In Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, two gangs, the Latin Kings and the Two Six, kept the community in fear and were responsible for 75 percent of gang-related homicides, aggravated batteries, and aggravated assaults in Little Village in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The rival gangs directed much of the violence at each other, with sometimes devastating consequences for bystanders.

To address this problem the Chicago Police Department undertook the Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project between 1992 and 1997. University of Chicago Professor Irving Spergel designed the project and became its coordinator.

According to an article on the project, "the underlying assumption of the project is that the gang problem is largely a response to community disorganization, where key social institutions -- such as family, schools, police, and business -- are unable to collaboratively address the problem. The key idea of the model is to have organizations and representatives of the local community join forces to socially engage and control the behavior of young gang members, and encourage them to participate in legitimate activities in society."

The project targeted 200 members of the Latin Kings and the Two Six. The project combined an approach of social intervention with police suppression. It also included community mobilization strategies and the provision of increased social and economic opportunities for youth between the ages of 17 and 24. Youth outreach workers, a neighborhood organizer, police officers and probation officers all provided counseling to gang members they met on the streets. About half of the gang members also received home visits. Team members provided about 40 percent of the targeted youths with school referrals and special educational programs and 60 percent with job referrals and help with job placement. Workers also referred gang members and their families to medical care and drug and alcohol treatment as well as professional counseling. Police and other team members focused on reducing violence among gang members through monitoring and arrests.

The evaluation yielded the following key findings:

• Participating youth generally reduced and/or lowered their level of arrests for violence and drug crime compared with gang youth who did not receive the intervention services.

• Participating youth decreased their drop out rates (Latin King from 52 to 35 percent, and Two Six from 44 to 26 percent). The percentage of Latin Kings who held jobs increased from 36 to 48 percent and the percentage of Two Six members who were employed increased from 31 to 63 percent.

Evaluators found that a collaborative, community-based approach was more effective than traditional approaches emphasizing singular strategies, such as prevention, intervention, or suppression. However, they also found that the combined approach that brought together police, youth outreach workers, and a neighborhood organizer was difficult to implement and sustain. It was also difficult to work with the outreach workers, some of whom were former gang members.

Sources:

Hahn, T. (March 1999). Reducing Youth Gang Violence in Urban Areas: One Community's Effort. Chicago, IL: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Also available on-line at http://www.icjia.state.il.us/public/pdf/oga/OGAv2n5_0399.pdf

Spergel, I. A. & Wa, K. W. (August 2002) Combating Gang Violence in Chicago's Little Village Neighborhood. Chicago, IL: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority . Also available on-line at http://www.icjia.state.il.us/public/pdf/oga/GVRP.pdf