In the past, juvenile gang researchers have focused primarily on the characteristics of gangs and the prevalence of gangs in communities and schools. One of the greatest limitations of this research, however, surrounds the lack of agreement on the definition of a gang and, consequently, the prevalence of gangs in the community and in schools. In…

For many decades communities have been troubled by the criminal activities of youth gangs. This report looks at almost 30 years of information collected on gang problems in nearly 4,000 communities. The number of localities reporting gang problems increased between the 1970s and the 1990s, representing a tenfold increase in the number of cities…