MENU TITLE: School: Technical Assistance Manual .
Series: OJJDP
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DRAFT 2/91

SCHOOL

Technical Assistance Manual

Irving Spergel and Alba Alexander

National Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention
Program
School of Social Service Administration
University of Chicago

Distributed by:

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse
Box 6000
Rockville, MD 20850
1-800-638-8736
Distributed by:

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse
Box 6000
Rockville, MD 20850

1-800-638-8736


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The development of this school manual would not
have been possible without the participation of
experienced administrators and practitioners in the
field. Their willingness to take time away from
their busy schedules to provide insight and
assistance is most appreciated.

The author would like to thank the following people
for their significant contributions to the
development of this manual:

C. Edward Lawrence, Community Superintendent/SPAG,
Milwaukee, WI Ronald D. Stephens, National School
Safety Center, Encino, CA Pete Fernandez, East Los
Angeles School Center, Los Angeles, CA Willie
Foster, Atlanta Public Schools, Atlanta, GA
Charles Young, Joliet Public Schools, Joliet, IL
Tommye Brown, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago, IL

The author would also like to thank:

Ed Zubrow, Philadelphia Public Schools,
Philadelphia, PA
Josephine Marks, Philadelphia Public Schools,
Philadelphia, PA Cliff Williams, CORPP,
Philadelphia, PA
Ivy Kearson, Jr., Neighborhood/Jobs Program, Miami,
FL
Kaleb Whitby, Private Industrial Council of
Philadelphia,
Philadelphia, PA June Lane, National School Safety
Center, Encino, CA

Diana Cubbage, Wichita Public Schools, Wichita,
Kansas

Responsibility for the final version of the manual
remains with the author.
_____________________________________________

TABLE OF CONTENTS
_____________________________________________

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
 Program Mission and Background
 Purpose of the Manuals
 Discussion of Terms and Issues
 Approach to the Problem
 Summary

CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTION--SCHOOL MANUAL
 What This Manual Will Do
 Problem Statement
 Approaches That Work
 Effective Gang Control and Reduction Process
 Summary

CHAPTER 3: ASSESSMENT 
 Purpose and Characteristics of Assessment 
 Establishing a School and Community Committee
 School-Level Assessment
 Community-Level Assessment
 Chronic Versus Emergent Problem
 Conclusion
 Summary

CHAPTER 4: GOALS AND STRATEGIES
 Goals and Approach
 Strategies
 Summary

CHAPTER 5: OBJECTIVES

CHAPTER 6: IMPLEMENTATION--CREATION OF A STRUCTURE
FOR FLEXIBLE CURRICULUM AND A SAFE SCHOOL
ENVIRONMENT
 School Administrative Leadership
 Internal Organizational Structure
 Summary

CHAPTER 7: STAFF SELECTION AND TRAINING
 Training
 Summary

CHAPTER 8: CREATING A SAFE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
 School Discipline
 School Security
 Summary

CHAPTER 9: DEVELOPMENT OF A SCHOOL-WIDE LEARNING
SUPPORT SYSTEM     Introduction
 Classroom Teacher Support
 Classroom Expectations
 Small Student Work Groups
 Support Staff
 Summary

CHAPTER 10: IDENTIFICATION OF HIGH-RISK AND GANG
YOUTH
 Summary

CHAPTER 11: ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
 Prevention--Early Intervention to Prevent and     
  Deter Gang Involvement and Drug Abuse
 Summary

CHAPTER 12: MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL
 Delivery of a Flexible Curriculum
 Alternative Educational Programs
 Conclusion
 Provision of Vocational Education, Job            
  Preparation, and Placement   
 Summary

CHAPTER 13: PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
 Parent Patrols
 Mentoring
 Inducements
 Summary

CHAPTER 14: LIAISON, COORDINATION, AND OUTREACH
WITH LAW
ENFORCEMENT AND COMMUNITY AGENCIES
 Community Outreach
 Information-Sharing
 Summary

CHAPTER 15: EVALUATION
 Summary

APPENDIX A: LIST OF PROGRAM REPORTS

APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY AND DISCUSSION OF TERMS

APPENDIX C: TABLES
 TABLE 1-EFFECTIVE CONTROL & REDUCTION OF GANG
  PROBLEM
 TABLE 2-IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This manual discusses how to assess an individual
school gang problem and plan intervention. Schools
mainly in low-income, unstable, and socially
isolated communities with high rates of school
dropouts, weak family structure, crime, and
unemployment frequently have serious youth gang
problems. The community gang problem most
immediately spreads from the streets to the
schools. Under conditions of gang intimidation and
violence, it is difficult, if not impossible, to
carry out the school mission and educate all
students. Primary academic competence objectives
cannot be achieved unless social objectives are
given attention. That is, it is difficult, if not
impossible, to educate all students in an unsafe
environment. 

The school must be active in the surrounding
community and bear some responsibility for the
problem. Yet, the school alone will have difficulty
alleviating the problem. The entire community will
need to mobilize to reduce gang violence and
intimidation. While there are limits to what the
schools can do regarding basic family and community
factors, there is much that schools, in cooperation
with community agencies and groups, can accomplish.

Schools that recognize the problem and take steps
to control it are effective if they have committed
and competent staff, high expectations for
students, fair and consistent discipline, parental
involvement, and a neat and graffiti-free
environment. Effective control and reduction of the
school gang problem follows a process of
assessment; definition of goals, strategies, and
objectives; implementation; and evaluation.

A complete assessment must include the assessment
of the school and community gang problem, school
characteristics, and the interrelationship of the
school and community gang problem. There are three
steps to carrying out an assessment: (1)
establishing a School and Community Committee, (2)
gathering information and making recommendations,
and (3) defining goals and objectives.

It is crucial to obtain approval and support from
central administration for efforts to reduce the
school gang problem. The Principal must try to
involve all segments of the community that will
need mobilization to reduce the school and
community gang problem. It is essential to involve
all school personnel (school security, counselors,
teachers, custodial and lunchroom staff, and
secretaries) from the beginning of the assessment
because they possess valuable information on
student behavior, academic factors, and possibly
characteristics of gang activity within and around
the school.

The School and Community Committee will need to
know the scope and seriousness of the community
gang problem, community institutions that can be
mobilized to alleviate the school gang problem, and
the interrelationship of the school and community
problem. It is important to determine whether the
local school gang problem and community gang
problem are emergent or chronic and to develop a
consensus on the nature and scope of the problem.
Such consensus will contribute to the effectiveness
of program planning and implementation. In an
emerging gang problem context, the school must take
a leading role as part of a working coalition with
community agencies and the police to reduce both
the community and school gang problem. In a chronic
problem community, the problem may be of such broad
scope and severity that central responsibility may
lie with a coalition of criminal justice agencies,
youth agencies, churches, representatives from city
government, local business, citizen groups, as well
school representatives.

We recommend that the school antigang approach be
built around five strategies; (1) Social
Opportunities, (2) Social Support, (3) Suppression,
(4) Community Mobilization, and (5) Organizational
Development and Change. The five strategies are
reviewed in the introduction.

This approach proposes that primary academic
competence objectives cannot be achieved unless
social objectives are given attention. It is
difficult, if not impossible, to educate all
students in an unsafe environment. Therefore,
objectives of a special school program must be: (1)
Creation of a structure for flexible
curriculum and ensuring a safe school environment;
(2) Application of consistent sanctions and means
to protect school population and surrounding
community from gang depredations; (3) Development
of an opportunities provision, learning support
system; (4) Appropriate training, staff selection,
data retrieval systems, and evaluation to determine
program effectiveness; (5) Early intervention to
prevent and deter gang involvement; (6) Provision
of vocational education, job preparation, and
employment experiences; (7) Parental involvement;
and (8) Liaison, coordination, and outreach to
community agencies and programs.

The Principal will need to develop an internal
organizational structure, a standing committee, and
a case management team to enhance parental
involvement and to create a flexible curriculum and
a safe school environment. The standing committee
is responsible for monitoring the school gang
problem, disciplinary policies, and school security
and must meet on a regular basis to identify and
solve problems related to school safety and
reduction of the school gang problem.

In addition, the school must establish a school
gang code and enforce it firmly and fairly. The
Principal must communicate the gang school code to
teachers, students, and parents. In the classroom,
teachers must know the school gang code and
guidelines for appropriate intervention.

The case management team works directly with high-
risk and gang youth and is responsible for parental
involvement and flexible curriculum development.
The case management team will become in-house
experts on gangs within and around the school and
will be useful in conflict or tense situations.
Qualified staff, i.e., staff who have special
skills working with gang or high-risk youth, must
be selected for the case management team. After
selection, the case management team will need
training before contact with gang youths. 

Training must include: (1) Orientation to the
special program --This introductory phase of
training must focus on the program mission,
procedures, policies, and goals and objectives; (2)
Gang specific information--This training must focus
on general information on gangs and specific
information on school and local community gangs;
and (3) Behavior and crisis management skill
development--Staff will also need training in
methods and strategies to handle distinctive gang-
motivated disruptive and aggressive behavior. The
ultimate goal is to help youths gain self-control
and learn better ways to solve problems and cope
with stress, frustration, and anger.

School security staff, with the help and support of
teachers, staff, and the case management team and
School Climate Committee, will need to eliminate
conditions within and around the school that
contribute to violence and disruptive acts with
special attention to improved response to crises
that involve gangs and potential violence.

The School Climate Committee, in collaboration with
the case management team, must develop a response
strategy for recognizing precrisis indicators. If
the Principal recognizes signs of an impending gang
crisis, likely to erupt into violence, he or she
must immediately mobilize security, teachers, and
staff, and contact law enforcement agencies. If a
crisis erupts or a serious crime occurs, the
students involved must be promptly and forcefully
dealt with by arrest and prosecution. The school
will need to develop and maintain a good working
relationship with law enforcement agencies, involve
them in training, and consult with them regarding
gang crime and activity. In the event of serious
injury or a gang homicide, the principal will need
to inform all students and staff of the incident,
have a mechanism to help students and staff cope
with feelings, attend the funeral or visit the
hospital, express condolences to the family, and
designate a spokesman to talk with the media to
reduce confusion.

The School Climate Committee will need to develop
criteria for identifying youth in gangs or at high
risk of gang involvement and create a centralized
system for identifying gang members and tracking
their progress. Identification and tracking should
not be confused with destructive labeling or
isolation of these youths from the mainstream
school program. Gang-related behavior may begin as
early as elementary school. All school personnel
will need to learn the high-risk factors and
develop criteria for identifying youth at high risk
and in gangs, bearing in mind that some gang youths
do not exhibit such behavior, while some non-gang
youths may display them. It will probably be
necessary to obtain information from several
reliable sources before confirmation of a
particular youth as a gang member or at high risk.
To minimize the danger of negative or inadvertent
labeling, identify only the highest risk youths for
purposes of the present program where early
intervention and prevention are a priority.

In some elementary schools, several methods are
used to prevent gang activity and substance abuse,
and to control youths who begin to engage in gang-
related behavior. They include the (1) Anti-Drug
and Gang Curriculum; (2) Self-esteem and Values
Change Curriculum; (3) Peer Tutoring, Counseling,
and Conflict Resolution Teams; (4) Violence
Reduction Program; and (5) Multicultural Diversity.
Where possible, new academic programs should be
integrated into the existing curriculum (i.e.,
Health, Social Studies, or English classes) to
prevent or control gang activity.

In high school and middle schools, gang and gang-
prone youth need to master the academic skills
required to finish high school and later obtain
employment. Some of these youths cannot cope with
the rules and academic requirements in conventional
schools and will require additional services. These
students can achieve the mastery of basic skills in
three possible ways: (1) Supplementing the academic
core curriculum with remedial classes during and
after school; (2) Targeting gang and gang-prone
youth for enriched program within their school; and
(3) Placement of some gang and gang-prone high
school students into alternative educational
programs.

A curriculum that combines academic and vocational
preparation is particularly useful for gang and
high-risk youths. Strategies that provide economic
opportunity for them will reduce gangs and gang
violence. Legitimate jobs, as youths get older, are
an alternative to street crime and hustling. The
case management team, alternative school staff, or
the vocational education staff need to introduce
gang youth to the world of work responsibility and
reward. Gang youth will need to become competent in
the actual skills needed to obtain a job. Employers
should be involved in job workshops that discuss
how to get and hold a job.

To effectively reduce the gang problem and fulfill
the mission of educating all students, it is
crucial to involve parents within the school. Even
so, parents will vary in their acceptance of a
school and community gang problem and in their
commitment to the school and activism regarding the
problem. The school, through the efforts of the
Principal and case management team, will need to
involve different types of parents. The school must
involve parents in parent meetings, gang detection
and prevention school activities, mentoring, and
assistance on school activities (i.e., field
trips). Parents who have successfully dealt with
their own children's gang or drug problem can be
very helpful in a support group or by calling or
visiting parents to offer support. The Principal
and case management team can use two primary
programs to involve parents; (1) Parents Patrols
and (2) Mentoring programs (See chapter 13).

Occasionally, the school will need to share
information with community organizations or law
enforcement agencies. The School Climate Committee
must adopt procedures for maintaining a list of
gang and students at high risk of gang involvement
and keeping related records and files confidential.
Generally, no outside agency, including the police,
must have access to these files. An exception may
be the informal sharing of information with law
enforcement agencies necessary to effectively
suppress serious gang activity within and around
the school. When it is necessary to share
descriptive information regarding the gang problem,
make a distinction between statistical data and
information on particular students. When possible,
share only aggregate statistical data with outside
agencies and actors. 

In conclusion, the prevention and intervention
programs will need evaluation. The school or an
outside expert (consultant or academic) will need
to obtain information to determine if the school
has been successful in reducing the school gang or
community gang problem. The school must use
evaluation findings to determine which programs
work and which do not as well as what needs
improving, and to develop new approaches to the
reduction of the school gang problem.

____________________________________________

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
____________________________________________

o Program Mission and Background
o Purpose of the Manuals
o Problem Statement
o Discussion of Terms and Issues
o Approach to the Problem
o Summary

Program Mission and Background

Criminal youth gang activity represents a serious
threat to the safety and security of local citizens
and impedes positive youth development. In recent
years, higher levels of youth gang violence and
gang-related drug trafficking has been reported in
an increasing number of neighborhoods, high
schools, public housing projects, correctional
institutions, and other social contexts throughout
the country.

In response, the Office of Juvenile Justice
Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Justice Department,
entered into a cooperative agreement with the
School of Social Service Administration, University
of Chicago, in October 1987 to conduct the National
Youth Gang Suppression and Intervention Program.
This program is a four-stage Research and
Development process: Assessment, Prototype/Model
Development, Technical Assistance, and Testing.

Three of the four stages have been completed. Stage
1 included a comprehensive review of the research
and program literature on youth gangs, a survey of
programs in 45 cities, selected site visits,
conferences, and special studies. During Stage 2,
gang suppression and intervention models were
produced for police, prosecutors, judges,
probation, corrections, parole, schools,
employment, community-based youth agencies,
grassroots organizations. Additionally, separate
manuals for comprehensive planning and for
community mobilization were developed.

Stage 3 involved the creation of 12 technical
assistance manuals which provide guidelines to
implement the policies and procedures presented in
the models. The ten agency manuals specify both
organizational and community perspectives for
dealing with the youth gang problem. The other two
manuals outline specific procedures and processes
of planning a comprehensive community approach to
youth gang suppression and intervention. 

The program models and technical assistance manuals
were based on the findings of the initial project
assessment stage as well as extensive consultations
with policymakers, administrators, and
practitioners at local and national levels. Two
regional conferences were held with policymakers
and administrators from 16 cities who contributed
to the development of the final version of the
manuals.

Purpose of the Manuals

The purpose of the technical assistance manuals is
to present detailed steps for the control and
reduction of youth gang crime, especially gang-
motivated violence. The manuals seek to provide
governmental authorities, criminal justice
organizations, social agencies, and community
groups with strategies that encourage gang-prone
and gang-involved youth to terminate criminal
activity and participate in legitimate social,
academic, and employment pursuits.

Broad preventive policies that deal with larger
social issues such as poverty and racism, housing,
education, jobs, and health care are addressed only
on a limited basis in the manuals. Key issues of
family breakdown, violence in the media, and the
proliferation of sophisticated weapons need to be
directly addressed as they contribute to the youth
gang problem. They are dealt with here mainly as
conditions within which special organizational
policies and procedures and community mobilization
must be developed.

Local administrators and policymakers are the
primary audience, but the manuals should also be
useful to other officials and personnel concerned
with the problem, including agency supervisors,
front-line workers, and community volunteers.

The manuals are not intended to serve in the place
of more general models and manuals dealing with
delinquent or troublesome youth in the criminal
justice and human service fields; they are intended
as a supplement to them. Even so, the manuals
should be of value in dealing with youth crime more
generally. This is because the youth gang problem
can be viewed as part of a larger set of crime and
delinquency and youth socialization problems. 

Problem Statement

During the 1980's and early 1990's, more criminally
oriented and better organized gangs or cliques have
become prevalent in many urban communities. More
young people from diverse backgrounds and settings
are joining gangs to meet social and economic needs
not satisfied through existing institutions, e.g.,
family, school, and employment. The youth gang has
become an alternative, mainly antisocial,
institution for an increasing number of youth.

Why youth gangs have developed and become more
criminal and complex organizations is not clear.
The type and severity of youth gang problems may be
largely a response to two conditions: poverty or
limited access to social opportunities; and social
disorganization, i.e., the lack of integration and
stability of social institutions including family,
school, and employment in a local community. 

Certain factors exacerbate these two social
conditions to produce varying gang subcultures and
systems. They include:

o large and rapid population movement of low-income
minorities into a community;

o intergenerational gang traditions;

o defects of social policy and coordination of
service delivery at local and national levels;

o institutional racism;

o insecurities of certain working and middle class
populations "threatened" by newcomers; and

o the growth of criminal opportunities.

Examples are the following:

Violent youth gang subcultures often develop when
gang-affiliated African-American and Hispanic youth
move from central cities to smaller cities and
suburban areas without adequate social, family,
economic, and educational supports. Violent gang
subcultures may also develop when new waves of poor
immigrants from Mexico, Central America, the
Pacific Islands, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Korea, the
Philippines, and other Asian countries arrive in
urban communities. The newcomer groups are often
met with hatred and resentment, sometimes
manifested in physical attacks. Gangs may form and
become rapidly entrenched, first as defensive, and
then as offensive groups.

Furthermore, in ghetto, inner-city African-
American, and Hispanic communities, a limited
criminal opportunity system often develops. Gangs
in these communities may change from
statusoriented, conflict groups to a highly
predatory, criminal-gain group. Over time,
sophisticated instrumental rather than traditional
or status-oriented youth gangs may develop, with
special interest in drug trafficking and other
economic criminal activity.

