&lt;/ref&gt;

The history of European-American youth gangs extends as far back as the 1780s. Although lacking a definition, the gangs then were characterized by young people hanging out on street corners.&lt;ref&gt; Meranze, M. (1996), Laboratories of Virtue: Punishment, Revolution, and Authority in Philadelphia, 1760-1835, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 978-0807822777&lt;/ref&gt; It is thought these early groups formed to protect their localities from other similar groups of youths.

Herbert Asbury&lt;ref&gt; Asbury, H. (1928) The Gangs of New York : An Informal History of the Underworld. Reprinted in original format 1989 Dorset Press; ISBN 0-88029-429-9. Republished in 2001 with a foreword by Jorge Luis Borges&lt;/ref&gt; depicted some of these groups in his history of Irish and American gangs in Manhattan. He described how gangs would fight for territory, control of criminal enterprises, and simply for the love of fighting. The title of Asbury's book (though little of its content) was later used by Martin Scorsese for the motion picture Gangs of New York.

Gangs in the 19th Century were often multi-ethnic as neighborhoods did not display the social polarization that has segregated different ethnic groups in the postmodern city (see Edward Soja). A host of European nationalities including English American|English, Scottish American|Scottish, Irish American|Irish and German American|German could be found in the same neighborhoods. This made territoriality for gangs much more important than ethnic homogeneity.&lt;ref name=&quot;Adamson&quot; /&gt;&lt;ref&gt; Klein, M.W., Kerner, H.J., Maxson, C.L. &amp; Weitekamp, G.M. (2001)(eds) &quot;The Eurogang Paradox&quot;:Street Gangs and Youth Groups in the U.S. and Europe', Kluwer Academic Publications, ISBN=0792368444&lt;/ref&gt;

There were at least 30,000 gangs and 800,000 gang members active across the USA in 2007,&lt;ref&gt;COPS Office: Gangs&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;ref&gt;L.A. Gangs: Nine Miles and Spreading&lt;/ref&gt; up from 731,500 in 2002 and 750,000 in 2004.&lt;ref&gt;Measuring the Extent of Gang Problems—National Youth Gang Survey Analysis&lt;/ref&gt; By 1999, Hispanics in the United States|Hispanics accounted for 47% of all gang members, African Americans|Blacks 31%, White Americans|Whites 13%, and Asian American|Asian 6%.&lt;ref&gt;Into the Abyss: The Racial and Ethnic Composition of Gangs&lt;/ref&gt;

According to a Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth, many street gangs in Texas have no organized command structures. Individual &quot;cliques&quot; of gangs, defined by streets, parts of streets, apartment complexes, or parts of apartment complexes, act as individual groups. Texas &quot;Cliques&quot; tend to be headed by leaders called &quot;OG&quot;s (short for &quot;original gangster&quot;s) and each &quot;clique&quot; performs a specific activity or set of activities, such as controlling trafficking of recreational drugs and managing prostitution in a given area.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Southwest Houston After Dark,&quot; Texas Monthly, December 2006&lt;/ref&gt;

Organized gangs
Hallsworth and Young (2005)&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; describe an organized gang as a group of individuals for whom involvement in crime is for personal gain (mostly financial, though could be otherwise, sexual gratification as with child pedophile rings). For most, crime is their ‘occupation’. These groups operate almost exclusively in the grey and illegal marketplace where market transactions are unregulated by the law.

Transnational organized crime groups may be involved in crimes ranging from Illegal drug trade|drug trafficking, human trafficking, Copyright infringement|piracy, money laundering, extortion, and gambling, to acts of terrorism, to political assassination. The complexity and seriousness of the crimes committed by global crime groups pose a threat not only to law enforcement but to democracy and legitimate economic development as well.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt;

Criminal organizations exercise disproportionate control over the illegal means and forces of crime production. Members are likely to have mutated out of gang-members who are often used to service their needs. Motives that impel membership of these groups are similar to those that motivate business people in the legitimate economy.

Organized crime groups are not homogeneous. Some will be amateur affairs operated and managed by incompetent people. Others, however, will demonstrate more market acumen and more ruthlessness. These individuals may be difficult to trace because they will be more competent at hiding their activities. They may also have the financial muscle to acquire considerable legal protection through well paid lawyers and accountants.

There are numerous organized crime groups and they can be found in the majority of small to medium sized cities at varying degrees of size and organization. All large cities will house some kind of organized crime group. A further distinction could be made with what are often termed organized crime syndicates.

There are a number of widely known crime organizations as such whose operations span the world. Perhaps the most famous are the Mafia|Sicilian Mafia (often portrayed in New York mob movies), the Irish Mob|Irish Mob, Triad Society|Chinese Triads, Yakuza|Japanese Yakuza, Mexican Mafia and Bratva|Russian Mafia. Other large cities also play host to unique types of organized criminals. For example, London's traditional East End crime families and the infamous Kray Twins and Boston's Irish Mob portrayed in another Martin Scorsese film, &quot;The Departed.&quot;

Prison gangs
A prison gang is a gang that is started in a prison. Some prison gangs are transplanted from the street, and in some occasions, prison gangs &quot;outgrow&quot; the penitentiary and engage in criminal activities on the outside. Many prison gangs are racially oriented. Gang umbrella organizations like the Folk Nation and People Nation have originated in prisons.&lt;ref&gt;Street Gangs — Chicago Based or Influenced, People Nation and Folk Nation, http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/gangs/chicago.html&lt;/ref&gt;

