Department of Public Security

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Secretariat for Multidimensional Security
Department of Public Security
DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF GANGS
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Source Google archive search.
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Justice Policy Institute Report July 2007
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• In 1927 Chicago had 1,313 gangs(1)
• Most of these were mixed (40), Polish (16),
  Italian (11), Irish (9), or Afro-American (7),
  and there were even 7 Swedish gangs.
• The link between gangs and organized crime was
  already under study.

(1) F. Thrasher
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• In 2006, an ILO study on global youth employment
  trends found that 21 of young people (aged 16 to
  29) in Latin America neither attended school nor
  worked.
• That same study showed that the unemployment rate
  for young adults was 2.8.

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tensions

• People feel
• insecure
• Prevention
• Investment in prevention
• Lack of security, safety
• Youth are more
• exposed
• Police

• No quick solutions
• Law enforcement
• Cost of Violence
• Democratic stability
• Fostered by environment
• Justice system ( of persons in pretrial
  detention)

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the project

• 7 consultants
• 7 countries (1st stage)
• Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras,
  Jamaica, Mexico, USA.

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How do the consultants view gangs?

• Basically urban,
• A public security and safety issue
• Linked to adolescents and youth, although they
  are a minority in i.e. violent gangs or maras
• Arise from conditions of poverty and exclusion
• Linked to a lack of opportunities provided by the
  government, the market, and the community
• Originate among children or adolescents who come
  from dysfunctional families and are looking for
  an identity, protection, sense of belonging, and
  power,
• With a clear gender bias towards male domination,
  ranging from
• 2.5 - 1 to 9 - 1
• Ethnically heterogeneous, but Latin Americans and
  Afro-descendents predominate over White
  Anglo-Saxons (in the case of the USA)
• Linked to many national homicides
• Linked increasingly to trafficking in drugs,
  arms, persons, and other crimes related to
  organized crime.

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DEFINITION

YOUTH GANGS represent a spontaneous effort by
children and young people to create, where it
does not exist, an urban space in society that is
adapted to their needs, where they can exercise
the rights that their families, government, and
communities do not offer them. Arising out of
extreme poverty, exclusion, and a lack of
opportunities, gangs try to gain their rights and
meet their needs by organizing themselves without
supervision and developing their own rules, and
by securing for themselves a territory and a set
of symbols that gives meaning to their membership
in the group. This endeavor to exercise their
citizenship is, in many cases, a violation of
their own and others rights, and frequently
generates violence and crime in a vicious circle
that perpetuates their original exclusion. This
is why they cannot reverse the situation that
they were born into. Since it is primarily a
male phenomenon, female gang members suffer more
intensively from gender discrimination and the
inequalities inherent in the dominant culture.
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The path to adult gangs is determined by

• A gradual increase in the age of gang members
  within the gangs
• - The deportation of gang members
• Alliances with gangs in other countries
• - Transnational adult gangs

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CategoriesBased on structural criteria such as
size, gender, ethnic composition and ages, life
span, territoriality, and criminality, as well as
on criteria of origin, objectives, operating
methods, and evolution, the following categories
are proposed

• Scavenger gangs
• Transgressor gangs
• Violent gangs
• Criminal gangs
• Female gangs

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Gang members violate the rights of third parties
at the same time that third parties violate the
gang members rights
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EL COURSE OF VIOLENCE
(Concha
-
Eastman, 2001)
LEVEL OF VIOLENCE OR
INTERVENTIONS
CRIME
HOMICIDES
ORGANIZED
ROBBERIES (OF BANKS,
LAW
CRIME
ETC...)
DRUG
-
TRAFFICKING
RAPES ROBBERIES WOUNDS
2ary
-
3ary
GANGS
HOMICIDES
(JUVENILE)
MINOR OFFENSES
2ary.
CLIQUES
THEFTS

BARRAS
FIGHTS ASSAULTS
SOCIAL
JUVENILE
PRIMARY
DISTURBANCE
GROUPS
CONFLICTS
-
FAMILY

SOCIO
-
PRIMARY
VIOLENCE
ECONOMIC
VICT./WITNESS
SURROUNDING
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ORGANIZED CRIME
CRIMINAL
TENDENCY TOWARD VIOLENT CRIME
VIOLENT
PROTECTION AND DEFENSE AGAINST RIVAL GANGS,
CONTROL OF TERRITORY, INVOLVEMENT IN VIOLENT
ACTIVITIES
TRANSGRESSOR
Confrontations in schools, intimidation,
extortion, . etc.
SCAVENGER
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redress
detect
prevent
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INITIATIVES FOR ALL CATEGORIES OF GANGS, IT IS
NECESSARY TO DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT TARGETED PUBLIC
POLICIES, BASED ON

• CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
• JUSTICE SYSTEM THAT ENSURES PROMPT AND FAIR
  JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS
• MEASURES DESIGNED TO ENHANCE SOCIAL CONFIDENCE
  IN THE COMMUNITIES

• UP-TO-DATE LEGISLATION
• INFORMATION SYSTEM
• LINK WITH PUBLIC POLICIES
• A GUIDING INTERSECTORAL INSTITUTIONALITY ON THE
  SUBJECT
• AN ETHICAL CONTEXT OF RESPECT FOR, AND GUARANTEE
  AND PROMOTION OF, HUMAN RIGHTS

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What does a gang offer me? What should we do?

• A space
• Protection
• Friendship
• Running risks
• Access to money
• Sex
• To be somebody

• Try to cover these spaces
• Invest heavily in youth
• Streamline judicial processes
• Separate the approach of adults and adolescents
• Work with the media

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