In some communities across the country,
particularly in the western States but increasingly
elsewhere, the influx of low-income and working-
class Pacific-Islander and Asian groups--e.g.,
Tongan, Filipino, Hong Kong, Korean, Vietnamese,
Laotian, or Cambodian--has resulted in other
varieties of youth gang problems. Second-
generation youths, born in this country or who
arrived as preteens, may seek protection, prestige,
and income through gang membership. Some of these
gangs adopt African-American or Hispanic gang
patterns; others become closely connected to
traditional ethnic-based, adult criminal
organizations. Criminal activities can include home
invasions, business extortion, robbery, rape,
intimidation, and a range of racket activities.

These newcomer youth gangs, and the Asian
communities upon which they prey, are difficult for
local law enforcement, schools, and community
organizations to penetrate or influence because of
cultural, communication, and trust problems.

Some blue-collar or middle class communities are
characterized by growing economic, social, and
cultural pressures as well as by increasing family
or personal disorganization. Some of these formerly
stable, predominately white communities have become
centers for youth groups with a "nothing to lose
attitude." Youth gangs or their equivalent such as
Satanic, Stoner, punk rocker, hate, Neo-Nazi, or
racist Skinhead groups may participate in a wide
range of loosely organized criminal acts,
characterized by perverse and negative behavior,
including vandalism, drug use, homosexual assaults,
and even homicides.

Additionally, in certain stable, lower middle class
communities--whether African-American, Latino,
Pacific Islander, Asian, white, or Native American-
-the gang problem may assume a more organized and
usually less violent character. Youth may become
relatively more involved in extortion, car theft,
burglary, robbery, sophisticated drug trafficking,
and various lucrative quasi-racket activities which
are not necessarily conducted in the "home
communities." Legitimate business and criminal
interests may be relatively well integrated.

Furthermore, specialization of criminal youth gang
patterns by race and ethnicity seemingly exists.
Economic, social, and cultural factors may, in
fact, be the cause. Thus, some African-American
youth gang or clique members may be heavily engaged
in street-level crack-cocaine trafficking; Mexican-
American youth gang members may be relatively more
involved in violent turf-based activity; and Asian
gang members may be more mobile and closely related
to adult crime organizations involved in crimes
such as extortion, robbery, and international drug
trafficking.

However, these youth gang subcultures also exist
side by side, interact, integrate with, or succeed
each other over time. In some communities youth
gangs are interracial and interethnic.

In spite of the many and changing varieties of gang
subcultures that can be found, a common denominator
among them is that most of these groups are
comprised of youth who share somewhat similar
values and a keen sense of personal failure and low
self-esteem. For many gang youth, violence has
become an acceptable way of life, partially
sanctioned by the larger society. Violence is seen
on nightly newscasts, in the movies, on evening
television and Saturday morning cartoons, and
encouraged by certain "rap" stars. Violence is
projected as a means of resolving authority, low
self-esteem, and racial/ethnic problems.

Discussion of Terms and Issues (See also Appendix
B)

It is important to accurately identify key
components of the youth gang problem in order not
to exaggerate, deny, or mythologize them. This is
necessary in order to develop appropriate policies
and procedures to deal with the different or
varying street gang problems and subcultures
encountered. The components are: 1) the criminal
youth gang, 2) the youth gang member, and 3) the
gang incident.

The central focus of the manuals is the control and
reduction of gang-motivated violence. We are not
primarily interested in highly organized drug
trafficking by groups concerned only with profit,
although there are often important connections
between these associations and the youth or street
gang. However, we are concerned with drug
trafficking or predatory youth cliques to the
extent they participate in, depend on, and
influence the development of violent gang
activities.

Youth gang members engage increasingly in both
violent, status-related crime and entrepreneurial
or predatory criminal activities. If a youth group
engages primarily in criminal entrepreneurial
activity and participates periodically in serious
violence, it falls within the scope of our concern.

Our concern is also with differences between
emerging and chronic gang problem communities and
the need for prevention and especially early
intervention services.

1. Criminal Youth Gang

This is a group often comprising both juveniles and
young adults who engage in a range of social and
antisocial behaviors. Cliques or members engage
repetitively or at times spontaneously in violent,
predatory, and criminal-gain behaviors. The
criminal youth gang may be located within a
neighborhood or across neighborhoods and even
cities. It may be loosely or well organized with
established rules of conduct. The youth gang may
have a name, turf, colors, signs, symbols, and
distinctive dress. The youth gang often promotes
mutual support among members and conflict with
competing gangs or established authority.

Many of these groups are traditional turf-based
gangs. Traditionally, the primary function of the
youth gang has been to establish or protect the
group's reputation and status within a framework of
shared or communal values. This continues to be
true for many youth gangs today. Some youth gangs,
however, do not display colors and are not
primarily concerned with social status, but are
more gain-oriented and more rationally organized.

2. The Youth Gang Member

While the criminal youth gang includes some youth
who conform primarily to conventional norms, most
engage in a range of criminal behaviors. 

Most gang participants are in the age range of 12
to 24 years, although some preschoolers as well as
persons into their 50's have been reportedly
engaged in gang activities. The most serious and
violent gang activity, however, tends to be
committed by older adolescents and young adults.
Some gang members may join for period as short as a
day, a week, or a month; others are members for
years. Members can move from low to high gang
status, from less serious to more serious criminal
gang behaviors, and vice versa, sometimes in
different gangs.

Far fewer females than males join youth gangs,
although with the increase in number of gangs
throughout the country, more female members are
probably involved in serious youth gang activities
than in an earlier era. Available evidence
indicates, however, that females usually join gangs
later and leave earlier, and are usually involved
in less violent or serious criminal behavior than
males. About nine times as many males as females
are arrested for gang crimes according to several
studies. Less than one percent of gang homicide
offenders are female.

Typically, female members are in groups affiliated
with male gangs. Sometimes females are integrated
directly as members into the gang proper; Less
frequently, they are involved in independent all-
female criminal youth gangs. In a few cities, there
is some recent evidence that females have assumed
leadership roles in certain gang or criminal group
activities, such as drug trafficking. Special
attention needs to be directed to high-risk female
gang members who are likely to be physically and
sexually victimized, or who induce or facilitate
male gang member assaults against other gangs.

Traditional gangs may have different type of
members: identifiable leaders, core, regular,
associate, soldier, peripheral, wannabe, floater,
and veteran or old-head members. The presence and
definition of these categories of gang members,
however, may be quite variable across the country.
Of special interest, for purposes of control and
prevention, are two categories of gang youth: 1)
the more serious, hardcore, often older gang
youths, and 2) the younger, high-risk, often less
committed gang youths.

Agencies need to carefully identify gangs and gang
members. This process should depend on use of
multiple criteria such as gang member self-
identification, statements by reliable witnesses,
verification by a second independent agency source,
prior police records and the youth's regular
association with a known gang member. Participation
by the youth in certain serious gang-
motivated criminal incidents such as drive-by
shootings must ordinarily precipitate a gang member
identification process for gang suppression and
intervention purposes.

3. The Gang Incident

A gang incident is the unit for classifying and
reporting an event as a gang crime, especially for
law enforcement purposes. Reported gang incidents
become the basis for determining whether a gang
problem exists and for assessing its scope.

The gang homicide is usually the key and most
reliable measure of the seriousness of gang crime.
However, identification of gang incidents, e.g.,
homicide, assault, or robbery, is neither a simple
nor a standard procedure. Two different procedures,
or variations of them, are currently employed to
determine whether a gang incident has occurred and
whether it should be recorded for law enforcement,
and, consequently, public policy purposes.

--Gang-Motivated

In this procedure, a criminal act is defined as a
gang incident if it grows out of gang motivation,
interest, or specific circumstances that enhance
the status or function of the gang. Examples
include: intergang violence, gang retaliation, turf
protection, intimidation, robbery, recruitment, or
other criminal activity that affects the gang's
reputation or interests as a whole. One or more
members of the gang may be involved as a suspect,
witness, offender, or victim in these
circumstances. In classifying the incident, focus
is on the nature of the specific situation in which
the illegal act occurs, such as a drive-by shooting
or the yelling a of gang slogan in the course of
the crime.

Crimes such as burglary, car theft, prostitution,
and drug trafficking by a gang member are
problematic because it is hard to determine whether
the act is gang-motivated. Many criminal acts serve
individual member needs unrelated to gang
interests. On the other hand, seemingly individual
or self-serving crimes by gang or aspiring gang
youth may be gang-motivated. For example, a youth
may be required or feel compelled to commit a
particular property or person crime because of
pressures by the gang.

--Gang-Related

This procedure is based on the characterization of
a crime or delinquent act as a gang incident when
the suspect, offender, or victim is a gang member,
regardless of gang motivation or circumstances.
Usually any serious criminal act, especially of a
violent, predatory, or drug trafficking nature, in
which a gang member is involved, can be classified
as a gang incident. For example, the crime of a
gang member who steals from a store--even though
that act has nothing directly to do with his gang
membership--would be classified as a gang-related
incident. 

--Which Definition to Use 

The argument in favor of using the gang-motivated
definition is that it focuses sharply on the
circumstances of the incident rather than the
identification of the individual as a gang member.
It may be more precise and valid than the gang-
related definition. It withstands court challenges
better. It also avoids excessive labelling or
exaggeration of the gang problem.

The counter argument is that the gang-motivated
definition minimizes the actual scope of the gang
crime problem. It encourages organizational or
community denial of the problem. A key assumption
of the proponents of the gang-related definition is
that a gang member is likely to engage in a wide
range of serious crimes because gang membership
predisposes him or her to do so. Evidence for this
argument is not substantial, however.

Police and prosecutors generally believe that it is
desirable to identify gang members and their
activities as completely as possible. Police are
particularly concerned that the full range of
criminal activities of the gang member be available
for efficient tracking and investigation purposes.

We recommend a procedure that avoids excessive
labelling of youth but ensures protection of the
community. A gang-incident procedure should be
devised which records and distinguishes between
gang-motivated and non-gang-motivated crime
committed by the gang member. All serious criminal
incidents by repeat gang offenders should be
clearly "flagged" on criminal justice computer
systems. An effective computerized information
system permits use of either or both procedures to
track gang-motivated incidents and gang member
crime.

4. Gang Problem Contexts, Chronic and Emerging

With the growth and spread of the youth gang
problem, a two-fold categorization of the problem
context has come into use: Chronic and Emerging.
Our manuals stress the differences in these
contexts as a basis for the development of
distinctive strategies, policies, and procedures
for gang suppression and intervention. Simply put,
a more preventive or early intervention approach
may be required in the emerging gang problem
context, while a more elaborate and formalized
suppression, intervention, and prevention approach
may be necessary in the chronic context.

--Chronic Gang Problem Context

This organizational or community context is
characterized by persistent or periodic crises of
major gang member violence and sometimes related
drug trafficking extending over a five- to ten-year
period, or even decades. Youth gangs are usually
better organized in such communities which are
often located in larger or older cities. These
contexts are likely to be found in impoverished,
ghetto, or transitional areas or ports of entry of
inner cities, although they are increasingly found
in smaller cities and suburban communities.

--Emerging Gang Problem Context

This organizational or community context is
characterized by less well organized and persistent
but at times serious forms of gang violence and
gang member drug trafficking. The gang problem has
usually been present and/or recognized for about
five years or less. To some extent, the development
and spread of the problem may be traced to the
influence of new settlers or gang crime
entrepreneurs--for example, drug traffickers--from
chronic problem cities or contexts. Youth gangs in
emerging problem areas tend to be fewer in number
and most often evolve out of local delinquent,
sometimes social groups under deteriorating
economic or social situations for minority,
newcomer, or socially isolated
populations.

The distinction between the concepts of chronic and
emerging gang problem communities, however, are not
sharp. Indicators related to the onset of the
problem, its duration, degree of gang
organization, severity of gang violence and related
gang member drug trafficking, as well as the
appropriate response to the problem(s) are not
neatly categorized by the terms "chronic" and
"emerging."

Emerging gang problem communities may develop into
chronic; and chronic gang problem communities may
go through periods of sharply diminished gang
activity before the problem reemerges. Different
parts of a community or jurisdiction may be
characterized by different stages or degrees of
severity of the problem at a given time.

5. Variability of Gang, Drug Trafficking, and Crime
Problems

For policy and program purposes, it is important to
understand that youth gangs involved in gang
violence are not necessarily involved in drug
trafficking. Some communities that have high levels
of youth gang violence may have relatively low
levels of drug trafficking; other communities with
high levels of drug trafficking may have low levels
of youth gang activity. Drug trafficking may
succeed, or serve either to diminish or increase,
patterns of youth gang violence.

Finally, high levels of general criminality in a
community do not necessarily indicate high levels
of gang activity. Some cities with the highest
levels of youth homicide and drug trafficking may
have relatively limited youth gang activity. 

6. Prevention

The focus of this and the other technical
assistance manuals in our Research and Development
program is on issues of intervention and
suppression in contexts where the gang problem is
clearly present. Here, prevention refers mainly to
secondary forms of prevention, or early
intervention, which reduces the likelihood that
highly gang-prone or the younger gang member will
commit or continue to commit gang crimes. This is
to be accomplished through effective controls,
direct treatment or services, and provision of
legitimate opportunities. In our conception,
prevention requires change and development both by
the individual youth as well as within his or her
social environment.

Most youth from low-income and social problem-
ridden communities are not involved in delinquent
gang activities. Finally, we note that a simple
prevention model that emphasizes exclusive concern
with younger youth may be unsuccessful. Such a
model does not take into consideration system
effects, including the influence of older youth on
"wannabe" or younger youth. All key components of
the systemic problem need to be addressed.

Approach to the Problem

The manuals specify five major lines of action or
strategies: community mobilization, opportunities
provision, suppression, social intervention, and
organizational change and development. These
strategies must be combined in different ways
depending on the problem context, the specific
mission of the organization, and the kind of youth
targeted for special attention.

1. Community Mobilization

Community mobilization is necessary in socially
disorganized communities. Social disorganization,
which contributes to the development of criminal
youth gangs, may be characterized by the weakness
of existing legitimate institutions such as home,
school, and employment; the failure to integrate
norms, values, and roles of different social
institutions; and the fragmentation of criminal
justice or community service delivery systems,
within and across communities.

Both local and Federal interests and resources must
be mobilized for the development of collaborative
community and interagency activities and a cohesive
community genuinely directed at the control and
reduction of the youth gang problem. In times of
restricted local community resources, coordinated
or agency consortium efforts are essential. These
should include the full and productive use of local
as well as State and Federal resources, moral and
political pressures as well as local citizen
participation and action. (See also General
Community Design and Community Mobilization
manuals.)

2. Opportunities Provision

The provision of additional social opportunities,
i.e., the development of a variety of targeted
educational, training, and employment programs, is
the second most important component over the long
term for the reduction and prevention of the youth
gang problem, particularly in chronic contexts. The
schools need to provide remedial and enriched
educational programs for gang-prone and hardcore
gang youths.

Education, training, and jobs are especially
critical for older gang youth still in gangs who
are not in school but who are at "positive risk" at
a certain point in their social maturation for
leaving the gangs, or for decreased participation
in criminal gang activity. A key objective of these
programs should be developing socially competent
youth, whether in or out of school. (See School and
Employment manuals.)

3. Social Intervention

Youth-serving agencies and grassroots community
groups must "reach out" and act as a link between
gang youth and the conventional world. Staff or
adult volunteers of these organizations must
develop meaningful relationships with these youth.
Community-based youth agencies should facilitate
access to pertinent opportunity systems and
exercise social controls that contribute to
socialization of gang youth. Special efforts are
also required to coordinate services for these
youth. (See Community-Based Youth Agency manual.)

4. Suppression

Social control procedures, particularly those of
criminal justice but also of community-based
agencies, are essential for community protection
and the prevention and reduction of the problem.
Youth gang suppression involves not only law
enforcement but a variety of other agencies and
community groups in the targeting, monitoring,
supervision, and if necessary, restraint of gang
offenders. It requires the anticipation,
prevention, and limitation of the effects of gang
crime in particular situations to protect both
youth participants and the community.

Arrest, prosecution, imprisonment, and close
supervision of gang youth are insufficient,
however, unless joined with other
community-oriented strategies to achieve long-term
impact on the problem. This means that community-
based agencies and local groups must accept and
collaborate with criminal justice agencies in
patrol, surveillance, and certain information-
sharing under conditions that protect both youth
and the community. Police, prosecution, and other
criminal justice agencies must develop a variety of
social intervention, opportunities, prevention, and
community involvement programs to supplement their
primary goal of suppressing gang crime. (See
especially Police, Prosecution, and Probation
manuals.)

Furthermore, policymakers, administrators, and
practitioners in the criminal justice system have a
special responsibility to withstand pressures from
the public and from other units of the justice
system to carry out an exclusive strategy of
suppression to deal with the youth gang problem.

5. Organizational Change and Development

Finally, the above strategies need to be
appropriately organized, based on the nature and
scope of the problem in the community and the
mission of the particular organization.
Organizational development and change require
better use and reallocation of available resources
with agencies and neighborhoods, but also across
communities. Common definitions, improved
communication, resident involvement, and
coordination within as well as across agencies and
contiguous communities dealing with the problem are
also required.

Both community mobilization and organizational
development strategies whether in emerging or
chronic gang problem contexts, should be closely
interrelated to create efficient and cohesive
system/community/regional arrangements for dealing
with the gang problem.

Targeting

To conserve resources and most effectively deal
with the youth gang problem, it is important to
target certain communities, organizational
contexts, gangs, and gang members or gang-prone
youth. Special emphasis on community mobilization
is required in both emerging and chronic gang
communities. Opportunity provision must also be
emphasized for chronic problem communities and
contexts. 

Neighborhoods and organizations, particularly
schools, experiencing serious gang problems, should
be priority targets for suppression and
intervention efforts.

Certain youth gangs or gang-like groups clearly
committed to violent and serious criminal activity
should receive priority attention. This is to avoid
unnecessary labelling and widening the net of gang
delinquency and crime through inappropriate
criminal justice and community-based agency
attention. It is also to concentrate resources on
the heart of the present problem.

Finally, individual youth should be targeted in the
following order of priority purposes:

--First, leadership and core gang youths--to
disrupt gang networks, protect the community, and
facilitate the reintegration of these youths
through community-based or institutional
programming into legitimate pursuits;

--Second, high-risk gang-prone youth who are often
younger or aspiring gang members who give clear
indication of beginning participation in criminal
gang activities--to prevent further criminal gang
involvement through early intervention, preferably
community-based services; and

--Third, regular and peripheral gang members--to
generally address their needs for control and
intervention services.

Finally, a caution! The policies, procedures, and
steps recommended in the manuals should be viewed
as promising but not yet systematically researched
through field testing.

Summary

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, U.S. Justice Department, entered into a
cooperative agreement with the School of Social
Service Administration, University of Chicago, to
conduct the National Youth Gang Suppression and
Intervention Program. The scope and seriousness of
the problem was analyzed from both an
organizational and community perspective. Models or
prototypes were developed. Technical Assistance
manuals were created which focussed on the
implementation of policies and procedures in
emerging and chronic gang problem communities and
contexts.

