Attorney General Holder Addresses White House Conference on Gang Violence Prevention
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In remarks addressing the recent White Conference on Gang Violence Prevention and Crime Control, Attorney General Eric Holder commended Los Angeles' Summer Nights Light program, an initiative of OJJDP's Gang Reduction Program, as a “different innovative approach to crime fighting.” OJJDP helped fund a pilot Gang Reduction and Youth Development Zone in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles, where the program has helped reduce gang violence by 40 percent, according to Los Angeles city officials.  |
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 The proliferation of gang problems in large and small cities, suburbs, and even rural areas over the last two decades led to the development of a comprehensive, coordinated response to America's gang problem by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
As reported in the latest National Youth Gang Survey, some 788,000 gang members and 27,000 gangs were active in more than 3,550 U.S. jurisdictions in 2007. As most gang members join between the ages of 12 and 15, prevention is a critical strategy within a comprehensive response to gangs that includes intervention, suppression and reentry. OJJDP's Comprehensive Gang Model is the product of a national gang research and development program that OJJDP initiated in the mid-1980s.
A national assessment of gang problems and programs provided the foundation for the research-based model. Its key components reflect the best features of existing and evaluated programs across the country. The model outlines five strategies: community mobilization, social intervention, opportunities for educational and vocational advancements, suppression, and organizational change.
In October 2009, the National Youth Gang Center, which had been funded OJJDP since 1995, merged with the National Gang Center, which had been funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance since 2003. This new partnership recognizes that street gang activities transcend ages of the members and that a balanced, comprehensive approach is needed to reduce gang involvement and levels of gang crime. Consolidation of the centers has leveraged resources and resulted in a single, more efficient entity, responsive to the needs of researchers, practitioners, and the public.
OJJDP collaborates with the Bureau of Justice Assistance to ensure that OJP has an array of information and resources available on gangs. OJJDP's strategy is to reduce gang activity in targeted neighborhoods by incorporating a broad spectrum of research-based interventions to address the range of personal, family, and community factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency and gang activity. This approach attempts to integrate Federal, state, and local resources to incorporate state-of-the-art practices in prevention, intervention, and suppression.
Programs
OJJDP's Gang Reduction Program is designed to reduce gang activity in targeted neighborhoods by incorporating a broad spectrum of research-based interventions to address the range of personal, family, and community factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency and gang activity. The program integrates Federal, state, and local resources to incorporate best practices in prevention, intervention, and suppression.
The Gang Reduction Program piloted sites in four communities that were characterized by significant existing program investment, strong indicators of citizen involvement, and high rates of crime and gang activity. The sites are located in:
OJJDP's Gang Prevention Coordination Assistance Program (GPCAP) provides funding to enhance coordination of local, state, and Federal resources in support of community partnerships implementing two or more of the following anti-gang strategies: primary prevention, secondary prevention, gang intervention, and gang enforcement. Currently, OJJDP has 24 GPCAP sites across the nation.
OJJDP's Latino Youth Mentoring Program focuses on developing and supporting a peer mentoring program that proactively reaches youth before they are recruited by gangs and develops and strengthens protective factors against gang involvement and other problem behaviors.
To learn more about OJJDP's ongoing gang prevention efforts, see the following information, drawn from its bimonthly electronic newsletter OJJDP News @ a Glance and its JUVJUST listserv.
Publications
 The OJJDP report Best Practices To Address Community Gang Problems: OJJDP's Comprehensive Gang Model guides communities responding to a gang problem in implementing OJJDP's Comprehensive Gang Model. It describes best practices learned from practitioners experienced in planning and implementing the model and notes findings from evaluations of programs demonstrating the model.
- Highlights of the 2007 National Youth Gang Survey (Fact Sheet, April 2009)
- Highlights of the 2006 National Youth Gang Survey (Fact Sheet, July 2008)
- Highlights of the 2005 National Youth Gang Survey (Fact Sheet, July 2008)
- Highlights of the 2004 National Youth Gang Survey (Fact Sheet, April 2006)
- Highlights of the 2002–2003 National Youth Gang Survey (Fact Sheet, July 2005)
- National Youth Gang Survey: 1999–2001 (Summary, July 2006)
- National Youth Gang Survey Trends From 1996 to 2000 (Fact Sheet, February 2002)
- "Strategic Risk-Based Response to Youth Gangs" (in Juvenile Justice Journal, September 2004)
- Youth Gangs in Indian Country (Bulletin, March 2004)
- "New Program Supports Community Gang Programs" (in OJJDP News at @ Glance, September/October 2003)
- Modern Day Youth Gangs (Bulletin, June 2002)
Resources
OJJDP's Strategic Planning Tool was developed to assist in assessing a community's gang problem and planning strategies to deal with it. The Tool is a resource that encompasses four interrelated components to assist in addressing a community's gang problem. Those components link descriptive information about risk factors, best practices, strategies, and research-based programs. Communities can catalogue existing local resources by creating a Web-based Community Resource Inventory account accessed on this tool.
The additional gang-related resources may be found on OJJDP's Web site, by searching by the keyword "gang".
To keep informed on gang and other juvenile-justice related issues subscribe to OJJDP's bimonthly electronic newsletter OJJDP News @ a Glance and its JUVJUST listserv.
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