One prominent example of a prison gang is the Aryan Brotherhood, an organization known for it's violence and calls for white supremacy. On July 28, 2006, after a six year federal investigation, four leaders of the gang were convicted of racketeering, murder, and conspiracy charges. Founded in the mid 1960's, the gang, known as the 'Brand' or the 'Rock' in the federal and state prison systems, is famous for being affiliated with the white supremacist paramilitary hate group the Aryan Nations, with the Nazi Low Riders prison gang acting as the Aryan Brotherhood's foot soldiers. Besides fostering pseudo-theological hate, racism, sexism, violence, and intimidation, the Aryan Brotherhood is involved in drug trafficking, extortion, gambling, protection rackets, and murder inside and outside of prisons.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt;

In the mid-1980s, the Aryan League, an alliance between the Aryan Brotherhood and Public Enemy No.1, formed. The sub-gangs (in collaboration with their wives and girlfriends who take jobs at banks, mortgage companies, and motor vehicle departments) work together in identity theft schemes.&lt;ref name=courttv&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; Money from the identity theft operations is used to fund the gangs' methamphetamine business. A gang hit list discovered in the Buena Park investigation has police worried that the gangs are using stolen credit information to learn the addresses of police and their families.&lt;ref name=courttv/&gt; Once out of prison, gang members tend to regroup on the outside and often cross gang lines to further their criminal careers. One example of this is David Lind, an Aryan Brotherhood member, who joined the Wonderland Gang with several non-AB fellow prison inmates in 1981. Post prison gang activities can be brutal, as evidenced by the ruthless quadruple murder of the Wonderland gang (see &quot;Wonderland Murders&quot;) which Lind narrowly escaped.

There has been a long running racial tension between African American and Mexican American prison gangs and significant race riots in California prisons where Mexican inmates and African Americans have targeted each other particularly, based on racial reasons.&lt;ref&gt;Racial segregation continues in California prisons&lt;/ref&gt; According to gang experts and law enforcement agents, a longstanding race war between the Mexican Mafia and the Black Guerilla family, a rival African American prison gang, has generated such intense racial hatred among Mexican Mafia leaders, or shot callers, that they have issued a &quot;green light&quot; on all blacks. A sort of gang-life fatwah, this amounts to a standing authorization for Latino gang members to prove their mettle by terrorizing or even murders|murdering any blacks sighted in a neighborhood claimed by a gang loyal to the Mexican Mafia.&lt;ref&gt;There’s a Zone in L.A. Where Blacks Risk Death if They Enter&lt;/ref&gt;

In the armed forces
The FBI’s 2007 report on gang membership in the military states that the military's recruit screening process is ineffective, allows gang members/extremists to enter the military, and lists at least eight instances in the last three years in which gang members have obtained military weapons for their illegal enterprises.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt;  &quot;Gang Activity in the U.S. Armed Forces Increasing&quot;, dated January 12, 2007, states that street gangs including the Bloods, Crips, Black Disciples, Hells Angels, Latin Kings (gang)|Latin Kings, 18th Street Gang|The 18th Street Gang, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Mexican Mafia, Maravilla, Norteños, Sureños, Vice Lords, Black P. Stones, and various white supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, have been documented on military installations both domestic and international although recruiting gang members violates military regulations.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt;

The FBI believes that gang members may enlist in the military to escape their current environment or gang lifestyle. Some gang members may also enlist to receive weapons, combat, and convoy support training; to obtain access to weapons and explosives; or as an alternative to incarceration. Upon discharge, they may employ their military training against law enforcement officials and rival gang members. Such military training could ultimately result in more organized, sophisticated, and deadly gangs, as well as an increase in deadly assaults on law enforcement officers. .&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; A January 2007 article in the Chicago Sun-Times reports that gang members in the military are involved in the theft and sale of military weapons, ammunition, and equipment, including body armor. According to a conversation recorded by an undercover FBI agent, one U.S. soldier may have stolen military body armor with intentions to supply Chicago gangs with the stolen equipment.&lt;ref name=&quot;ChicagoSunTimesJan20&quot;&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; The Sun-Times began investigating the gang activity in the military after receiving photos of gang graffiti showing up in Iraq. A 2006 Sun-Times article reports that gangs encourage members to enter the military to learn urban warfare techniques to teach other gang members.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt;

In 2006, Scott Barfield, a Defense Department investigator, said there is an online network of gangs and extremists, and that: &quot;They're communicating with each other about weapons, about recruiting, about keeping their identities secret, about organizing within the military.&quot;&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt;

Illegal immigration
One of the concerns of increased illegal immigration to the United States|illegal immigration is gang related activity - as proved by programs such as Operation Community Shield, which has detained over fourteen hundred illegal immigrant gang members.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; MS13 publicly declared that it targets the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps|Minutemen, civilians who take it upon themselves to control the border, to &quot;teach them a lesson&quot;,&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; possibly due to their smuggling of various Central/South Americans (mostly other gang members), drugs, and weapons across the border.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the twenty thousand member 18th Street Gang in California is illegal.&lt;ref name=Testimony&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; Barbara and David P. Mikkelson, authors of Snopes, state that 18th Street likely has the highest membership rate including illegal aliens of the California gangs.