The manuals address the gang problem in terms of
critical characteristics of the youth gang, its
membership, and the way the problem is defined.
Focus is on controlling, reducing, and
preventing gang-motivated violent and serious
criminal youth gang activity. The mission of
suppression and intervention is specified as
requiring five key strategies: community
mobilization, opportunities provision, social
intervention, suppression, and organizational
change and development. Key targets of a program
should be leadership and core gang as well as high-
risk gang-prone youth.

I.S.
_________________________________________

"There has been an increase in the Youth Gang
problem and the need for information and guidance."

"This Technical Assistance manual is part of a four
stage Research and Development Process."

"Twelve manuals have been produced."

"The purpose is to present a set of guidelines to
reduce youth gang crime."

"Administrators and policymakers are the primary
audience."

"The gang problem has changed and grown more
serious in most regions of the country."

"Poverty and social disorganization are key
conditions contributing to the problem."

"Under different community conditions, different
types of gang problems appear to develop."

"There are variations in the gang problem by
race/ethnicity, class, and necomer status."

"Growing economic, social, and cultural pressure
can contribute to the development of gangs."

"Violence may be encouraged by the media."

"Key components of the problem are the youth gang,
youth gang member, and the gang incident."

"Gang-motivated violence and not drug trafficking
is the key but not exclusive concern of the
manual."

"The traditional youth gang turf is based and
status-oriented, but other kinds of gangs have also
developed."

"The focus of concern is the youth gang member 12
to 24 years of age."

"Fewer females than males are gang members."

"Attention needs to be directed to high risk female
gang members."

"Different types of gang members should be
carefully identified."

"Different definitions of the gang incident exist."

"The gang-motivated definition focuses on the
nature of the criminal act."

"The gang-related definition focuses on
identification of the criminal aspect as a gang
member."

"The narrow gang-motivated definition avoids
excessive labelling."

"The gang-related definition may be more useful to
criminal justice officials."

"Emerging and chronic gang problem contexts may
require different suppression and intervention
approaches."

"The gang problem has had a longer history and is
usually better organized and more severe in the
chronic context."

"The gang problem is recent, less well organized,
but sometimes very serious in the emerging
context."

"High levels of general crime and gang crime are
not necessarily closely associated."

"Secondary prevention is included in the manuals'
perspective."

"Different strategies of suppression and
intervention have been identified."

"Community mobilization is critically important."

"The opportunities provision strategy focuses on
the importance of education, training, and jobs for
high risk gang-prone and gang member youth."

"Social intervention is based on an "outreach" and
linkage approach of gang youth to the conventional
society."

"The strategy of suppression is defined in broad
social control terms and requires more than the
involvement of criminal justice agencies."

"Criminal justice strategies must also include
community mobilization, social intervention, and
opportunities provision."

"Organizational development and change focuses on
better use of internal agency resources to deal
with the youth gang problem."

"Targeting of certain communities, gangs, and gang
members is necessary to make the best use of
limited resources for dealing with the problem."

"High gang crime neighborhoods, certain types of
gangs, and gang members should receive priority
attention."

"Key targets of community agency and grassroots
attention should be leadership and core gang as
well as high-risk gang-prone youths."

_______________________________________

CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTION--SCHOOL MANUAL
_______________________________________

o What This Manual Will Do
o Problem Statement
o Approaches That Work
o Gang Control and Reduction Process
o Summary

What This Manual Will Do

The purpose of this manual is to describe how to
assess an individual school gang problem and plan
an intervention that will reduce it. This chapter
will focus on defining the problem, the factors
that contribute to successful intervention in a
school setting, and the effective control and
reduction process.

The next chapter will provide steps to help school
officials get started. These steps include a
discussion of the purpose and characteristics of an
assessment and more specifically how to find out if
a gang problem exists in the school and surrounding
community.

Subsequent chapters will go into specific detail
regarding how to meet goals and objectives directed
at the problem. The manual concludes with a
glossary and bibliography that may be helpful in
the implementation of strategies to reduce school
gang problems.

Problem Statement

Schools mainly in low-income, unstable, and
socially isolated communities with high rates of
school dropouts, weak family structure, crime, and
unemployment frequently have serious youth gang
problems. It is in this context of serious social
and economic problems that gang youth seek to
establish turf or some area of dominance and
security in the community or school.

Also, gang youth may intimidate school officials
and community residents as well as students.
Truancy rates are often high for both gang and non-
gang youth, since students are afraid and therefore
reluctant to travel through gang turf to get to
school and once there, find themselves threatened
as well.

The community gang problem most immediately spreads
from the streets to the schools. Students who are
gang members, particularly in the middle schools,
may be failing, which leads to destructive gang
attitudes and behaviors. The youths establish turf,
deface school property with graffiti, and exert
control through intimidation and assaults on other
students. Under these conditions, it is difficult,
if not impossible, to carry out the school mission
and educate all students.

Yet, school officials sometimes deny or minimize
the scope and seriousness of the problem because
admission of a serious problem may make them "look
bad" (Chicago Safe School Study 1981). School,
churches, and local community youth service
agencies often operate independently of each other
concerning the youth gang problem and seem unable
to establish coalitions to deal with it.

The school must be active in the surrounding
community and bear some responsibility for the
problem. In school, most gang members are bored,
feel inadequate in class, detach themselves from
school, and drop out as soon as possible. They
experience academic and social failure at an early
age and develop poor learning skills. Alone, the
school will have difficulty alleviating the
problem. The entire community will need to mobilize
to reduce gang violence and intimidation. 

In sum, the following factors contribute to and
delay appropriate action regarding the problem:

o The failure of families and schools to properly
socialize, educate, and meet the youth's
psychological and emotional needs.

o The inability of agencies, churches, and schools
to establish social control over gang youths.

o Denial of the scope and seriousness of the youth
gang problem.

o Lack of coordination and cooperation between
community agencies, churches, and schools.

Approaches That Work

Some schools successfully establish a positive
school climate and do a remarkable job despite
serious social problems in the surrounding
community. In these schools, truancy rates are low
and parents, administrators, and teachers invest in
school programs.

Factors that account for these differences include:

o School leadership (School Board, Superintendent,
District Administrators, or School Principal) that
recognizes the beginning of the problem and takes
steps to prevent or control it.

o Administrators, teachers, and staff who commit to
the school and have positive relationships with
students.

o Teachers who are competent and attentive to the
academic and social needs of all students.

o School leadership that creates fair and
consistent expectations for achievement by all
students.

o A discipline policy that ensures clear and
consistent treatment of all students.

o A strong parent organization invested and
involved in the school.

o A good working coalition between school
personnel, local churches, and community agencies
that ensures good interaction, cooperation, and
coordination.

o Schools that are neat, attractive, and kept free
of graffiti.

Effective Gang Control and Reduction Process

Dealing with the school's youth gang problem
requires a series of interrelated and complex steps
involving key people, groups, and organizations
inside and outside the school. The approach may
vary somewhat depending on the level and duration
of the problem and whether it occurs in an emerging
or chronic context. In sum, the reduction and
control of the youth gang problem require that
school and community build coalitions, learn how to
communicate, integrate their concerns, and take
collective responsibility for dealing with the
problem. In this process, the school must take
leadership in reaching out to the surrounding
community.

Effective control and reduction of the school gang
problem require a five-stage process (see appendix
C, table 1):

I.Problem Assessment

II.Defining Goals and Strategies

III.Defining Objectives

IV.Implementation

V.Evaluation

This manual will focus on the first three stages
and offer suggestions and guidelines that may be
helpful in assessing the school gang problem and in
planning an intervention.

Summary

The key points of this chapter are:

1. This manual discusses how to assess an
individual school gang problem and how to plan an
intervention.

2. Schools, mainly in low-income, unstable, and
socially isolated communities, with high rates of
school dropouts, weak family structure, crime, and
unemployment, frequently have serious youth gang
problems.

3. The community gang problem most immediately
spreads from the streets to the schools.

4. Under conditions of gang intimidation and
violence, it is difficult, if not impossible, to
carry out the school mission and educate all
students.

5. The school must be active in the surrounding
community and bear some responsibility for the
problem. On it own, however, the school will have
difficulty alleviating the problem. The entire
community will need to mobilize to reduce gang
violence and intimidation. 

6. Lack of social control, denial, and lack of
coordination between schools, churches, and
community agencies contribute to the problem and
delay appropriate action.

7. Schools that recognize the problem and take
steps to control it are effective if they have
committed and competent staff, high expectations
for students, fair and consistent discipline,
parental involvement, and a neat and graffiti-free
environment.

8. Effective control and reduction of the school
gang problem follows a process of assessment;
defining goals, strategies, and objectives;
implementation; and evaluation.

_________________________________________

"This manual will discuss how to implement a
special school program targeting gang youth."

"Schools with serious gang problems are usually
located in communities with many social problems."

"School officials sometimes deny or minimize the
scope and seriousness of the problem."

"The school must be active in the surrounding
community."

"Factors that contribute to and delay action
regarding the school gang problem."

"Some schools do a remarkable job despite serious
community problems."

"Clear and consistent discipline policy."

"The schools are neat, attractive, and kept free
from graffiti."

"Control of the gang problem requires school and
community take collective responsibility for
dealing with the problem."

"An objective assessment must be made of the school
and community gang problem."

__________________________________________

CHAPTER 3: ASSESSMENT
___________________________________________

o Purpose and Characteristics of an Assessment
o Establishing a School and Community Committee
o School-Level Assessment
o Community-Level Assessment
o Chronic Versus Emergent Problem
o Conclusion
o Summary

Purpose and Characteristics of Assessment

Someone in the school hierarchy--School Board,
Superintendent, District Administrator, or School
Principal--must first decide to do something about
the school gang problem. This usually occurs when
they can no longer deny or minimize the problem
following a crisis event, bad publicity, or the
expressed concern of principals, teachers, parents,
community groups, and agencies.

Following the initial recognition, often at the
individual school level, that a school gang problem
may exist, the scope and seriousness of the problem
must be systematically assessed to select suitable
intervention strategies and programs. The shape of
the assessment and intervention strategies used
will depend on whether the school is an elementary
school, middle school, or high school. The scope,
nature, and seriousness of the problem will vary to
a large extent dependent on the age of youth. The
assessment process will serve as a basis for
defining goals and objectives and for
decisionmaking regarding possible changes in
curriculum, discipline policies, personnel changes,
or changes in the community necessary to alleviate
the gang problem. A complete assessment must
entail:

An examination of the nature and scope of the
school gang problem.

o What are the past responses to the gang problem?

o Why does it exists in the school?

o What, if anything, can be done to reduce it? 

o Who are the school gang members?

o What youth are at high risk of gang involvement?

o What is the relationship, if any, between gang
involvement and academic performance. 

An objective assessment of school characteristics.

o School climate

o Disciplinary policy

o Attendance

o School safety

o School security

Definition of the community gang problem and the
interrelationship of the gang problem in the school
to that in the community.

o What is the general nature and scope of the
community gang problem?

There are three basic tasks involved in carrying
out an assessment:

--First, establish a School and Community
Committee.

--Second, gather information and making
recommendations.

--Third, define goals and objectives.

The first two steps are discussed in this chapter
and the final step, defining goals and objectives,
will be covered in subsequent chapters. Design of
prevention and intervention programs must be based
uniquely on the results of the assessment.

Establishing a School and Community Committee

The impetus to assess the problem can come from
anywhere in the school hierarchy and may take a
variety of forms. This can include: (1) The School
Board or Superintendent establishing a task force
composed of administrators, teachers, staff, and
outside experts; (2) The School District
Administrator establishing a district-wide
committee or School and Community Committee for a
particular school or schools; or (3) A school
Principal establishing a School and Community
Committee within the school. The specific method
chosen, of course, will depend on the focus of the
assessment (entire school district or system-wide
gang problem or local school gang problem), the
seriousness of the gang problem, and the source of
the mandate. This manual focuses, however, on the
assessment of an individual school gang problem.

From the individual school perspective, the
Principal will need to give careful consideration
to the composition of the School and Community
Committee. The Principal must try to involve all
segments of the community that will need
mobilization to reduce the school and community
gang problem. This committee or advisory group must
include school administrators, teachers, staff, and
parents. Also, the Principal will need to involve
representatives of the police, youth agencies, and
community groups, at least in a consultation
capacity. Individuals in decisionmaking roles
within the school or outside agencies must serve on
the School and Community Committee. This will
greatly facilitate the planning and organizational
changes necessary to address the school gang
problem.

In addition, the Principal will to need to arrange
for a thorough orientation on the mission of the
School and Community Committee. This committee must
also receive "gang-specific" training as outlined
in chapter 7. Invite outside experts from the
Police Department, academic settings, or from a
local community organization to provide a training
seminar on gangs.

The establishment of a School and Community
Committee is an opportunity for the Principal to:

o Begin to develop an internal school structure and
standing committee to address the school gang
problem.

o Mobilize agencies and actors to address the
problem and facilitate the school mission
(educating students).

o Begin to build relationships, if they do not
exist, with parents, community and law enforcement
agencies, and churches.

It is essential to involve all school personnel
(school security, counselors, teachers, social
workers, truant officers, custodial and lunchroom
staff, and secretaries) from the beginning of the
assessment because they possess valuable
information on student behavior, academic factors,
and possibly characteristics of gang activity
within and around the school. Their investment in
organizational and curriculum changes will be
central to successful intervention.

Ultimately, the Principal must resolve two other
factors before an assessment can begin: 

o How do you involve parents in the assessment and
implementation process? This may be difficult for a
school that does not have an active parent's group.

o How do you obtain the support from central office
or district administrators of the plan to assess
and reduce the gang problem?

It is crucial to obtain approval or support from
central administration for efforts to reduce the
school gang problem. The School and Community
Committee will need to come up with a clear
definition and outline of the problem. This careful
documentation of a school gang problem will enhance
the success of efforts to get central
administration support.

School-Level Assessment

Nature and Scope of the School Gang Problem

The School and Community Committee will need to
thoroughly understand the scope and seriousness of
the gang problem within and around the school.
Therefore, the committee must collect specific
information regarding:

--What precipitating events or conditions led to
the various incidents of gang activity that concern
school officials, parents, and the community (e.g.,
recent influx of students from other cities or
communities; youth banding together to feel secure
and protect themselves, etc.)? 

--Are students within or around the school engaged
in intimidation of other students and staff, drug
dealing, or violence?

--What were the past responses to the gang problem?

--What, if anything, can the school do to reduce
the school gang problem? 

--What students are in gangs and what are their
ages, gender, race and ethnicity, and family
structure?

--What youths are at high risk of gang involvement?

--What is the relationship, if any, between gang
involvement and academic performance?

In addition, the committee must collect information
concerning where the gangs hang out within and
outside the school, and gang characteristics such
as leadership, size, and scope and seriousness of
criminal behavior.

School Characteristics

A critical step is the assessment of school factors
that are crucial to management of the problem. This
must include assessing the school's capacity to
impose controls on gang member behavior and to
ensure the safety of other students, teachers, and
staff.

The school committee must answer the following
questions: 

--Does the school have policies and procedures,
formal or informal, for dealing with gang youth?

--Are troublesome gang youths placed in special
education programs or regularly suspended or
expelled?

--Are gang members transferred from one school to
another and encouraged to drop out?

In addition, the School and Community Committee
will need to assess and evaluate the school
climate, disciplinary system, attendance, personal
safety issues, and school security. The National
School Safety Center, Pepperdine University,
publishes an excellent resource for evaluating the
above factors entitled "The School Safety Check
Book" (August 1990).

--School Climate

Surveying teachers, custodians, bus drivers, lunch
room and office personnel, students, and school
security staff will begin to give the School and
Community Committee an overview of the school
climate. School climate can be defined as "the
general tone or prevailing attitude within the
school" (School Safety Check Book, 1990). The idea
is to get some general sense of the morale of
teachers and the feelings of teachers, students,
and personnel about the school. For example:

--Did data collection uncover a pattern of fear and
anxiety of gang activity throughout the school?

--Are students afraid to attend extra-curricular
activities for fear of gangs?

--Is graffiti present throughout the school or on
the outside walls of the school?

--What is the nature of the relationships between
administration, staff, students, and teachers as
well as parents and representatives of outside
agencies?

--Have poor morale, anxiety, and fear of gangs
directly or indirectly contributed to the school's
inability to prevent or control the gang problem? 

--Have poor morale, anxiety, and fear of gangs
directly or indirectly contributed to the school's
inability to carry out the school mission of
educating all students?

--Do students look forward to attending school or
do they seem to be afraid because of gang
intimidation, extortion, or assaults?

Disciplinary System

Equitable and competent discipline is a necessity
if a school is to have a safe learning environment.
The School and Community Committee must answer the
questions:

--Does the school have effective discipline
policies for identifying youths who exhibit gang-
related disruptive behavior?

--Do administrators, staff, and teachers properly
implement the policies?

--Does implementation of disciplinary policies
result in successful reduction of this behavior?

--Are large numbers of students dropping out or
being expelled from school? 

--Does discipline involve the parents in
decisionmaking and follow-up?

To be effective all students, teachers, and parents
must be aware of school rules and discipline
procedures. If gang violence, intimidation, or
graffiti is escalating within the school, this may
indicate the need to review and strengthen
discipline policies and procedures.

Attendance

The School and Community Committee must analyze
official attendance and dropout data for underlying
patterns and causes. There is some evidence that,
when gangs are active in schools, they pose a
serious obstacle to the fundamental goal of
schools--education of all students (Chicago Safe
School Study 1981). In victimization studies, boys
report intimidation and attack from gang youth
twice as often as girls. Also, the younger the
student the more likely they are to express fear of
gangs in school (Chicago Safe School Study 1981).
Many students may fear attending school because of
gang intimidation. It may be useful to select some
chronic truancy cases for further study to begin to
assess if fear of gangs is a major factor in the
schools attendance problem.

School Safety and School Security

The School and Community Committee will need to
evaluate school security, particularly if the
school climate is one of fear and anxiety of gang
activity. The committee will need to determine if
there are flaws in the school security arrangement
and problem areas of the school building, if any
exist. (School Safety Check Book 1990).

School security and custodial staff will be aware
of patterns of vandalism and intimidation. In
addition, official reporting systems of vandalism,
theft, assaults, and extortion can serve as a basis
for determining patterns and problems. Accurate
reporting of school crime is essential to creating
a safe learning environment (School Safety Check
Book 1990). The committee will want to know:

--If gang and drug control safety zones will need
to be established outside of the school.

--If special liaison arrangements are needed
between school security and the local police
department.

School security will be discussed in more detail
later in the manual.

