Going Beyond the Myths to Address a Critical Problem
Day 3
Assessing Youth Gang Problems in Your School and Community
When Renee Parker began conducting an assessment of the gang problem in a section of Miami, she asked some reformed gang members to talk to her and her advisory committee about what they were up against.
| "We were told that gang members now are not like the gang members they used to have," said Parker, project director of a Gang-Free Schools program in Miami. "They know we are looking for colors and tattoos so they don't do that. You have to be very observant. The wannabes are the ones we end up with, and those are the most dangerous because they will do anything to be the big guy. There will be all sorts of signs: referrals to the principal, disrespect for authority figures, constant trouble with court, and refusal to comply." |
Parker also asked law enforcement officers who work closely with gangs to educate the advisory committee about gangs in the area. It was a critical step on their way to understanding the gang problem in their area, she said. The officers trained Parker and others on signs of gang membership. Even though the hard-core gangsters might no longer wear colors, have tattoos, or shoot hand signs, the younger "wannabes" who are less sophisticated probably will.
| "When you think of gangs, these are not Bloods and Crips," said Parker. "These are little groups of kids who are coming from other areas and don't know anybody. They build these cliques for survival, protection, fun, and drug money. These kids are hustling to make money. A lot of these kids are very intelligent. What they need is hope." |
As Coordinators, you have multiple responsibilities and taking on a problem as big as gangs may seem daunting. Fortunately, you should already have several pieces in place that will help you do this work. With guidance from your advisory committee, you can conduct an assessment of the gang problem in your school. The assessments that you have already carried out could provide valuable information in putting together a picture of gangs in the school community.
The community members on your committee and your contacts can help you learn about the resources already available that could be used to address the needs of at-risk youth and those already in gangs.
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Small Investment Yields Large Result
The 12-year-old boy was headed for trouble. Living in a cramped, hot two-bedroom apartment with his grandmother, mother, and brother, he was skipping school and already on juvenile probation. An outreach worker with a gang intervention program began showing up at the boy's home every day to remind him about school. He found a school where the youth could help coach girls' basketball and baseball. The outreach worker also noticed the stifling heat in the apartment when he came to visit. He and his intervention team arranged with a company to install an air conditioner.
"If it's nicer on the street than at home because it's hot and people are fussing, that's where he's going to spend time," said Renee Parker, project coordinator of the Miami Partnership for Action in Communities Task Force/Project Impact. "It helps the family know that we're there for them." |
Collecting the Data
The first step in addressing a gang problem in your community is understanding the scope of any gang problem. The depth of your assessment depends on your resources. But several practitioners interviewed said that it is critical to look at several data sources in order to get a full picture of the gang situation in the area. Law enforcement will likely only deal with the most serious gang members and may not have information on newer members who are not yet committing serious crimes. Adolescents may have insights into gangs at their schools, and community agencies still have another picture of gang involvement from youth that they serve. Each piece has its strengths and weaknesses, but all of them can add up to a more complete picture of gang activity in your area.
Experts recommend the local law enforcement department as the first stop in assessing a gang problem. Larger police departments may have an anti-gang unit; smaller ones should have police officers who are familiar with gangs in the area. As a first step, Coordinators can make an appointment with an officer familiar with gangs and ask for an hour to get an overview of the situation. Coordinators can make clear that they are not looking for individual names or information on ongoing investigations. You simply want to understand more about gangs in your community, including an overview of gangs, size of gangs, rivalries among gangs, turf issues, and adult involvement (for example, some adults go to schools to recruit for gangs with offers of free alcohol, drugs, and sex).
Click here for tips on questions to ask in a needs assessment. |
It also helpful at the outset to determine the scope of the assessment: whether it will focus on only younger children at risk of joining gangs, adolescents on the cusp of joining a gang, active gang members, or all three. While it can be tempting to focus just on younger children, it will do little to address an immediate gang problem in your community.
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"If you are worried about young kids getting involved with gangs and you're not doing anything about older ones, you're always going to be playing catch up," said Phelan Wyrick, Ph.D., Gang Program coordinator at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. "You're going to tell them to stay in school and get good grades and they will look at the older ones who have dropped out of school, and are partying and have money, and see that people respect them or fear them. Young boys will say they [the gang members] have power. One way or another the older gang-involved youth are going to be a negative." |
Coordinators should also investigate these avenues for information about gangs:
Police data. Coordinators can ask the police officer they are working with if they collect data on gang-related incidents, and if so, to share those data. If they do not, you can ask to review police incident reports to try to determine the extent of gang problems. If police do not mark reports as possibly gang-related, as many do not, Coordinators may want to ask for all reports on homicide and aggravated assault involving people under 20 years of age, which in many areas is a good proxy measure of gang violence. Coordinators may also want to limit their review to incidents within a defined geographical area, such as the schools they work in. However, it is also important to let the data speak for itself. For example, it may seem that most gang problems are in one neighborhood, but then the data reveals another story. Click here for more information about analyzing police reports.
