JUVENILE JUSTICE

OJJDP’s Journal, JUVENILE JUSTICE, just published and available online for download, features two these two in-depth articles:

	The Causes and Correlates Studies: Findings and Policy Implications – Developing effective intervention programs based on scientific understanding of the originals of delinquency to prevent delinquent behavior.
	Strategic Risk-Based Response to Youth Gangs – Strategic risk-based responses to youth gangs.

38 pages. Pdf file.

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Evaluating G.R.E.A.T: A School-based Gang Prevention Program

The G.R.E.A.T. program is aimed at middle school students and seeks to reduce their involvement in gangs and delinquent behavior. It teaches them the consequences of gang involvement and helps them develop positive relations with law enforcement. The program is taught through a 9-hour curriculum by uniformed law enforcement officers.

G.R.E.A.T. has achieved modest positive results. The program did achieve more favorable attitudes from students toward the police and greater awareness of the consequences of gang involvement. The program objective to reduce gang membership and delinquent behavior was not met.

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Youth Gangs in Rural America

T he lead article in the latest issue of the NIJ Journal describes youth gangs in rural areas of the U.S. and points out several ways they differ from urban gangs. Rural gangs appear to be transitory, to appear in areas experiencing economic growth, and their members are mostly local youth, although migrating gang members are important to the movement of ideas and symbols into rural areas.

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Anti-Gang Funding Restored in the House

A U.S. House subcommittee restored more than $100 million in funds for gang prevention programs nationwide, which the White House had ought to cut, and added $18 million to pay for additional federal agents and to launch a National Gang Intelligence Center. The $60 million cut from Juvenile Accountability Block Grants was restored.

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Caught in the Crossfire

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national organization of law enforcement officers and concerned citizens, has released a new report that brings together recent research on gang homicides in support of maintaining federal juvenile justice funding.

Since 1999 gang homicides across the country have increased 50 percent. The report also finds that gangs have spread beyond inner cities into suburbs and rural areas.

The report calls on Congress top reject a White House proposed 40% cut in federal juvenile justice and delinquency prevention funding that supports anti-gang programs in communities across the country. 

The report is divided in three sections:

	What works with gangs now:  Boston, Philadelphia, and Baton Rouge have rapidly reduced violent crime by gang members and other troubled youths.
	Identifies three programs that work for already troubled youths who are not yet associated with gangs.
	Advocates after-school programs and anti-bullying programs to protect kids from gang violence and remove some of the pressure they face to join gangs.

Caught in the Crossfire: Arresting Gang Violence by Investing in Kids features an introduction by William Bratton, Los Angeles Chief of Police. It is a downloadable 32 page pdf file

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	38% of suburban counties;
	27% of smaller cities;
	12% of rural counties.

The survey estimates that nearly 3,000 jurisdictions across the United States experienced gang activity in 2002.

	Gangs: A Community Response – includes information on what you and your community can do to prevent and decrease gang activity. 62 page pdf file.
	Ending Gang Homicide: Deterrence Can Work – Examines the Ceasefire program the City of Stockton, Calif. used to reduce gang-related homicides by approximately 75% during a five-year period. Describes a comprehensive, cost-effective strategy that could be replicated.
	Gangs…Turning the Corner – This video is hosted by James Earl Jones. It captures people and programs that are successful in turning the corner with gangs. Examples from across the country. Two versions of the video are available, one 60 minutes; one 30 minutes. Both are available for a modest fee. See details at this site.

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The Charlotte Observer is publishing a series of articles on gangs in that North Carolina community. It began October 5 and continues October 8 with a story about a law enforcement sweep of Latin American gangs. The series includes articles on the numbers and types of gangs in the Charlotte area, how gang activity is affecting surrounding rural communities. This series reflects a general increase in gang activity around the country in the last year as reported in a number of communities.

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This new bulletin from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) examines the phenomenon of violent inner-city gangs and introduces an investigative approach to combating these gangs in Baltimore, Maryland. Written by Edward Burns, a Baltimore police detective, now retired, who specialized in homicide investigation and worked extensively on inner-city drug gangs.

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	Las Vegas’ 311 Boyz Are Different
	Members of the 311 Boyz are unlike most gangs. Its members are white teens, from good homes in an affluent area in northwest Las Vegas , and they videotaped each other in brutal fights. They are connected to a string of violent events this past summer and their indictments in brutal beatings have posed a series of troubling questions for the Las Vegas community.

	Rubies are concubines to male gang members, who are often also their pimps.
	Blossom is an after school program designed to help young girls identified as “at risk” for gang initiation.

	Gangs in jurisdictions with later onset of gang problems tend to have younger members and a larger proportion of Caucasian and African American members than their counterparts in jurisdictions with earlier onset of gang problems.
	Modern-day gangs are less involved in violent crimes and drug trafficking than their predecessors.

Early Precursors of Gang Membership: A Study of Seattle Youth - 5 page bulletin from the Seattle Social Development Study, a longitudinal study of youth living in high-crime neighborhoods. Assesses the effects of factors present in the lives of youth at the ages of 10 to 12 on the probability of their later participation in gangs.

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Hybrid and Other Modern Gangs - 8 page bulletin. Hybrid gang culture is characterized by mixed racial and ethnic participation within a single gang, participation in multiple gangs by a single individual, rules and codes of conduct for gang members, use of symbols and colors from multiple – even rival – gangs, collaboration by rival gangs in criminal activities, and the merger of smaller gangs into larger ones.