Sources of Data

School-level sources used by the School and
Community Committee to collect data on the scope
and seriousness of the school gang problem and
school characteristics include:

o School Security/Disciplinary Office
o Teacher and staff observations
o Parents
o Students
o Pupil Personnel Services
o School records
o Site visits to school programs targeting gang
youth

School Security and Disciplinary Office

School security personnel or the Assistant
Principal who may function as the school
disciplinarian are likely to have
information about the gang problem within and
around the school. Also, the Disciplinarian or
Assistant Principal is usually in charge of the
disciplinary room and is likely to know the youths
who frequently break school rules. Ideally, one
Assistant Principal is responsible for overall
building security and security staff. Usually,
school security or school administrators receive
reports of serious incidents of fighting, theft,
extortion, or assaults. The School and Community
Committee must analyze this data to detect patterns
of "reported" incidents of victimization and the
time, place, and circumstances of rule violations.
The school will need to develop a system for
reporting serious incidents, if one does not exist.

It is important that the School and Community
Committee look at the quality of the data collected
and spend some time answering the following
questions:

--Are the reporting procedures adequate?

--If not, how can the school improve the
procedures? 

--Are there accounts of victimization from other
sources (teachers, staff, parents) that are not
reflected in the official data?

School safety and security are probably the first
thing to address to begin to alleviate gangs within
and around the school and to ensure a safe learning
environment for all students. Therefore, chapter 7
discusses safety and security in more detail.

Teachers and Other Personnel Observations

Teachers, hall and playground monitors, lunch room
staff, custodian staff, bus drivers, and office
personnel are in a unique position to have first-
hand information about the characteristics of gang
activity within and around the school.
Occasionally, students may report incidents of
theft, extortion, intimidation, or assault to
teachers or support staff. Teachers must report
this information to school security or the Dean of
Students. Teachers also may know about gangs and
gang members who are active in the school,
especially those acting up in class or certain gang
members who seek them out for advice and support.
However, teachers and staff must receive some
guidance and a brief orientation regarding what
constitutes a "school gang problem" and the
difference between gang behavior and non-gang
delinquency to avoid exaggeration or
unnecessary concern.

School bus drivers may know of incidents of
intimidation that occur on the way to school.
Custodians know about vandalism of the school
building including graffiti, breaking windows, and
destroying school property. All school personnel
have some information to contribute. It is the task
of the School and Committee to aggressively seek
out this information. The School and Community
Committee will need to develop a way to gather this
information. There are two ways to do this:

o Have teachers or representatives of the School
and Community Committee interview teachers and all
other school personnel to obtain their views
regarding gang activity and related student
academic performance problems and disruptive
behavior. These discussions must focus on specific
examples of gang presence (gang signs and symbols)
in the school.

o Develop a brief questionnaire to distribute to
teachers and all other school personnel asking for
their perceptions regarding gang activity. This
questionnaire must be in the form of a simple,
concrete checklist that asks for factual
information only. This checklist can be placed in
their mailboxes to make it quick and easy for
teachers to complete.

Examples of questions may include:

--Have they noticed graffiti, students wearing
colors, or "representing;" fights between opposing
groups; students writing gang signs on books; or
gang-related drug use or dealing?

--Have students reported incidents of theft,
extortion, or intimidation by gang youth that may
be gang-motivated?

--Do students report pressure from gang members
regarding joining gangs?

--Is most gang intimidation or violence by students
who attend the school or individuals who do not?

Parents

An element of successful intervention into a school
gang problem is a strong parent organization
invested in the school. If a parent organization
exists, the Principal must ask a representative to
serve on the School and Community Committee. This
representative can ask parents at meetings for
their perceptions regarding gang activity and if
their children report gang activity, anxiety, fear,
or intimidation. Parents are a good source for
information regarding events within the community;
e.g., intimidation that occurs while students
travel to and from school. Sometimes, parents who
have children active in gangs will deny knowledge
of their involvement. Many of these parents are not
involved in school affairs and need to be. Most
parents on PTA's or Parent's Councils will want to
protect the good or non-gang kids and prefer to get
rid of the gang members.

Usually, schools that have a serious gang problem
will have a weak parent organization. This will
make data collection difficult. The Principal can
use this opportunity to begin to involve parents,
to make them aware of the school gang problem and
their obligation to deal with it. He or she may
need to provide some special support and guidance
to weak parent organizations about the gang
problem.

One approach is for support staff (Pupil Personnel
Services or Truant Officers, etc.) or
representatives of the parents organization to sit
and talk with parents during home visits regarding
their perceptions of the school and community gang
problem.

In elementary school, a possible approach is to
send a simple questionnaire home with each child
asking for perceptions of the school or community
gang problem. Once a questionnaire or checklist is
complete it may be wise to field test it with
parents who have contact with the school. Their
comments will be helpful in revising the
questionnaire to ensure that it collects the needed
data.

Students

Some schools and school systems have used
victimization studies as a tool to obtain the
perceptions of students of victimization within and
around the school. The School and Community
Committee or an outside consultant can survey
students regarding their perceptions of gang
activity. Yet, consider the following factors:

--Students are sometimes hesitant to complete
questionnaires due to fear of retaliation. Such
surveys usually must be anonymous.

--The younger the child (in elementary school), the
greater the fear and anxiety may be. The gang
problem, however, may become more severe as
children get older.

--Survey sample--It may be possible to select a
stratified and representative sample of classrooms
to survey. If done properly, this survey will
reflect attitudes or perceptions of students on an
age and gender basis in the entire school. This has
a side benefit. Gang youth will begin to get the
message that the school is interested in the gang
problem and plans to do something about it.

--The classroom teacher generally should not
administer the questionnaire in order to obtain the
most objective answers.

--However, the teacher must spend some time talking
about the topic of gangs following the filling out
of a questionnaire.

Pupil Personnel Services

Data on the social needs of gang youth must be
available from school records kept by Pupil
Personnel Services. Pupil Personnel Services might
include social workers, psychologists, counselors,
psychiatrists, and special program personnel. Gang
youths and members of their families are often
known to school staff dealing with social,
psychological, or physical problems of students.
Specific gang-related information such as gang
membership and gang incidents may be on file. Also,
they may possess unrecorded information on gang
activity of the students that they can share. Due
to confidentiality concerns, the focus must be on
aggregate or overall statistical data and not on
specific information on individuals. Social service
and adjustment data may also be available through
community agencies and community organizations.

School Records

The school usually has some system for monitoring
student misbehavior in and around the school such
as a classification or code of school behaviors
requiring school discipline that includes a range
of offenses unique to the school setting. Some
large school systems make distinctions between gang
and non-gang crime cases. Standard reporting
procedures must be developed (Duke 1980). This data
base can be very useful in assessing patterns of
intimidation, students who are frequently involved
in disruptive and inappropriate behavior, and
patterns of rule breaking within the school,
possibly including gang-related incidents. However,
it is important to remember as student cohorts
change, the dynamics of gang-related incidents can
also increase or decrease.

There is some evidence that "problems with school
work sometimes lead to behavior problems."
Therefore information on study habits, academic
progress, and classroom attitudes may be useful in
helping to identify patterns of disruptive behavior
within the school (Duke, 1980). Even so, the School
and Community Committee must be careful not to
assume that youths who are doing poorly in class
work or who are repeatedly involved in disruptive
incidents within and around the school are
automatically in gangs or involved in gang-related
delinquent activity. Make every effort not to
unfairly "label" a student as at high risk of gang
involvement or in a gang without sufficient
evidence. Findings from a review of school
documentation on patterns of disruptive behavior
need to be corroborated with other evidence that
identifies particular youth as gang members; for
example:

--use of gang signs
--special clothing
--self-admission
--association with known gang members
--gang members in the family
--school failure
--drug use
--actual participation in gang conflict
--identification by criminal justice agencies

Site Visits to Other Schools

If resources are available, site visits to one or
more schools or school systems that have dealt
successfully, reputedly, with gang problems. Such
visits can provide valuable information regarding
desirable changes in curriculum or organizational
structure and may indicate what works and does not
work to reduce the gang problem. This may save
months of effort during later planning and program
implementation. 

Community-Level Assessment

School administration must understand the
connection between the gang problem in the school
and that in the neighborhood. The School and
Community Committee will need to know the scope and
seriousness of the community gang problem, the
community institutions that can be mobilized to
alleviate the school gang problem, and the
interrelationship of the school and community
problem. The outcome of the community assessment
will have implications for how the school
structures its organizational response. Therefore,
they will need answers to the following questions,
for example:

--Does the community have a serious gang problem?

--Does the community have a chronic or emerging
gang problem?

--Are the gangs in the community involved in
serious rivalry, drug dealing, or serious gang
violence?

--How specifically does the community gang
situation affect gang problems in the school?

--Are gang members from the community involved in
incidents around or in the school?

Sources of Data

Sources used by the School and Community Committee
to collect data on the community gang problem and
the interrelationship of the school and community
gang problem include:

o Criminal and Juvenile Justice

o New data, such as interviews with present or
former gang members or surveys of community or
grassroots agencies

o Social service agency data

o Criminal, Juvenile Justice, especially Law
Enforcement

Criminal justice agencies, particularly police
departments, but also probation and the
prosecutor's office sometimes have gang crime
units, youth divisions, or staff designated to
handle gang crimes. Some police and probation
departments designate special officers to work in
the school and especially address gang
problems. Therefore, these agencies have data
regarding gangs in the community. Available data
may include:

--number of gangs in the community;

--their relation to gangs in the school and
community;

--type and number of gang-related incidents;

--age of gang members;

--identity of gang leaders;

--number of gang members;

--rivalry between gangs;

--a hypothesis regarding the precipitating causes
of the gang problems and gang violence in the
community and school;

--number of times and why the police or probation
were contacted by the school regarding incidents
involving gang youth.

Some police departments have special systems to
distinguish gang and non-gang crime which occur in
and around the school. This data should be
available on a school or system basis and must be
used so that the names of youths who are suspects,
offenders, or victims are not divulged.

Social Service Data

Staff or representatives of these organizations not
only can supply information about current gang
problems in the community but are basic social
resources who can aid in developing school or
school-and community-based programs for gang youth.
It is important, therefore, to develop a
comprehensive directory of the services and
opportunities that can be useful in planning an
approach for resolving the school gang problem. The
school gang problem is almost invariably connected
to community circumstances.

These agencies include community-based youth
service agencies, both public and private;
grassroots agencies; and church programs that
sometimes target gang members or youth at high risk
of gang involvement. These agencies or community
groups sometime work with parents who are concerned
about the gang problem or actively engaged in
various activities to reduce the community gang
problem.

The quality of this information may vary depending
on the methods used to collect the data. Yet, the
following information may be obtained:

--characteristics of the gang problem;

--types of services they provide to gang members;

--and the needs of gang members that are not being
addressed.

Gathering New Data

The Principal can obtain some additional
information about gangs and the gang problem by
interviewing gang youths who are past or present
students of the school. They may provide
information regarding:

--perceptions of the scope and seriousness of the
gang problem;

--what to do about gang crises, especially gang
conflict;

--ideas regarding causes of the school gang
problem;

--how to generally make a school setting more
responsive to the unique needs of gang members.

Information from key neighborhood informants
(parents, local ministers, store owners, grassroots
organizations, etc.) will also provide important
opinions and beliefs regarding scope,
seriousness, and causes of the gang problem. This
will, in addition, begin to develop a resource base
of persons and organizations who can be useful in
assisting with special school activities or school
community events on behalf of gang youths or the
school gang problem. Collect this information
through face-to-face interviews or with a simple
survey instrument.

--First, assemble a list of key types of informants
from which to collect data.

--Second, develop a list of names and addresses.

--Third, prepare an interview guide (i.e., list of
questions to ask) or a brief questionnaire.

--Next, mail questionnaires, deliver them directly
to homes, businesses, and offices, or through bulk
distribution (i.e., distributing large numbers of
questionnaires in key places in the entire
community).

Holding public hearings is another way both to
gather information on the gang problem and raise
public awareness and concern about it.

Chronic Versus Emergent Problem

It is important to determine whether the local
school gang problem is emergent or chronic. The
Principal and the School and Community Committee
must know:

--If the problem is just starting and involves only
a few youths.

--If gangs have recently been introduced by new
transfers into the school.

--If only a few problem youths have gotten together
and decided to wear gang colors and declare
themselves to be gang members.

When the problem is emerging, the school must move
quickly to reduce or eliminate the problem before
it becomes persistent and chronic. The problem is
chronic when gang violence and gang-related crime
are serious and sustained over a long period. In a
context that is clearly chronic, the school or
community institutions may already know a good deal
about the dynamics of the school gang problem. The
school can expedite the assessment process by using
existing knowledge and data.

At the elementary school level, it is less likely
that a serious gang problem will be sustained over
a long period, although if the community gang
problem is chronic, older gang youth may be
involving younger youth at or from school in the
distribution and selling of drugs. Juveniles will
receive lesser criminal punishment than older
youths and young adults. The gang or drug problems
in the elementary school could develop rapidly.
Middle schools and high schools ordinarily provide
settings for more serious gang problems because
youths are older and more readily become committed
gang members. These schools are likely to draw
students from a wider area. Consequently, the
representation of different gangs in the school
population may increase the probability of gang
conflict.

The interaction of a school and community gang
problem can sometimes be complex. For example,
although a community may have a serious gang
problem, the school has managed to keep the gang
problem out of the school. The reverse is also
possible; gang problems may be evident in schools
but not in the community because of the need of
some youths to band together for security or for
other reasons. However, the more common pattern
probably will be a gang problem that affects both
the school and community.

The primary source of the problem is more often the
community. Therefore, it is important to determine
if the local community gang problem is emergent or
chronic. That is:

--How serious and how long has there been a gang
problem in the community?

--How well organized are the gangs?

--How deeply ingrained is the gang system? 

The School and Community Committee will need to
determine the history of the gang problem in the
community in terms of how violent, criminal, and
intractable the problem has been. This decision
will later serve as a basis for planning and
program implementation.

As indicated in chapter 1, an emerging gang problem
increasingly occurs in suburban communities and in
smaller cities. Usually, gangs have been a problem
for less than 5 years and involve fewer, usually
younger youth. In an emerging context, there are
not as many gangs and existing gangs are not as
organized or as consistently involved in serious
crime and violence. Gang-related drug trafficking
has only just begun at the street level. In this
context, usually more community resources are
available; families and institutions are more
cohesive.

In contrast, in a chronic context, the gang problem
is longstanding (more than 10 years), intractable,
complex, and severe. There are many gangs, gang
members, and a high level of organization. A
defining characteristic is a high number of gang-
related incidents of serious crime and gang
violence, particularly gang homicides. Drug
trafficking by senior gang and ex-gang members is
an established practice.

The data collection process will result in many
opinions and information about gangs. It is
important, however, to obtain objective, verifiable
information. Thoroughly research anecdotal
accounts, opinions, and beliefs for reliability and
validity.

Conclusion

It is important to develop a consensus on the
nature and scope of the problem. Such consensus
will contribute to the effectiveness of program
planning and implementation. Conflicting views
regarding the existence of the problem can signal
that appropriate strategies will not be selected or
adequately implemented. With the help of police and
school system authorities, the School and Community
Committees will need to establish clear and
commonly acceptable criteria for operational
definition of the terms: "youth gang", "gang
member", and "gang incident." Excessive labeling of
youth as gang members must be avoided.

Definition of the problem usually brings with it an
explanation of the causes of gang presence and
disruptions in and around the school. These
explanations are key to selecting implementation
strategies to reduce the gang problem. In an
elementary school setting, we recommend a
prevention approach with curricula influencing
youth to stay out of gangs, and a suppression
approach in the community targeting older youth who
use elementary school youth to distribute and sell
drugs.

In middle school and high school, the assessment
may indicate the need to strengthen school security
and cooperative arrangements with the police for
swift identification and prosecution.
Improvement of disciplinary policies and
procedures, the development of more positive school
arrangements that emphasize closer relationships
between students and teachers, and vocational
training and job placement, particularly for non-
academically inclined gang-prone youth may also be
required. Interventions should be based solely on
the results of the assessment.

Summary

This manual focuses on the assessment of an
individual school gang problem. The key points of
this chapter are:

1. A complete assessment must include the
assessment of the school and community gang
problem, school characteristics, and the
interrelationship of the school and community gang
problem.

2. There are three steps to carrying out an
assessment: (1) establishing a School and Community
Committee, (2) gathering information and making
recommendations, and (3) defining goals and
objectives.

3. It is crucial to obtain approval and support
from central administration for efforts to reduce
the school gang problem.

4. The Principal must try to involve all segments
of the community that will need mobilization to
reduce the school and community gang problem.

5. It is essential to involve all school personnel
(school security, counselors, teachers, custodial
and lunchroom staff, and secretaries) from the
beginning of the assessment because they possess
valuable information on student behavior, academic
factors, and possibly characteristics of gang
activity within and around the school.

6. The School and Community Committee will need to
thoroughly understand the scope and seriousness of
the gang problem within and around the school.

7. The School and Community Committee will need to
know the scope and seriousness of the community
gang problem, the community institutions that can
be mobilized to alleviate the school gang problem,
and the interrelationship of the school and
community problem.

8. It is important to determine whether the local
school gang problem and community gang problem are
emergent or chronic.

9. It is important to develop a consensus on the
nature and scope of the problem. Such consensus
will contribute to the effectiveness of program
planning and implementation.

_____________________________________

"Must systematically assess the scope and
seriousness of the problem."

"Answers must be obtained for many questions."

"Establish a School and Community Committee, such
as a task force or committee."

"This manual focuses on the assessment of an
individual school gang problem."

"A school committee must be appointed by the
Principal to gather information about the problem."

"Individuals in decisionmaking roles must be
included on the School and Community Committee."

"Will need to mobilize agencies and actors to
address the school gang problem and facilitate the
school mission."

"Will need to involve parents in the assessment
process."

"Must assess the relationship between gang
involvement and academic performance."

"Need to identify services or aspects of the
curriculum that could be extended to target gang
youth."

"Some students will be afraid of retaliation."

"Will need to assess school climate, discipline,
attendance, personal safety issues, and school
security."

"School climate can be defined as the general tone
or prevailing attitude within the school."

"Are students and staff anxious and afraid of
gangs?"

"Have poor morale, anxiety, and fear of gangs
contributed to the school's inability to carry out
the school mission of educating students?"

"Are disciplinary interventions successful in
reducing gang-related behavior?"

"Student fear and anxiety of gangs may show up in
truancy and dropout rates."

"Will need to determine flaws, if any, in school
security arrangements and problem areas of the
school building."

"Sources of data include teachers, students and
school records."

"School records can be analyzed to uncover patterns
of gang activity."

"School safety and security are probably the first
thing to address to alleviate gangs within and
around the school."

"Teachers have first-hand information about
patterns of disruptive behavior and intimidation."

"Custodians know about vandalism of the school
building, including graffiti, breaking windows, and
destroying school property."

"Must involve teachers and all other school
personnel in the assessment process."

"Do students write graffiti and gang symbols on
school books?"

"Usually, schools that have a serious gang problem
will have a weak parent organization."