Student and school-level data. School data can help identify risk factors, such as school suspension, truancy, and dropout rates that may make students more vulnerable to joining a gang. Among the activities that Coordinators can take are the following:
Collect school data on number of fights in schools, dropout rate, and truancy figures. These figures can serve as a proxy for potential gang activity.
Conduct a student survey on their perceptions about gangs or conduct student focus groups. These surveys or interviews should also ask about students' perceptions of needs to address gang problems.
Conduct a teacher and school administrator survey about perceptions of gangs and social service needs of at-risk and gang-involved youth.
- Community data Hold focus groups of community members. Interview community members and leaders about their perceptions of gangs, including the police chief, elected officials, community organizations, neighborhood groups, parents and others. Again, ask them about the unmet needs they see. Click here for a sample interview form for community members.
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According to Addressing Community Gang Problems: A Practical Guide "These [social service] contacts are themselves important sources of information for the next step (identifying unmet needs). Because they typically have easy access to youth, service providers can be instrumental in setting up youth surveys. Contacting service providers also serves a public relations function; by informing them that a needs assessment is in progress and asking for their assistance, the assessors help to get service providers to buy in (and perhaps give the assessors good advice) early in the process. Finally, the information gleaned from the survey of existing services can provide vital clues to what the community thinks are the most important needs and problems, helping the needs assessors focus their efforts in the most pressing areas." |
For interviews of youth and parents, it may be a good idea to contract with a local university or research firm to conduct in-person or telephone interviews. Some marketing professionals, professors or graduate assistants might do the work for free as part of a research project.
Current Activities and Resources
The next step is to inventory the activities and resources that are available in the community. In creating a response to gang problems, model sites around the country are looking for ways to link into existing programs rather than create new ones.
Begin with any previous needs assessment that you have done and review for programs related to youth development, juvenile delinquency, and violence prevention. The programs do not have to have gang in their title to be effective in working on gang prevention and intervention.
Ask local agencies and members of the advisory committee if their organizations have conducted a needs assessment or community mapping of resources. The local United Way, police department, or YMCA might have conducted an assessment of youth resources.
Using any existing needs assessments as a start, survey community service providers to identify their current programs and whom they serve. Classify them by the needs they are trying to fill and any documented effectiveness of the program. Among the key questions to ask: (1) what are the objectives of the services?; (2) how are the services delivered?; (3) what geographic areas are served?; (4) to whom are services provided? (age, sex, qualification requirements); (5) when are the services provided?; and (6) what does it cost and who pays for it?
Find out whether these organizations serve or would serve gang members. Some social service agencies might be initially reluctant to work with gang members but will do so under certain rules, such as not allowing gang members to wear gang colors or bring weapons into their program.
Compile and analyze the data.
All of the data combined should start to paint a picture of the gang issues in the community and how to target resources. For example, police reports might show that one of the major times for gang offenses is after school or that they occur on certain routes to school.
An assessment also provides a research-based report of the gang problem, which can be helpful in making the case to the school, community officials, and community organizations about why they need to address it.
Coordinators or committee members should prepare a short report on their findings.
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According to Addressing Community Gang Problems: A Practical Guide: "Sociologists, political scientists, and other academicians have done the survey research field a disservice by writing up their results in long, scientific-sounding articles. The principal results of a needs assessment survey can usually be presented in a few pages of text (perhaps six to eight) that summarizes the most important results and relationships and backs them up with a few simple tables. The assessment team should take its cue for report presentation from public opinion articles in the local newspaper or perhaps those published in The Gallup Report (a monthly magazine available in college libraries and many public libraries)." |
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Needs assessments accomplish four objectives, according to Addressing Gang Problems:
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Looking Ahead
The assessment guides listed in the references section provide a wealth of information. When you have a chance, look them over and use what would work for your situation. Some of these programs ask Coordinators to carry out a 6- to 18-month assessment. Yours does not have to be that extensive to yield valuable information.
The report should include social indicators, such as aggravated assaults in which the victim was under 20 years of age, school fights, and drop-out rates as indicators of bad outcomes. The report should also point out the services that are available and gaps that need to be addressed. From there, it is important to develop a consensus around priorities in gang prevention and intervention. The team should first develop a consensus themselves and then take the findings to the public. Tomorrow we will look at options for interventions.
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Click here to print today's materials in PDF format. |
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Discussion Questions Please think about the questions below and share your responses, comments, and/or any questions about today's material in the Discussion Area.
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This completes today's work. Please visit the Discussion Area to share your responses to the discussion questions! |
References for Day 3 materials:
Addressing Community Gang Problems: A Practical Guide (1998). Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Assistance. Also available on-line at: http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/164273.pdf.
A Guide to Assessing Your Community's Youth Gang Problem (2002). Tallahassee, FL: Institute for Intergovernmental Research. Also available at http://www.iir.com/nygc/acgp/assessment.htm.
Parker, R. (July 2004) Personal communication.
Wyrick, P. (July 2004) Personal communication.
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