"Most parents on PTA's or Parent Councils will want
to protect the non-gang kids and get rid of the
gang members."

"An effort must be made to assess students'
perceptions of gang activity."

"Surveys must be anonymous."

"Data on the social needs of gang youth must be
available."

"Standard reporting procedures, if not in place,
will need to be developed."

"Must be careful not to assume that youth
repeatedly involved in disruptive incidents are
automatically in gangs."

"Visiting other gang school programs can save
months of planning."

"Must also assess the gang problem in the
surrounding community."

"Sources of data include former gang members,
community agencies, and law enforcement agencies."

"Police and probation sometimes have gang crime
units, youth divisions, or staff designated to
handle gang crimes."

"The quality of social service data may vary
depending on collection methods."

"Public hearing can help bring attention and make
the public aware of the problem."

"Holding public hearings is a way to collect
information and raise public awareness."

"Whether the school has an emergent or chronic gang
problem will determine goals and objectives."

"The elementary school may notice a gang or drug
problem that develops rapidly."

"Whether the community has an emergent or chronic
gang problem needs to be determined."

"In a chronic context, drug trafficking by gang and
ex-gang members is often an established practice."

"It is important to develop a consensus on the
nature and scope of the problem."

"Excessive labeling of youth as gang members
without adequate criteria must be avoided."

_________________________________________

CHAPTER 4: GOALS AND STRATEGIES
_________________________________________

o Goals and Approach
o Strategies
o Summary

A set of recommendations and goals for intervention
within the school or school district must emerge
from the assessment process. The School and
Community Committee must now know:

o the scope and seriousness of the gang problem;

o patterns of intimidation, fighting, and
disruptive behavior within and around the school;

o the educational and social needs of gang and
gang-prone youths;

o the immediate factors that precipitated the gang
problem;

o the long-range school factors that contribute to
the problem (poor school security or unclear and
inconsistent discipline);

o important community causal factors;

o whether the problem is emergent or chronic in the
school and community.

Goals and Approach

While there are limits to what the schools can do
regarding basic family and community factors, there
is much that schools, in cooperation with community
agencies and groups, can accomplish. Yet, the
school alone will have difficulty alleviating the
problem. The entire community will need to mobilize
to reduce gang violence and intimidation. The
school will need to contribute to a
communitywide plan to address the gang problem. The
school must focus on the mission of educating all
students. The school will need to create a safe,
secure environment where learning can take place.
To accomplish this, the school can provide strong
support and control of gang youths, a flexible and
meaningful curriculum, positive role models, and
meaningful relationships with adults. They also
need access to opportunities for achievement at
school, in work, and in the community. Schools can
provide important opportunities for youth
development and control of gang youth activity.
This approach proposes that primary academic
competence objectives cannot be achieved unless
social objectives are given attention. That is, it
is difficult, if not impossible, to educate all
students in an unsafe environment. Schools can and
must control their environment and significantly
influence the academic and social development of
gang youths and those at high risk, for 5 to 6
hours a day, 5 days per week for much of the year.

Strategies

Build the school antigang approach around five
strategies:

The key strategy is the provision of social
opportunities.

o Gang youth and high-risk youth must be targeted
for remedial and enrichment academic arrangements,
alternative education programs that include
vocational training, and job placement.

Also, important are:

Social Support

o Faculty should show respect for gang youth,
formal counseling of individuals and families, and
development of positive helping relationships by
teachers and administrators with gang youths.

Suppression

o The school needs to impose effective formal
controls and to enlist the assistance of outside
agencies (law enforcement), school security,
teachers, and parents in the supervision of gang
youth.

o The school needs to ensure the safety of both
gang and non-gang youth in and around the school.

Community Mobilization

o The school needs to become involved in the
community and work with outside agencies including
police, youth agencies, grassroots groups, parents,
and others to deal with the school-related gang
problem.

o Since the gang problem most often arises and is
sustained through community institutions including
family, church, employment, and education, these
institutions must be strengthened and better
related to each other.

o A collaborative approach is required in which the
school plays a key role; especially for younger
youth.

Organizational Development and Change

o Leadership for school changes must come from and
be sustained by the School Principal.

o The school may need to change its structure and
curriculum to facilitate the above strategies,
including the introduction of antidrug/gang
curricula (elementary school) or the expansion of
alternative education programs (middle and high
school). Different mechanisms may be required for
decisionmaking about curricula and gang youth
problems, training for teachers and staff, and
mechanisms to integrating community and school
efforts.

In an emerging gang problem context, the school
must take a leading role as part of a working
coalition with community agencies and the police to
reduce both the community and school gang problem.

In a chronic problem community, the problem may be
of such broad scope and severity that central
responsibility may lie with a coalition of criminal
justice agencies, youth agencies, churches,
representatives from city government, local
business, citizen groups, and school
representatives. The schools have an important role
but perhaps not a central responsibility,
especially with older gang youth who are no longer
at school.

Summary

The key points of this chapter are:

1. While there are limits to what the schools can
do regarding basic family and community factors,
there is much that schools, in cooperation with
community agencies and groups, can accomplish.

2. Primary academic competence objectives cannot be
achieved unless social objectives are given
attention. That is, it is difficult, if not
impossible, to educate all students in an unsafe
environment.

3. Build the school antigang approach around five
strategies:

o Social Opportunities
o Social Support
o Suppression
o Community Mobilization
o Organizational Development and Change

4. In an emerging gang problem context, the school
must take a leading role as part of a working
coalition with community agencies and the police to
reduce both the community and school gang problem.

5. In a chronic problem community, the problem may
be of such broad scope and severity that central
responsibility may lie with a coalition of criminal
justice agencies, youth agencies, churches,
representatives from city government, local
business, citizen groups, and school
representatives.

_________________________________________

"The School and Community Committee now knows the
scope and seriousness of the problem."

"There is much that schools, in cooperation with
community agencies and groups, can accomplish."

"Schools can provide opportunities for youth
development and control of gang youth."

"In a chronic context, may need a broad-based
coalition involving all agencies and actors."

__________________________________________

CHAPTER 5: OBJECTIVES
__________________________________________

This approach proposes that primary academic
competence objectives cannot be achieved unless
social objectives are given attention. It is
difficult, if not impossible, to educate all
students in an unsafe environment.

Objectives of a special school program must be:

--Creation of a structure for flexible curriculum
and ensuring a safe school environment.

--Application of consistent sanctions and means to
protect school population and surrounding community
from gang depredations.

--Development of an opportunities provision,
learning support system.

--Appropriate training, staff selection, data
retrieval systems, and evaluation to determine
program effectiveness.

--Early intervention to prevent and deter gang
involvement.

--Provision of vocational education, job
preparation, and employment experiences.

--Parental involvement.

--Liaison, coordination, and outreach to community
agencies and programs.

___________________________________________

"Primary academic competence objectives cannot be
achieved unless social objectives are given
attention."
_________________________________________

CHAPTER 6: IMPLEMENTATION--CREATION OF A STRUCTURE
FOR FLEXIBLE CURRICULUM AND A SAFE SCHOOL
ENVIRONMENT

o School Administrative Leadership
o Internal Organizational Structure
o Summary

School Administrative Leadership

The school Principal must accept the challenge of
easing change within the school and ensuring a safe
and caring social climate for education. 

The principal must:

o be aware of the need for change (Berkhard and
Harris 1977).

o have a good diagnosis of the set of conditions
causing the need for change (Berkhard and Harris
1977).

o have a clear and explicit description of the
desired state of affairs after the change (Berkhard
and Harris 1977).

o have a clear and accurate picture of present
dynamics (Berkhard and Harris 1977).

o begin by showing personal sensitivity in support
of individual gang member and high-risk youth.

o acquire knowledge of gangs and gang activity
within and around the school.

o be actively involved with the School and
Community Committee throughout the assessment
process. 

o maintain follow-up communication with outside
agencies; particularly the police department. This
is a quick way for the Principal to become educated
about the gang problem.

o overcome resistance and barriers to change within
and outside the school.

In addition, the Principal must communicate the
need for change and the desired "end state" to all
school personnel. The following suggestions will
enhance the Principal's effectiveness at
organizational change and development targeting
gang youth.

The Principal must clearly articulate goals and
objectives to personnel targeting gang youth and
the specific programs and means for intervention
with respect to:

--Developing an internal organizational structure
for creating a flexible curriculum and a safe
school environment.

--Creating an early intervention program to prevent
and deter gang involvement and drug abuse in the
elementary school; and a flexible program structure
to include remedial education, enriched programs,
alternative education, vocational training, and job
placement in the middle school or high school.

--Developing and communicating expectations of
schoolwide social support of high-risk and gang
youth to all teachers and staff.

--Developing criteria for identifying youth to
receive special attention; e.g., a small number of
youth will be defined as troublesome gang members
in most schools and a larger group will be defined
as high-risk based on indicators reviewed in
chapter 10.

--Developing a plan for monitoring the
implementation of changes and providing needed
training for teachers and staff.

--Creating rewards for teachers and staff;
effective change happens when staff "buy" into the
process and believe in what is being done (Anti-
Drug/Gang Violence 1990).

To maintain educational integrity, the school will
need to provide not only support to high-risk and
gang youths, but reward students throughout the
school who do well academically and are not
involved in disruptive behavior or gangs. Also, the
school will need to impose strong, fair controls on
disruptive behavior that ensures the safety of all
students.

Internal Organizational Structure

The Principal will need to develop an internal
organizational structure for enhancing parental
involvement and for creating a flexible curriculum
and a safe school environment. This is a way to
ensure that teachers, staff, and administrators
work together as equal partners to alleviate the
school gang problem. A standing school committee
and a case management team will accomplish the
above goals (see appendix C, table 2). The standing
committee is responsible for monitoring the school
gang problem, disciplinary policies, and school
security. The case management team works directly
with high-risk and gang youth and is responsible
for parental involvement and flexible curriculum
development. Involve faculty and staff from the
School and Community Committee on the standing
committee.

School Climate Committee

This committee, composed of teachers, staff, and
administrators, should meet on a regular basis to
identify and solve problems related to school
safety and reduction of the school gang problem.
The overall mission of the committee is to reduce
the gang problem in the school and develop a
positive, safe, rewarding, and satisfying
atmosphere for all students and staff. An Assistant
Principal responsible for school security should
chair the committee. It is responsible for:

--Monitoring the school gang problem, disciplinary
policies, and school security. 

--The development of criteria for identifying youth
to receive special attention. 

--The implementation and monitoring of a case
management team that works directly with high-risk
and gang youth. This committee functions as their
problem-solving and advisory board.

--The development and implementation of a flexible
curriculum. 

Case Management Team 

Successful intervention will require staff
designated and trained to work with gang and high-
risk youth. A useful approach is the development of
a case management team of teachers and staff who
work with high-risk (elementary school) or gang and
high-risk youth (middle and high school) over time.
This will facilitate an integrated pattern of
academic education, social support, and social
control. There is evidence that strongly suggests
the academic and social competence of gang and
high-risk youths are dependent on their ability to
form warm, "real" relationships with school staff.
This case management team can establish
relationships with the youths and encourage both
academic and conforming
behavior.

The School Climate Committee, in consultation with
the Principal, will need to designate a leader for
the case management team; perhaps a counselor or
Assistant Principal with a commitment and
experience working with gang youth. He or she must
be able to establish warm, accepting, but clear
rule-setting relationships with gang youths.

Over time, the leader and case management team must
become a resource for teachers, staff, and security
on gang-related problems within the school. They
can establish good relationships with high-risk and
gang youth and gain knowledge regarding gang
activity within the school and community. In
addition, the case management team is responsible
for enhancing the parental involvement of high-risk
and gang member parents.

This sensitive and skilled team will be useful in
conflict or tense situations. Avoid giving the case
management team special classes that serve as a
dumping ground for gang members and high-risk
youths. To the extent possible, mainstream the
youths into regular classes.

Summary

The key points of this chapter are:

1. The school Principal must accept the challenge
of easing change within the school and ensuring a
safe and caring social climate for education.

2. The Principal must be aware of the need for
change, have a good diagnosis of the set of
conditions causing the need for change, have a
clear and explicit description of the desired state
of affairs after the change, and have a clear and
accurate picture of present dynamics.

3. The Principal must communicate the need for
change and the desired "end state" to all school
personnel and clearly articulate goals and
objectives to personnel targeting gang youth and
the specific programs and means for intervention. 

4. To maintain educational integrity, the school
will need to provide not only support to high-risk
and gang youths, but rewards for students
throughout the school who do well academically and
are not involved in disruptive behavior or gangs.

5. The Principal will need to develop an internal
organizational structure, a standing committee, and
a case management team to enhance parental
involvement and to create a flexible curriculum and
a safe school environment.

6.The standing committee is responsible for
monitoring the school gang problem, disciplinary
policies, and school security. 

7. The case management team works directly with
high-risk and gang youth and is responsible for
parental involvement and flexible curriculum
development.

8. There is evidence that strongly suggests the
academic and social competence of gang and high-
risk youth are dependent on their ability to form
warm, "real" relationships with school staff.

9. The case management team will become in-house
experts on gangs within and around the school and
will be useful in conflict or tense situations. 

10. Avoid giving the case management team special
classes that serve as a dumping ground for gang
members and high-risk youths.
________________________________________

"The Principal must accept the challenge of easing
change and ensuring a safe and caring social
climate for education."

"Principal must clearly articulate goals and
objectives to personnel targeting gang youth."

"Will need an internal organizational structure."

"The overall mission of the committee is to reduce
the gang problem in the school."

"A useful approach is the development of a case
management team of teachers and staff to work with
high-risk and gang youth."

"This sensitive and skilled team must be useful in
conflict or tense situations."

_______________________________________________

CHAPTER 7: STAFF SELECTION AND TRAINING
_________________________________________________

o Staff Selection
o Training
o Summary

Staff Selection

Qualified staff should be selected for the case
management team, including those who have special
skills working with gang or high-risk youth. The
case management team will need teachers, a
counselor, support staff, and security. Security
and other staff who work in close contact with gang
youth need not be former gang members.

Personnel who work with gang youth must have the
following characteristics:

o Are qualified professionally and technically for
the particular position.

o Are able to keep the best interest of gang youths
in mind.

o Possess knowledge about gangs, in general, and
local gang problems, in particular.

o Possess skills in relationship-building
techniques.

o Are able to exhibit warmth, friendliness, and a
sense of humor.

o Possess good communication skills.

o Are patient.

o Are able to deal with the difficult testing
behavior of gang youths and not be intimidated.

o Are aware of community resources available for
gang youth.

o Are able to stand firm on rules and regulations
that they can justify and clearly explain.

o Understand adolescent development, gang
subculture, and gang-related behavior at school and
in the local community.

o Are able to establish relationships with parents
and
representatives of key local organizations (i.e.,
community youth agencies and law enforcement).

Previous experience working with gangs and living
in the community with gang members, and a
commitment to reducing gang violence would also be
helpful.

Training

After selection, the case management team will need
training before contact with gang youths. Training
must include:

--Orientation to the Special Program

--Gang-Specific Information

--Behavior and Crisis Management Skill Development

Orientation to the Special Program

This introductory phase of training must focus on
the program mission, procedures, policies, and
goals and objectives. The Principal must:

--give written documentation of the key program
elements to teachers and staff;

--discuss the rationale behind the case management
team and proposed curriculum changes;

--encourage staff to ask questions, share opinions,
and give input regarding the development of
specific rules for gang member and high-risk youth.

--discuss extensively how to handle rule
infractions and establish behavioral expectations;

--summarize specific documentation and
recordkeeping requirements;

--explain how recordkeeping will serve as a basis
for systematic testing of program effectiveness a
year or two later.

Gang-Specific Information

Training must focus on general information on gangs
and specific information on school and local
community gangs. Where can you locate this
information? First, carefully review the
bibliography of this manual and select readings
that give a good summary of gangs and gang
characteristics. Next, consult outside experts
(police, probation, parole, school, corrections,
professors, or agency staff) and invite them to
participate in a training seminar on gangs. Also,
the findings of the comprehensive community
assessment are a good source of information about
the local gang problem. Include the following
information in a training seminar on gangs:

o Gang history and understanding of gangs and gang
subculture.

o Causes of gang formation.

o Factors that motivate individual gang members.

o Identifying local gangs; including gang symbols,
language, attire, graffiti, and methods of gang
recruitment.

o Patterns of intergroup rivalry and violence in
the particular community.

o Particular nature of gang crimes, related
violence, property crimes, and drug use and
trafficking.

o Establishing appropriate communication and
productive relationships with gangs.

o Collecting information on gangs and gang
structure; including how to tell who is a leader,
hardcore, or fringe member.

o Methods of crisis intervention and gang mediation
between gang members.

o Enhancing the self-esteem and self-discipline of
gang youth.

o Using other members of the team, from both in the
school and outside school sources, to address
problems of social support and to provide
additional social opportunities.

Behavior and Crisis Management Skill Development

Teachers and staff will also need training in
methods and strategies to handle distinctive gang-
motivated disruptive and aggressive behavior. It is
important to prevent or handle problems or crisis
situations at as early a point as possible. The
following guidelines are suggested:

Judgment, Timing, and Self-Control

When disruptive behavior, a crisis, or physical
confrontation happen, events can escalate quickly.
Therefore, the program must have a crisis plan and
staff must be self-controlled and able to make
good, sound decisions under pressure. It is
important to move in to deal with a situation at an
appropriate time. To delay can contribute to things
getting out of hand. To act hastily or overreact to
minor situations can impede the development of
effective relationships with and social control of
youths.

Maturity

Sometimes individuals work with others to meet
their emotional needs. Teachers and staff who are
authoritarian or passive will probably be
ineffective in a crisis. Also, staff must not
collude with youths or unintentionally give
permission for youth to act irresponsibly.

All staff, including teachers, must have the
capacity to intervene and set limits; they must not
avoid intervening because of excessive insecurity
or personal "hang ups."

Relationship-Building

Relationship-building is the foundation that
supports constructive change and growth. Youths are
more likely to follow directions and listen to
adults that they respect and have a positive
relationship with. This is very important in crisis
situations.

Antecedents of Gang-Related Tension

The antecedents of aggressive behavior often
include community tensions, drug use, interpersonal
problems, including arguments with a girlfriend,
ill health, and situational events such as
crowding, boredom, arguments with teachers, staff
or peers, and frustration over a previous class.
Gang tensions in the community, police raids, and
family disruptions often create insecurities in the
youth during school. They are particularly likely
to occur on weekends; Mondays may be "flash"
points. Teachers and staff must be sensitive to
what is occurring both inside and outside that may
precipitate gang-related behavior.

Assessment of Individual Youth

Staff must develop sound knowledge about each youth
helped by the case management team and current gang
structure and process. They need to be sensitive to
the cultural traits and behaviors of each ethnic
group. It is a good idea during the early part of
the school year to assist teachers to do an intake
assessment on each targeted student's ability to
control impulses, his position in the gang
hierarchy, or his susceptibility to gang
membership. This knowledge of the leaders and
followers will help staff assess who may be
provoking or demanding inappropriate behavior from
others. Staff must also assess the "macho" or
status needs of all youth in the program.

Roughhousing and Physical Intervention

Staff must avoid playful roughhousing, grabbing
youth, and behaving provocatively. Security and
staff must also avoid holding or cornering a youth
when physical confrontations happen. Grab or hold
youth only to keep the youth from clearly harming
himself, another youth, a teacher, or staff. Avoid
developing a culture that permits physical
aggression or retaliation.

Unsupervised Settings

Staff must know what is "going on" in the classroom
and in other parts of the school that precipitate
gang behavior. They must not leave students
unsupervised for long periods of time. If staff are
positively interacting with youth, they will be
able to intervene quickly and redirect
inappropriate behavior. Most disruptive behavior
and aggressive outbursts involve other youth and
begin with insults or flashing gang signs.
Eliminate all unsupervised settings. For example,
in an elementary school, have staff rotate to the
next class, while students remain seated and
supervised.

Structuring Time

When designing the program and scheduling
activities, teachers must structure the
participant's time as much as possible. Avoid
having scheduling gaps where youths will have
nothing to do for long periods of time. When they
have unstructured time just to sit around and talk,
the probability increases that someone might say or
do something to start a problem.

Boredom and Stress

Since boredom is an antecedent to aggression, make
teaching experiences meaningful. Avoid long
lectures and focus on participatory exercises like
role-playing.

In addition, avoid over stressing the cognitive and
emotional capacity of youths. Tailor the material
to the learning level of the group. When the
material is too difficult, some youths will become
frustrated. Occasionally, change to something that
gives them a sense of accomplishment.

Rule Selection and Consequences for Infractions

Rules must be simple and clear. Select rules that
are most important and post them prominently
throughout the classroom and building. Select the
consequences that fit the situation. Orient youths
regarding the rules, program expectations, and
potential consequences for rule infractions. At a
minimum, do not permit wearing gang clothing and
many athletic or starter jackets, flashing gang
signs, writing gang graffiti, having weapons, or
displaying violence and physical confrontation. A
graded series of rule infractions must result in a
range of consequences, from warnings to temporary
suspension from the class or termination from a
program, or school expulsion. However, hold out
reinstatement as a possibility for a future time.

Ideally, termination from class or school must
occur only with youth arrest or commitment of a
delinquent act of a felonious nature. The ultimate
goal is to help youths gain self-control and learn
better ways to solve problems and cope with stress,
frustration, and anger. Teachers and staff must
therefore try to rely on rewards and not negative
consequences, but make consequences clear so that
youths can learn to anticipate them and internalize
self-control. The best approach is to provide a
learning and training situation in which each youth
develops a sense of accomplishment and self-esteem.

In the event of a physical confrontation:

--Intervene quickly to calm the situation.

--State clearly and specifically what is best for
the personal interests of the youth involved and
the negative consequences that may follow.

--Have at least three staff intervene. One to work
calming down youth involved and the other staff to
supervise the remaining youth. Teachers and staff
must remain calm and in control.

--Require that all youth not involved return to
program routine. Contagion must be avoided or
controlled.

--The goal is not only to resolve the immediate
confrontation but to keep it from spilling over
into the rest of the school or the streets. The
police may need be alerted if this is about to
occur.

--Security staff assigned to the case management
team must be available to respond quickly when
needed.

--Do not send suspended youth home in the middle of
the day through dangerous gang turf. Designate a
study area in school.

--Communicate with the parents first and arrange,
if possible, for them to pick their children up.
This way, parents know immediately that a youth is
being suspended and why. Failure to inform parents
of a suspension will allow youth to manipulate the
situation and tell his parents that he or she is
attending school while actually leaving the house
and hanging out on the streets.

Although initial training will focus on case
management team members, eventually all teachers,
administrators, and staff within the school will
need to complete this training program as part of
staff development in a school or community where
the gang problem is emergent or chronic.

All staff, including teachers, must have
responsibility for dealing with gang members and
potential gang problems. The school must not view
the case management team as a dumping ground for
difficult children, but mainly as a specialist
advisory group.

Summary

The key points in this chapter are:

1. Select qualified staff for the case management
team; staff should have special skills working with
gang or high-risk youth.

2. After selection, the case management team will
need training before contact with gang youths.

3. Training must include:

1. Orientation to the special program--This
introductory phase of training must focus on the
program mission, procedures, policies, and goals
and objectives; 

2. Gang specific information--This training must
focus on general information on gangs and specific
information on school and local community gangs;

3. Behavior and crisis management skill
development--Staff will also need training in
methods and strategies to handle distinctive gang-
motivated disruptive and aggressive behavior.

4. The antecedents of aggressive behavior often
include community tensions, drug use, interpersonal
problems, including arguments with a girlfriend,
ill health, and situational events such as
crowding, boredom, arguments with staff or peers,
and frustration over a previous class.

5. Teachers and staff must develop sound knowledge
about each youth helped by the case management
team.

6. Rules must be simple and clear. Select rules
that are most important and post them prominently
throughout the classroom and building. Select the
consequences that fit the situation. Orient youths
regarding rules, program expectations, and
potential consequences for rule infractions.

7. At a minimum, do not permit wearing gang
clothing and many athletic or starter jackets,
flashing gang signs, writing gang graffiti, having
weapons, or displaying violence and physical
confrontation.

8. The ultimate goal is to help youths gain self-
control and learn better ways to solve problems and
cope with stress, frustration, and anger.
________________________________________

"Select case management team staff carefully."

"Case management team staff must have a commitment
to working with gang youth and special skills."

"Team members must be able to deal with the
difficult testing behavior of gang youths."

"Training will enhance the knowledge and abilities
that teachers and staff bring to the job."

"Documentation and recordkeeping will serve as a
basis for later testing of program effectiveness."

"Training must focus on general information on
gangs and specific information on school and local
community gangs."

"Staff will have a lot to learn."

"Staff will also need to be trained in methods and
strategies to handle disruptive and aggressive
behavior."

"Staff who are authoritarian or passive will
probably be ineffective in handling a crisis."

"The antecedents of aggressive behavior include a
variety of community, personal, and situational
factors."

"Need to learn gang structure and each
participant's position--follower or leader--in the
gang."

"Need to structure and fill participants time as
much as possible."

"Try to make learning experiences meaningful and do
not over stress the cognitive and emotional
capacity of youths."

"Rules must be simple, clear, and significant!"

"Wearing gang clothing, writing gang graffiti,
flashing gang signs, having weapons, or displaying
violence must not be permitted."

"Techniques for intervening during a physical
confrontation involving gang youth."

"If disruptive behavior or a physical confrontation
happens, staff must remain in control."

______________________________________________

CHAPTER 8: CREATING A SAFE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
_______________________________________________

o School Discipline
o School Security
o Summary

School Discipline

To effectively carry out the school mission of
educating all students, the school will need to
create a safe and secure environment for learning.
Therefore, the school must carefully review and, if
necessary, improve discipline policies and school
security. The School Climate Committee, a standing
committee responsible for monitoring the school
gang problem, disciplinary policies, and school
security, must meet on a regular basis to identify
and solve problems related to school safety and
reduction of the school gang problem. In addition,
this committee is responsible for the development
and implementation of a school gang code. The
Principal and School Safety Committee must then
communicate the gang school code to teachers,
students, and parents. The school must establish
the school gang code and enforce it firmly and
fairly.

Schools that are disruption-prone have the
following characteristics (Gottfredson 1983):

o Rules are not clear, fair, or firmly enforced.

o Teachers and administrators do not know the rules
and don't agree on responses to student misconduct.

o Students don't believe in rules.

o Responses to misconduct are ambiguous (e.g.,
lowering grades because of misbehavior).

o Cooperation between teachers and administrators
is poor or administrators are inactive.

o Teachers tend to have punitive attitudes.

On the other hand, common elements associated with
well-disciplined schools are (Learning Intervention
Report 1988):

o Clear rules and procedures.

o Minimum delay in processing infractions.

o Consistency, fairness, and certainty regarding
enforcement, with emphasis on due process
considerations.

o Quick feedback to students, teachers, and parents
regarding discipline decisions.

o Reducing future infractions.

o Cooperation between school and home; between
teachers and administration in response to student
misconduct.

Schools with good discipline do not permit gang
attire, symbols, signs, graffiti, the sale or
possession of drugs, or possession of weapons. They
establish punishment guidelines in advance with
punishment fitting the severity of the rule
infraction. Some schools are trying dress codes to
stop the wearing of gang attire or metal detectors
to ensure that weapons do not enter the school.

Although gangs may be responsible for some
disruptive behavior in the school, not all
antisocial behavior is group- or gang-oriented. In
cases where rule infractions are individually
motivated, gang control strategies are not
appropriate. Due to the changing nature of gang
problems, adjust interpretations of serious
behavior and intervention to reflect these changes.

In the classroom, teachers must know the school
gang code and guidelines for appropriate
intervention. To the extent possible, teachers must
attempt to handle disruptive behavior without
assistance unless physical danger is imminent. Make
provisions in advance to ensure quick response and
firm control of the problem.

School Security

The assessment process identified strengths and
weaknesses of the school security system. During
the assessment process, records were analyzed
(i.e., the examination of the time, place, and
circumstances of rule violations and the systematic
deployment of security to situations where problems
may occur) to uncover patterns of rule breaking and
gang intimidation within and around the school.
This careful analysis is the basis for an effective
school security. Compliment security personnel for
what they do well. Yet, if improvements are
necessary to make the school more secure, include
security personnel in a careful planning and
implementation process (School Safety Check Book
1990).

School security staff, with the help and support of
the case management team and School Climate
Committee, will need to eliminate conditions within
and around the school that contribute to violence
and disruptive acts with special attention to
improved response to crises that involve gangs and
potential violence. The following suggestions may
be helpful (School Safety Check Book 1990, pages
193-200):

--Make school perimeters safer by minimizing blind
spots and removing exterior door handles or locking
doors to make them inaccessible to intruders.

--School security must provide a daily law
enforcement presence. They can patrol grounds,
parking lots, bathrooms, and hallways; check
student and visitor identification; investigate
criminal complaints; and provide support to school
staff during
disturbances.

--The Principal, school security, and custodians
must collaborate in the early detection and removal
of gang graffiti, preferably with the required
assistance of the culprits or youths involved.

--Gang members occasionally have females hold
weapons for them. The school will need to develop a
mechanism to ensure that no weapons enter the
school.

In addition, the School Climate Committee in
collaboration with the case management team must
develop a response strategy for recognizing pre-
crisis indicators (Brooks 1981). Some pre-crisis
indicators are (Brooks 1981):

o the clustering of rival gangs,

o movement of gangs from their normal turf,

o isolated racial fights,

o gang fights or gang homicides in the surrounding
community,

o the discovery of weapons in or around the school,

o increased gang-related incidents on buses and
along bus routes,

o warnings from students, law enforcement, or
school staff,

o increase in gang graffiti,

o changes in gang graffiti which indicate the
presence of rival gangs,

o parents coming to school to withdraw their
children out of fear of a gang fight or gang
retaliation,

o students wanting to leave school to go to another
school.

Furthermore, if the Principal recognizes signs of
an impending gang crisis that is likely to erupt
into violence, he or she must immediately mobilize
security, staff, and teachers, and contact law
enforcement agencies. Parents and parent groups
must also be immediately alerted to protect
children on the way home from school or become
visible on bus stops near their homes (Brooks
1981).

If a crisis erupts or a serious crime occurs, the
students involved must be promptly and forcefully
dealt with by administrators. Students who break
the law must be arrested and prosecuted. To aid in
the reaction to crisis and crime, the school will
need to develop and maintain a good working
relationship with law enforcement agencies, involve
them in training, and consult with them regarding
gang crime and activity. Informal information-
sharing may be necessary to target repeat
"offenders" for appropriate suppression. In the
event of a serious injury or gang homicide, the
Principal will need to:

--Have a mechanism to inform all students and staff
of the incident.

--Have a mechanism to help students and staff cope
with feelings surrounding the incident.

--Visit the hospital to provide support and arrange
for special support social services.

--Attend the student's funeral and express the
school's sympathy verbally or through a card or
flowers.

--Have a person designated as the school spokesman
to talk with the media to reduce confusion.

In conclusion, the school will need to collect data
on gang-related activity and other disruptive acts,
develop standard reporting procedures, and assign
someone primary responsibility for data control
(Duke 1980). Examples of the type of data to
collect include (Duke 1980):

--Annual number of suspensions of high-risk and
gang youth and reasons.

--Breakdown of number and type of gang-related
behavior problems.

--Number of gang-related incidents occurring "in
class" and "out of class" (before school, between
classes, cafeteria, travel to and from school, and
after school).

--Number of students who exhibit gang behavior who
recently transferred to the school.

--Breakdown of punishment applied, their
effectiveness, and the rate of repeated offenses.

--Specific attention to student behavior problems
in programs that target high-risk and gang youth
(alternative school, special education, and
prevention curriculum).

--Sources of referral to Disciplinarian office for
gang-related problems.

--Comparative data on gang-related incidents from
previous years and nearby schools.

Summary

The key points in this chapter are:

1. The School Climate Committee, a standing
committee responsible for monitoring the school
gang problem, disciplinary policies, and school
security, must meet on a regular basis to identify
and solve problems related to school safety and
reduction of the school gang problem.

2. The school must establish the school gang code
and enforce it firmly and fairly. The Principal
must communicate the gang school code to teachers,
students, and parents. In the classroom, teachers
must know the school gang code and guidelines for
appropriate intervention.

3. Rules must be clear, fair, and firmly enforced.

4. Schools with good discipline do not permit gang
attire, symbols, signs, graffiti, the sale or
possession of drugs, or possession of weapons. They
establish punishment guidelines in advance with
punishment fitting the severity of the rule
infraction.

5. School security staff, with the help and support
of teachers, staff, and the case management team
and School Climate Committee, will need to
eliminate conditions within and around the school
that contribute to violence and disruptive acts
with special attention to improved response to
crises that involve gangs and potential violence.

6. The School Climate Committee, in collaboration
with the case management team, must develop a
response strategy for recognizing pre-crisis
indicators.

7. If the Principal recognizes signs of an
impending gang crisis, likely to erupt into
violence, he or she must immediately mobilize
security, teachers, and staff, and contact law
enforcement
agencies.

8. If a crisis erupts or a serious crime occurs,
the students involved must be promptly and
forcefully dealt with through arrest and
prosecution. The school will need to develop and
maintain a good working relationship with law
enforcement agencies, involve them in training, and
consult with them regarding gang crime and
activity.

9. In the event of serious injury or a gang
homicide, the principal will need to inform all
students and staff of the incident, have a
mechanism to help students and staff cope with
feelings, attend the funeral or visit the hospital,
express condolences to the family, and designate a
spokesman to talk with the media to reduce
confusion.

10. The school will need to collect data on gang-
related activity and other disruptive acts, develop
standard reporting procedures, and assign someone
primary responsibility for data control.
____________________________________________

"School rules need to be clear, fair, and firmly
enforced."

"Parents, teachers, and students must receive quick
feedback on discipline decisions."

"Gang attire, symbols, signs, graffiti, the sale or
possession of drugs, or possession of weapons must
not be permitted in school."

"Record analysis is the basis for the effective
assignment of school security personnel."

"School perimeters must be made safer by minimizing
blind spots."

"Must have a mechanism for identifying impending
crisis."

"The school will need to collect data on gang-
related activity and other disruptive acts."

_________________________________________

CHAPTER 9: DEVELOPMENT OF A SCHOOL-WIDE LEARNING
SUPPORT SYSTEM
_________________________________________

o Introduction
o Classroom Teacher Support
o Classroom Expectations
o Small Student Work Groups
o Support Staff
o Summary

Introduction

At the elementary school level, students who are at
high risk of gang involvement or already in gangs
need schoolwide support and all staff working to
educate them about the dangers of gang life or drug
abuse. Likewise, for middle and high school gang
and high-risk students, the distractions and
emergencies created by gang activity will impede
the learning process. There is evidence that
strongly suggests the academic and social
competence of gang and high-risk youths are
dependent on their ability to form warm, "real"
relationships with school staff.

The school, whether elementary, middle, or high
school, must not leave the development of positive
relationships to chance. Gang and high-risk youth
need extra support from the entire school. This
will require all members of school staff to reach
out and provide special interest and attention to
gang youths social and academic needs. A school
cannot achieve academic competence objectives
unless social objectives are given attention.

Classroom Teacher Support

The Principal will need to communicate to regular
classroom teachers the expectation that they offer
support to gang and high-risk youth. Evidence
suggests that positive adult relationships with
gang youth decrease violence and disruptive acts.
Yet teachers must remain firm regarding rules and
expectations for academic performance and avoid
cooperation or intimidation by gang or high-risk
youths. At one time or another, all teachers may
need to fulfill the roles of teacher, policeman,
and social worker. To teach gang youths
effectively, teachers must become more involved in
the lives of high-risk and gang youth.

Classroom Expectations

Poor academic performance is related to delinquent
and disruptive behavior (Gold and Mann 1984). The
assessment process probably will show that some
youths who are at high risk or in gangs do poorly
academically, while others do well. Therefore, it
is important to assess each youth and individualize
intervention and instruction. The case management
team will have to assist classroom teachers to
alter their approach to enhance the academic
achievement and reduce disruptive behavior by gang
youths. The following suggestions may be helpful:

--The teacher must not only emphasize performance
standards but the nature and quality of the
learning process. Also, teachers must focus on
student's individual progress and not necessarily
on comparisons with other students.

--A behavior modification, point or credit system,
may be useful, particularly in elementary school.
This approach must focus on rewards and not
punishment. It must reward students' personal
progress, actual progress, and contribution to
group achievement. The focus on rewards enhances
self-esteem and has the potential to increase the
student's commitment to the school (Gold and Mann
1984).

--The school will need to develop situations to
reward high-risk and gang youth. Although they may
be unable to achieve status in the usual areas,
they may show responsibility in a variety of school
citizenship areas such as security, traffic patrol,
and tutoring the younger youth. Weak academic
students will need to receive status and rewards in
other ways. Award them with certificates or
commendations for involvement in school and
community projects (e.g., graffiti expunging, good
behavior on a field trip, etc.). Give the top
academic students and best behaved students summer
jobs or additional responsibility during the school
day. Make persistent efforts to help youths feel
positive about school; avoid punishment, failure,
and blame because it induces high-risk and gang
youths to reject school and defy authority.

Small Student Work Groups

Small student groups are a way to offer support to
gang and high-risk youth, confront gang activity,
and teach high-risk youth the dangers of drug abuse
or gang involvement. This approach builds on the
youth's need for group identity and collaboration
and can accommodate different learning styles and
rates. In discussions of drug or gang involvement,
small groups composed of gang and non-gang youth
may bring peer pressure on youth to reevaluate
their behavior. Careful composition of the
membership of such a group is important so that the
influence of non-gang social peers out weigh that
of the gang members.

Support Staff

Support staff not assigned to the case management
team, whether social workers, tutors,
psychologists, or security personnel, can
supplement efforts by specialist teachers on the
case management team. The case management team
leader can facilitate regular meetings with support
staff and the regular teacher to review youth
progress and current strategies used to help in
youth's academic and behavioral progress.

In addition, the case management team and support
staff, particularly counselors and social workers,
must assume leadership by becoming more involved in
gang youths' lives after school. Periodic home
visits, assistance to families (job referrals and
education of parents) can benefit parents directly
and students indirectly by reducing pressures at
home.

Summary

The key points in this chapter are:

1. Students who are at high risk of gang
involvement or are already in gangs need schoolwide
support and all staff working to educate them about
the dangers of gang life or drug abuse.

2. Evidence suggests that positive adult
relationships with gang youths decrease violence
and disruptive acts. To teach gang youths
effectively, teachers must become more involved in
the lives of high-risk and gang youth.

3. Poor academic performance is related to
delinquent and disruptive behavior (Gold and Mann
1984). The assessment process probably will show
that some youths at high risk or in gangs do poorly
academically, while others do well. Therefore, it
is important to assess each youth and individualize
intervention and instruction.

4. The school will need to develop situations to
reward high-risk and gang youth. 

5. Persistent efforts should be made to help youths
feel positive about school; punishment, failure,
and blame should be avoided because it induces
high-risk and gang youths to reject school and defy
authority.

6. Small student groups are a way to offer support
to gang and high-risk youth, confront gang
activity, and teach high-risk youths the dangers of
drug abuse or gang involvement.

7. The case management team and support staff,
particularly counselors and social workers, must
assume leadership by becoming more involved in gang
youths' lives after school.

________________________________________

"Gang youth need strong support and control."

"Organizational change that designates and trains
particular staff to work with gang and high-risk
youth will be required."

"Evidence indicates that relationships with gang
youth decreases violence and disruptive acts."

"Poor academic performance is related to delinquent
and disruptive behavior."

"Nature and quality of the gangs learning process
must be addressed."

"Situations need to be developed to reward high-
risk and gang youth."

"Small work groups can be used to teach high-risk
youth the dangers of drug abuse or gang
involvement."

"Case management team can supplement efforts of
regular teachers and staff."
__________________________________________________
__

CHAPTER 10: IDENTIFICATION OF HIGH-RISK AND GANG
YOUTH
__________________________________________________
__

The School Climate Committee will need to develop
criteria for identifying youth in gangs or at high
risk of gang involvement and a centralized system
for identifying gang members and tracking their
progress. Targeting high-risk or gang youth is
useful and relevant "if" it focuses on the most
vulnerable youth. Do not confuse identification and
tracking with destructive labeling or isolation of
these youths from the mainstream school program.

Gang-related behavior may begin as early as
elementary school (Inglewood United School District
1990). The following items can be useful in
developing the criteria for identifying high-risk
and gang youth, although not all gang youths do
exhibit such behavior. High-risk factors (Inglewood
United School District 1990; Gottfredson 1983;
Learning Intervention Report 1988) include a
combination of multiple factors or indicators:

o Exhibiting behavior problems in the early grades.

o Use of gang signs.

o Dressing in traditional gang clothes.

o Putting gang-related tattoos on the body.


o Drawing graffiti and insignias on walls, school
notebooks, books, etc.

o Association with known gang members.

o Poor academic performance:

--Poor academic achievement
--Frequent truancy from school
--Little effort expended on school work.
--Weak attachment and dislike for school.

o Classroom management/discipline problem.

--Defiance of rules and authority figures.

--Acting disruptively to gain approval from gang   
peers.

--Lack of belief in the legitimacy of rules.

o Actual participation in gang conflict,
intimidation, extortion, or assault.

o Substance abuse (alcohol and/or drug abuse)

o Frequent negative contact with police.

o Gang members in the family.

o Weak attachment to parents. 

o Growing up in a troubled home (violence,
substance abuse).

o Self-report by youth that he or she is a gang
member.

It will probably be necessary to obtain information
from several reliable sources before confirming
that a particular youth is either a gang member or
highly at risk. Also, some appropriate orderings or
weighing of the above risk factors may be necessary
with subcategories identifying high-, medium-, and
low-risk and gang-prone youth. Different categories
of youth must receive different kinds and degrees
of attention. To minimize the danger of negative or
inadvertent labeling; identify only the highest
risk youths for purposes of the present program
where early intervention and prevention are a
priority. Chapter 14, Liaison, Coordination, and
Outreach with Law Enforcement and Community
Agencies, discusses guidelines and suggestions for
information-sharing.

Summary

The key points of this chapter are:

1. The School Climate Committee will need to
develop criteria for identifying youth in gangs or
at high risk of gang involvement and a centralized
system for identifying gang members and tracking
their progress.

2. Do not confuse identification and tracking with
destructive labeling or isolation of these youths
from the mainstream school program.

3. Gang-related behavior may begin as early as
elementary school.

4. Learn the high-risk factors and develop criteria
for identifying youth at high risk and in gangs,
but keep in mind that some gang youths do not
exhibit such behavior, while some non-gang youths
sometimes may display them.

5. It will probably be necessary to obtain
information from several reliable sources before
confirming that a particular youth is either a gang
member or highly at risk. 

6. To minimize the danger of negative or
inadvertent labeling; identify only the highest
risk youths for purposes of the present program
where early intervention and prevention are a
priority. 
_________________________________________

"The school will need to identify and track at-risk
and gang youth."

"Identification must not be confused with
destructive labeling and isolation of youth as gang
members or potential gang members."

"Must obtain information from many sources before
confirming that a particular youth is a gang
member."

_______________________________________________

CHAPTER 11: ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
_______________________________________________

o Prevention
o Summary

Prevention--Early Intervention to Prevent and Deter
Gang Involvement and Drug Abuse

After staff have been selected and trained to work
with high- risk and gang youths, a structure (case
management team) should be developed, and high-risk
youths identified for services. Focus must shift to
specific academic programs to prevent or control
gang activity and drug abuse. Where possible, new
academic programs should be integrated into the
existing curriculum (i.e., Health, Social Studies,
or English classes) to prevent or control gang
activity. This chapter will review program options
targeting high-risk youths as early as 5th and 6th
grade.

Some schools use several methods to prevent gang
activity and substance abuse, and to control youths
who begin to engage in gang-related behavior (e.g.,
hanging out with gang members, drug distribution
and selling for older gang youth):

--Anti-Drug and Gang Curriculum

--Self-esteem and Values Change Curriculum

--Peer Tutoring, Counseling, and Conflict
Resolution Teams

--Violence Reduction Program

--Multicultural Diversity Curriculum Emphasis

The case management team must have primary
responsibility for program development and work
with elementary school teachers around the problem
of high-risk youth. This responsibility will extend
beyond the boundaries of the school day. For
example, when a youth is absent, a member of the
case management team may go to the home or search
the neighborhood to bring the youth to school. When
suspended, the case management team may supervise
or assist the youth in the completion of missed
class work.

There are two general ways for assigning youths to
the special curriculum program in an elementary
school with gang problems: 

--All children in the particular schools can
receive the Anti-Drug and Gang Curriculum. This
approach has the advantage of mixing high-risk
youths with youths not at risk and encourages peer
pressure. Youth not at risk will confront high-risk
youth regarding attitudes related to gang and drug
activity.

--Students who commit gang-related infractions must
attend a special curriculum conducted by the case
management team, at which social, stable, and
articulate youth may also be present. This special
curriculum will encourage enhancement of self-
esteem and positive role-modeling.

Anti-Drug and Gang Curriculum

Many cities have targeted high-risk youths for a
variety of discussion and lecture programs on the
dangers of drugs and gangs and on ways to avoid
gang membership. Programs include DARE (Drug
Awareness Resistance Education), SANE (Substance
Abuse Narcotics Education), GREAT (Gang Resistance
Education and Training), "Life Choices", and "Say
No" programs. They have certain similarities:

o They are preventive and guide youth from
neighborhoods with serious drug use and gang
activity toward prosocial attitudes.

o They provide discussion opportunities for youth
to examine and make correct decisions.

o Other goals include enhancing self-esteem,
increasing awareness of alternatives to gang
membership, enabling youth to make
responsible choices and solve problems without
violence or negative behavior, and improving
communication skills. They encourage skills that
help the youth learn assertiveness to resist the
peer pressure of gang recruitment and gang
involvement.

o They focus on peer pressure to avoid
experimentation that contributes to drug use and
joining gangs.

o Most programs emphasize drug prevention, however,
with limited attention directed at gang prevention
and control. The program needs a balanced focus on
drugs and gangs.

o Staff introduces creativity and enthusiasm in the
programs through special curriculum materials and
teaching aids; posters on gang or drug themes,
media presentations, and discussion of newspaper
articles.

Evaluations of such programs indicate some changes
in attitudes and values, but results on behavioral
changes are mixed and unclear. Follow-up studies on
the effects of such programs over extended periods
have not yet occurred.

Self-Esteem and Values Change Curriculum

Unlike the structured Anti-Drug and Gang Curriculum
programs, the values change curriculum induces
spontaneous disclosure from high-risk youth
regarding personal values and pressures. The
teacher establishes trust, promises
confidentiality, and encourages the children to
open up and discuss sensitive issues. The teacher
functions as a role model and use a trusting
relationship to influence youth value formation and
hopefully subsequent behavior. The teacher
introduces contemporary topics to ease disclosure
and discussion. The general goals are:

o To establish a safe, secure classroom environment
where students will take risks.

o To engage students in discussions of home life,
pressures of street life, and issues related to
drug or gang involvement.

o To enhance self-esteem by having students develop
an appreciation of their uniqueness and value.

o To increase self-esteem in ways that help
students avoid gang involvement or drug abuse.

o With the help of the teacher, to teach students
critical thinking processes that will lead to good
decisionmaking and the avoidance of drugs and
gangs.

Peer Tutoring, Counseling, and Conflict Resolution

The "Conflict Manager Program" trains selected
students to intervene and resolve conflicts between
students. San Francisco introduced this approach in
elementary schools, middle schools, and high
schools in 1982. In elementary schools, the primary
focus is on problems that occur during recess and
lunch periods. School staff or a case management
team is responsible for training the student
counselors or mediators, and supervising
intervention and conflict resolution.

In middle and high schools, after training, peer
counselors arrange conflict resolution sessions and
resolve conflict with little staff intervention and
support (Anti-Drug/Gang Violence 1990).

Peer tutoring is another way to increase the
resources available to high-risk and gang youths.
Students who do well in an academic area provide
afterschool or in-school tutoring.

Violence Reduction Program

This approach uses small work groups or therapy
groups to help students learn and practice anger
self-control strategies and techniques. The focus
is on students learning to better manage the
physical, emotional, behavioral, and thinking
related to becoming angry or violent. Sessions
include role-playing, homework, and videotaping.

Multicultural Diversity

This approach uses culturally diverse material to
improve students' understanding of cultures and
histories of diverse groups that comprise American
society. Teachers individualize instruction to fit
different cultural learning styles and use material
of
particular interest to a cultural group. In
addition, particular cultural groups learn about
their culture and history. The goal is to help
students learn more about themselves and their
history and culture and therefore increase their
self-esteem.

Summary

The key points of this chapter are:

1. Where possible, new academic programs should be
integrated into the existing curriculum (i.e.,
Health, Social Studies, or English classes) to
prevent or control gang activity.

2. The case management team must have primary
responsibility for program development and work
with elementary school teachers around the problem
of high-risk youth. 

3. There are two general ways for assigning youths
to the special curriculum: (1) All children in the
particular schools can receive the Anti-Drug and
Gang Curriculum and (2) Students who commit gang-
related infractions must attend a special
curriculum conducted by the case management team.

4. Some schools use several methods to prevent gang
activity and substance abuse, and to control youths
who begin to engage in gang-related behavior. They
include: (1) Anti-Drug and Gang Curriculum; (2)
Self-esteem and Values Change Curriculum; (3) Peer
Tutoring, Counseling, and Conflict Resolution
Teams; (4) Violence Reduction Program; and (5)
Multicultural Diversity.

5. Anti-Drug and Gang Curriculum--Target high-risk
youths for a variety of discussion and lecture
programs on the dangers of drugs and gangs and ways
to avoid gang membership. Programs include DARE
(Drug Awareness Resistance Education), SANE
(Substance Abuse Narcotics Education), GREAT (Gang
Resistance Education and
Training), "Life Choices", and "Say No" programs.

6. Self-esteem and Values Change Curriculum--The
values change curriculum induces spontaneous
disclosure from high-risk youth regarding personal
values and pressures. The teacher establishes
trust, promises confidentiality, and encourages the
children to open up and discuss sensitive issues.

7. Peer Tutoring, Counseling, and Conflict
Resolution--The "Conflict Manager Program" trains
selected students to intervene and resolve
conflicts between students. Peer tutoring is
another way to increase the resources available to
high-risk and gang youths. Students who do well in
an academic area provide afterschool or in-school
tutoring.

8. Violence Reduction Program--This approach uses
small work groups or therapy groups to help
students learn and practice anger self-control
strategies and techniques. The focus is on students
learning to better manage the physical, emotional,
behavioral, and thinking related to becoming angry
or violent.

9. Multicultural Diversity--This approach uses
culturally diverse material to improve students'
understanding of other cultures and histories.
Teachers individualize instruction to fit different
cultural learning styles and particular cultural
groups increase their self-esteem through learning
about their culture and history.

____________________________________________

"Elementary school high-risk youth need to be
targeted for a prevention curriculum."

"The case management team will have primary
responsibility for program development."

"The children are encouraged to open up and talk
about sensitive issues."

"Conflict managers resolve conflict during recess
and lunch."

________________________________________________

CHAPTER 12: MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL
________________________________________________

o Delivery of a Flexible Curriculum
o Alternative Educational Programs
o Conclusion
o Vocational Education, Job Preparation, and
Placement
o Summary

Delivery of a Flexible Curriculum

Gang and gang-prone youth need to master the
academic skills needed to finish high school and
later obtain employment. Some of these youths
cannot cope with the rules and academic
requirements in conventional schools and will
require additional services. These students can
achieve the mastery of basic skills in three
possible ways.

--Supplement the academic core curriculum with
remedial classes during and after school.

Pay special attention to the development of a
remedial curriculum for slow or deficient learners.
This approach must focus on individualized
instruction in reading and mathematics to help the
youth improve basic academic skills.

--Target gang and gang-prone youth for enriched
program within their schools.

This will require additional resources and
enrichment programs that offer academic and social
educational opportunities for high-risk and gang
youth at grade level or above. Some of these youths
will require college preparation courses and
counseling regarding college. Special resources may
include computer-aided instruction, guest speakers,
workshops in relevant areas (teenage pregnancy
prevention, alternatives to gang involvement, or
vocational training), and support through
individual and family counseling.

--Placement of some gang and gang-prone high school
students into alternative educational programs.

Alternative Educational Programs

Gang and gang-prone youth may exhibit serious
disruptive behavior that interferes with the
education of other students and their own ability
to learn. This disruptive behavior may include
attempts to intimidate other students and staff,
overt defiance of authority, and possibly physical
violence. Due to their difficulty living up to
academic demands, gang and gang-prone youth are
often truant or simply drop out of school.
Therefore, it may not be possible to manage their
behavior and educate them in a conventional school
setting. At the high school level, schools must be
able to refer certain gang and gang-prone students
to alternative educational settings.

In a study of alternative programs, Gottfredson
(1983) found that alternative school programs are
effective. They reduce delinquency around the
school, reduce suspensions, increase attendance and
academic success, and improve the transition to
work and post-secondary education. Also, students
and teachers felt safer, teacher commitment
increased, and there was a reduction in teacher
victimization. In addition, Gold and Mann (1984),
in an evaluation of alternative programs for
seriously disruptive youth found similar evidence.
When students return to the regular school, they
often manifest improved attitudes and a commitment
to learning.

It is possible to introduce many of the principles
and practices of alternative schools into regular
middle and high school programs that target gang
youth. Successful alternative school programs seem
to have the following characteristics (Gold and
Mann 1984; Alternative Schools for Disruptive Youth
1989):

o Educational tasks are appropriate to student's
level of skill.

o Content appeals to students own interest.

o Programs allow students to master content at
their own pace.

o Education is based on individualized progress;
with comparisons made with their own earlier
progress--not the norms for age and grade level.

o Student chooses from several options provided by
the school.

o Schools keep daily attendance and progress
reports.

o Monitoring, evaluation, and formalized passage
occur from one step of the program to another.

o Staff directly supervise all activities of the
students.

o There is strong administrative and community
commitment to the program and to its financial
support.

o Parent and child counseling are mandatory.

o Program requires full day attendance with
rigorous workload and minimal time off.

o Program sets high standards and expectations for
performance.

o Curricula address cultural and individual
learning styles.

o There are clear and consistent goals exist for
students and parents.

o Staff are motivated and culturally diverse.

o The school climate is democratic.

o Gold and Mann (1984) believe that the capacity to
bend rules and arrangements to the needs of the
disruptive students may lie at the core of
effective flexibility.

Finally, a key factor to the success of alternative
school programs is the development of more
informal, personal relationships between students
and teachers.

Conclusion

Youths who are the most committed to the gang and
can no longer adapt to the conventional school
setting must receive priority placement in
alternative school programs. Many of the these
students can return to the conventional school
setting but will continue to need special services
and support. Yet, use of alternative programs for
gang-affiliated youth may not be appropriate, if
placement in an alternative program or a special
class stigmatizes the youth for being in a
"loser's" group. The success of a particular
placement depends on the perceptions of the youths,
school administrators, teachers, and parents in the
particular setting as well as the availability of
good alternative school programs.

Provision of Vocational Education, Job Preparation,
and Placement

A curriculum that combines academic and vocational
preparation is particularly useful for gang and
high-risk youths. Strategies that provide economic
opportunity for them will reduce gangs and gang
violence. As youths get older, legitimate jobs are
an alternative to street crime and hustling.

This curriculum must include work acclimation. Work
acclimation is a process of preparing gang youths
for eventual job placement. Youth at high risk of
gang involvement or actively involved in gangs may
have had only limited contact with the world of
work and with people who are full-time employees.
Therefore, they will require instruction in how to
feel, think, and act as a worker. This instruction
will include knowledge of organizational
procedures, relationship skills, job interviewing,
filling out application forms, and interpersonal
relationship skills. The curriculum may include the
following work acclimation objectives:

--Exposing the gang youth to the world of work and
helping him assess his skills in relation to
specific jobs.

--Helping the youth develop the belief that
legitimate jobs can be rewarding.

--Preparing the youth for job placement.

--Job placement while still at school.

--Exposure to the World of Work

The case management team, alternative school staff,
or the vocational education staff need to introduce
gang youth to the world of work, responsibility,
and reward. This can be done in many ways:

1. Use of curriculum materials that focus on
attitude training and the world of work in terms of
expectations on the job, careers, etc.

2. Direct observational experiences; including
field trips to work sites, communication with
employers, visits from workers who can serve as
role models to talk about careers and activities on
the job. This will help the gang youths understand
the tasks, requirements, and constraints of the
workplace. Such exposure must help them learn that
work can be meaningful and aid them in assessing
their skills and aptitudes for particular jobs.

--Preparing the Youth for Job Placement

Gang youth will need to become competent in the
actual skills needed to obtain a job. Involve
employers in job workshops, on getting and holding
jobs, on the following topics:

o Filling out application forms.

o Proper job interviewing (including correct dress,
personal hygiene, speech, and appropriate behavior
at the interview).

o Role-playing and use of practice videotaped
interviews if resources are available.

o Special attitude training regarding how to relate
to authority figures and peers who may be gang
members from the same or different gangs.

In sum, successful work acclimation must be
comprehensive and individualized, based on
individual needs and interests. Staff must expose
the youths to the world of work, train them in
specific skills, and give feedback that leads to
modification of gang attitudes and behaviors that
interfere with successful job preparation and
placement.

Job Placement

After exposure to a brief work acclimation
curriculum, high-risk or gang youth will need work
experience. He or she needs to begin to establish a
work record, obtain references for further career
development, and understand skills needed in
present and future areas of vocational interest.

Before or during placement, a staff person should
be given the responsibility for job development,
placement, and follow-up. A useful approach would
be the development of cooperative education
agreements with businesses in the surrounding
community for the training and joint preparation of
high-risk and gang youth. This can help create a
variety of part-time or summer job arrangements in
cooperation with probation officers, Chambers of
Commerce, and the public employment service.

It is important to match the "right" youth to the
"right" job, with more limited, less demanding
training and job opportunities provided for younger
youth and more substantial skill and career
opportunities provided for older youth.

Integration of Work and Educational Experiences

Pay special attention to the support of students
through adequate work supervision arrangements on
the job. There is evidence that good supervision at
the work site not only helps youths do a good job
but also helps them maintain interest and
involvement in classwork. Class and job attendance
must be maintained in some interdependent fashion.
Therefore, a liaison teacher must maintain contact
with supervisors and ensure the integration of work
with educational experiences. A close relationship
between school and the work site will help counter
the tendency of some youth to "slack off" or retain
close ties to gangs. The goal is to ensure that
these youths do not manipulate school and the work
site.

Summary

The key points of this chapter are:

1. Gang and gang-prone youth need to master the
academic skills needed to finish high school and
later obtain employment. Some of these youths
cannot cope with the rules and academic
requirements in conventional schools and will
require additional services. 

2. These students can achieve the mastery of basic
skills in three possible ways: (1) Supplementing
the academic core curriculum with remedial classes
during and after school; (2) Targeting gang and
gang-prone youth for enriched program within their
school; and (3) Placement of some gang and gang-
prone high school students into alternative
educational programs.

3. In a study of alternative programs, Gottfredson
(1983) found that alternative school programs are
effective. They reduce delinquency around the
school, reduce suspensions, increase attendance and
academic success, and improve the transition to
work and post-secondary education. Also, students
and teachers felt safer, teacher commitment
increased, and there was a reduction in teacher
victimization.

4. A key factor to the success of alternative
school programs is the development of more
informal, personal relationships between students
and teachers.

5. A curriculum that combines academic and
vocational preparation is particularly useful for
gang and high-risk youths. Strategies that provide
economic opportunity for them will reduce gangs and
gang violence. As youth get older, legitimate jobs
are an
alternative to street crime and hustling.

6. The case management team, alternative school
staff, or the vocational education staff need to
introduce gang youth to the world of work
responsibility and reward.

7. Gang youth will need to become competent in the
actual skills needed to obtain a job. Involve
employers, in job workshops, on getting and holding
jobs.

8. Successful work acclimation must be
comprehensive and individualized, based on
individual needs and interests. Youths must be
exposed to the world of work, trained in specific
skills, and given feedback that leads to
modification of gang attitudes and behaviors that
interfere with successful job preparation and
placement.

9. A useful approach would be the development of
cooperative education agreements with businesses in
the surrounding community for the training and
joint preparation of high-risk and gang youth. This
can help create a variety of full- and part-time
arrangements in cooperation with probation
officers, Chambers of Commerce, and the public
employment service.

10. Pay special attention to the support of
students through adequate work supervision
arrangements on the job. There is evidence that
good supervision at the work site not only helps
youths do a good job but also helps them maintain
interest and involvement in classwork.

_________________________________________

"Some of these youth cannot cope with the rules and
academic requirements and will require additional
services."

"Remedial education, enrichment programs, or
alternative school placement may be required."

"Schools must be able to refer gang and gang-prone
students to alternative educational settings."

"Education is based on individualized progress."

"A key success factor is a more informal, personal
relationship between students and teachers."

"Must target the most committed gang youth for
placement."

"Strategies that provide economic opportunity for
gang and gang-prone youths will reduce gangs and
gang violence."

"As youth get older, legitimate jobs are an
alternative to street crime and hustling."

"Will need to learn skills on interviewing and
filling out an application, and other skills needed
to obtain a job."

"Need to develop vocational education agreements
with business."

"There is evidence that good supervision at the
work site helps youth maintain interest and
involvement in classwork."
__________________________________________________

CHAPTER 13: PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
__________________________________________________

o Parent Patrols
o Mentoring Programs
o Inducements
o Summary

To effectively reduce the gang problem and fulfill
the mission of educating all students, it is
crucial to involve parents within the school.
Parents, with the aid of the school and community
agencies, can help children internalize norms and
values that aid youth in education and avoidance of
drugs and gangs. Due to their own personal or
family problems or pressures, however, many parents
of gang youth may be unable to participate in the
efforts of programs.

The safety and security of their children, while
they are in school or traveling to and from school,
are a major concern for most parents. Yet, parents
will vary in their acceptance of a school and
community gang problem and in their commitment to
the school and their activism regarding the
problem. The school must make a distinction between
parents of gang and non-gang children, or victims
of crime or intimidation. Most parents want
protection from the children of gang member
families and prefer not to deal with parents of
gang youth.

The school, through the efforts of the Principal
and case management team, will need to involve
different types of parents. The school must involve
parents in parent meetings, gang detection and
prevention school activities, mentoring, and
assistance on school activities (i.e., field
trips). The more effective or "stronger" parents
can assist and reach out, e.g., through home
visits, to support the more problem-ridden parents.
These parents will need support, understanding, and
pressure to exercise better social control on their
gang-prone youth. A proactive and persuasive group
of parents can also have a calming influence on
students and teachers.

Parents who have successfully dealt with their own
children with a gang or drug problem can be very
helpful in a support group or by calling or
visiting parents to offer support. Their experience
would be beneficial in special parent's committees
that assist in the control and prevention programs,
the assessment School and Community Committee, or
other school or community efforts to reduce the
gang problem.

The Principal and case management can use two
primary programs to involve parents: (1) Parents
Patrols and (2) Mentoring programs. 

Parent Patrols

A parent patrol is a group of dedicated parents who
volunteer to work within the school. Used primarily
in elementary and middle schools, parents patrol
the halls during the school day, supervise recess,
and monitor special activities. The school rewards
the parents by providing office space and awarding
certificates and trophies. The school usually
provides funds for transportation to the school,
free lunch, and jackets, hats, and badges. This
core group of dedicated parents recruits other
parents for the patrol and becomes a recognized
structure within the school.

Mentoring

Parental support in other areas is crucial to
effective gang reduction. Mentoring is a useful way
to involve parents or siblings within the school
and in afterschool programs. A mentor is a person
who is "a wise and trusted teacher, guide, friend."
The key is the development of a positive, mutually
respectful relationship between a mentor and a
particular high-risk or gang youth. Base mentor
selection on specific criteria. Mentors should have
(Mission Impossible 1990):

o A willingness to volunteer on a long-term basis.

o An understanding of/or experience with parenting.

o An ability to listen and hear what a person is
saying.

o Maturity and the ability to handle conflict.

o Honesty and sensitivity to personal privacy.

o Respect for the confidential nature of the
relationship.

The school must recruit mentors, and train and
supervise them. Mentors may be recruited through
community outreach, relatives or neighbors of gang
members, or former gang members. Designate a staff
member of the case management team to supervise the
mentor or volunteer program. Reward the volunteers
in some way. Hold yearly luncheons and award
programs, and place notes in local newspapers or
agency newsletters to give them recognition and
express your appreciation for their efforts.
Orientation should also include some appropriate
training or advice on effective listening and
counseling skills.

The case management team or Principal, with the aid
of parents groups, must strive to get more male
involvement (brother, uncle, or father) in school-
related activities. Recruiting male mentors to
volunteer in afterschool programs is a way to
expose high-risk and gang youth to positive role
models.

Inducements

The Principal and case management team must develop
a variety of inducements, in addition to those of
the parent association, parent patrols, or
mentoring programs:

o To target and engage passive and reluctant
parents in school activities and in efforts to
reduce the school and community gang problem.

o To meet the personal needs of the parents by
involving them in activities of personal or social
interest to them. Examples may include field trips,
computer classes, parent education classes, issues
related to child care and child development, and
their own education and job placement.

In addition, the school must have meetings at
convenient times, involve parents in the planning
process, and ensure a safe, non-threatening
environment (Anti-Drug/Gang Violence 1990). Reward
parents who volunteer with part-time jobs as school
aides and during the Christmas holiday hold raffles
and fundraising activities. Teachers, the
Principal, and the case management team must treat
all parents with respect and recognize the
knowledge and skills that parents can bring to
problem resolution. 

Also, if the school has the resources, a 24-hour
hotline is a good way to obtain information about
gang activity and school-related problems in an
anonymous and non-threatening manner. Parents can
call to share any information with the school at
any time.

Summary

The key points of this chapter are:

1. To effectively reduce the gang problem and
fulfill the mission of educating all students, it
is crucial to involve parents within the school. 

2. Parents will vary in their acceptance of a
school and community gang problem and in their
commitment to the school and activism regarding the
problem.

3. The school, through the efforts of the Principal
and case management team, will need to involve
different types of parents. The school must involve
parents in parent meetings, gang detection and
prevention school activities, mentoring, and
assistance on school activities (i.e., field
trips).

4. Parents who have successfully dealt with their
own children's gang or drug problem can be very
helpful in a support group or by calling or
visiting parents to offer support. 

5. The Principal and case management can use two
primary programs to involve parents: (1) Parents
Patrols and (2) Mentoring programs.

6. A parent patrol is a group of dedicated parents
who volunteer to work within the school. Used
primarily in elementary schools, parents patrol the
halls during the school day, supervise recess, and
monitor special activities. 

7. Mentoring is a useful way to involve parents or
siblings within the school and in afterschool
programs. A mentor is a person who is "a wise and
trusted teacher, guide, friend." The key is the
development of a positive, mutually respectful
relationship between a mentor and a particular
high-risk or gang youth. 

8. Recruiting male mentors to volunteer in
afterschool programs is a way to expose high-risk
and gang youth to positive role models.

9. Teachers, the Principal, and the case management
team must treat all parents with respect and
recognize the knowledge and skills that parents can
bring to problem resolution.

10. If the school has the resources, a 24-hour
hotline is a good way to obtain information about
gang activity and school-related problems in an
anonymous and non-threatening manner. Parents can
call to share any information with the school at
any time. 
____________________________________________

"The involvement of parents is essential if any
strategy is to be effective."

"The school, through the efforts of the Principal
and case management team, will need to involve
parents."

"Parents who have successfully dealt with children
with a gang or drug problem can be very helpful."

"A parent patrol is a group of dedicated parents
who volunteer to work within the school."

"Mentors can help provide support and counseling."

"Must try to involve males (brothers, uncles, or
fathers)."

_________________________________________

CHAPTER 14: LIAISON, COORDINATION, AND OUTREACH
WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT AND COMMUNITY AGENCIES
_________________________________________

o Community Outreach
o Information-Sharing
o Summary

Community Outreach

In most deprived communities, the school is one of
central, legitimate institutions for socializing
youth. Yet, sometimes the school is isolated from
the community and avoids dealing with community
gang problems. Schools must and can become more
involved in the surrounding community and work with
community agencies and parents to reduce the more
general gang problem that usually spills over into
the schools.

A variation of the notion of outreach is the use of
the school as a community base or anchor to provide
to students and parents with a whole range of
preventive, remedial, education, training, and
employment services. This approach may require that
some agencies locate services directly in the
school and that the school expands the school day.
A team of youth agencies, social workers, health
care workers, parents, businesses, police, and
probation would be available to deal with a variety
of youth problems, including the gang problem.
These agency teams, in addition to or in place of
the case management team can become active in the
school and work collectively to reduce the school
and community gang problem. Interagency agreements
and regular interagency conferences are mechanisms
for ensuring communication and cooperation.

Local businesses and the media can also participate
by cooperating in joint community/school efforts.
Businesses participate by giving jobs and/or job
training; the media by giving recognition for
contributions by gang or high-risk youths to the
community; e.g., showing leadership in community
clean-up efforts, participation in graffiti
expunging campaigns, mural projects, or other
activities sponsored by the school and community.

Information-Sharing

Occasionally, the school will need to share
information on a certain youth with community
organizations or law enforcement agencies. The
School Climate Committee must adopt procedures for
maintaining this list of gang and students at high
risk of gang involvement and their related records
and files confidential. The following suggestions
are in order:

o Only appropriate school personnel must have
access to these files.

o Generally, no outside agency, including the
police, must have access to these files. An
exception may be the informal sharing of
information with law enforcement agencies necessary
to effectively suppress serious gang activity
within and around the school.

o Parents and youth must complete forms that
authorize the release of specific types of
information to other agencies.

o School administrators, teachers, and other staff
must not abuse the list of names and use it to
exclude students from school, subject them to
harassment and stigmatization, and violate normal
student rights and privileges. The school must
develop and communicate due process procedures to
all parents and students.

o Review the list of high-risk youth frequently for
reliability and validity. Purge the list of gang
youth periodically and add names only after a
careful assessment. The case management team must
have exclusive responsibility for file maintenance.

o When it is necessary to share descriptive
information regarding the gang problem, make a
distinction between statistical data and
information on particular students. When possible,
share only aggregate statistical data with outside
agencies and actors.

Summary

The key points of this chapter are:

1. Schools must and can become more involved in the
surrounding community and work with community
agencies and parents to reduce the more general
gang problem that usually spills over into the
schools.

2. A variation of the notion of outreach is the use
of the school as a community base or anchor to
provide to students and parents a whole range of
preventive, remedial, education, training, and
employment services. This approach may require that
some agencies locate services directly in the
school and that the school expands the school day. 

3. Interagency agreements and regular interagency
conferences are mechanisms for ensuring
communication and cooperation.

4. Local businesses and the media can also
participate through cooperating in joint
community/school efforts.

5. Occasionally, the school will need to share
information with community organizations or law
enforcement agencies. The School Climate Committee
must adopt procedures for maintaining a list of
gang members and students at high-risk of gang
involvement and for keeping it and their related
records and files confidential.

6. Generally, no outside agency, including the
police, must have access to these files. An
exception may be the informal sharing of
information with law enforcement agencies necessary
to effectively suppress serious gang activity
within and around the school.

7. School administrators, teachers, and other staff
must not abuse the list of names and use it to
exclude students from school, subject youth to
harassment and stigmatization, and violate normal
student rights and privileges. The school must
develop and communicate due process procedures to
all parents and students.

8. Review the list of high-risk youth frequently
for reliability and validity. Purge the list of
gang youth periodically and add names only after a
careful assessment.

9. When it is necessary to share descriptive
information regarding the gang problem, make a
distinction between statistical data and
information on particular students. When possible,
share only aggregate statistical data with outside
agencies and actors.
_________________________________________

"Schools must and can become more involved in the
surrounding community."

"This approach may require that some agencies
locate services directly in the school and that the
school expands the school day."

"Businesses and the media can participate through
cooperating in joint community/school efforts."

"Only appropriate school personnel must have access
to these files."
___________________________________________

CHAPTER 15: EVALUATION
___________________________________________

Program evaluation is the process by which the
school or an outside expert (consultant or
academic) obtains information to determine if the
school has been successful in reducing the school
gang or community gang problem. It must measure the
extent to which victimization within and around the
school has decreased, truancy and dropout rates
were reduced, and the school climate has improved
(reduction of fear and anxiety) in consequence of
the special antigang efforts undertaken. Therefore,
it is important to define program goals and
objectives in measurable ways to ensure the quality
of programs. The school must also determine the
validity of classifications of high-risk and gang
youths. Major evaluation questions to answer are:

o How many youths who received targeted services
did not drop out or continue disruptive behavior?

o Did the academic performance of gang and high-
risk youth change?

o Has the school climate improved and do the
teachers and students report a reduction of fear
and anxiety? 

o How many times have the police and school
security been called to deal with gang problems? 

o Have graffiti writing and other gross indicators
of gang presence and activity declined?

o Has there been a reduction in the community's
gang problem?

Ideally, the school must plan a long-term as well
as short-term outcome evaluation. Good
documentation and recordkeeping is essential to
effective evaluations. The school must use
evaluation findings to determine which programs
work and which do not, what needs improving, and
new approaches to the reduction of the school gang
problem.

Summary

The key points of this chapter are:

1. Program evaluation is the process by which the
school or an outside expert (consultant or
academic) obtains information to determine if the
school has been successful in reducing the school
gang or community gang problem.

2. Program goals and objectives should be defined
in measurable ways to ensure the quality of
programs.

3. Good documentation and recordkeeping is
essential to effective evaluations.

4. The school must use evaluation findings to
determine which programs work and which do not,
what needs improving, and new approaches to the
reduction of the school gang problem.

_______________________________________

"Need to evaluate outcomes to measure intervention
effectiveness."

"Good recordkeeping is essential to effective
evaluations."

________________________________________

APPENDIX A
________________________________________

List of Program Reports from the National Youth
Gang Suppression and Intervention Program

The following is a list of draft reports developed
by the National Youth Gang Suppression and
Intervention Program, University of Chicago, in
cooperation with the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), U.S. Department of
Justice. Stage One Assessment of this research and
development program identifies promising community
and organizational responses to the youth gang
problem. Stage Two Prototype/Model Development
focuses on developing twelve promising prototype
models to address the problem. These models specify
policies and practices for the design and
mobilization of efforts at the community and
criminal justice levels. Stage Three Technical
Assistance manuals provide guidelines for
implementing the models.

All reports are available in draft form from the
National Youth Gang Information Center (NYGIC),
4301 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 730, Arlington, VA
22203. NYGIC is OJJDP's central dissemination point
for all gang-related information. NYGIC provides
the above reports in hardcopy and on high-density
computer disks in WordPerfect 5.1. Call NYGIC toll-
free at 800-446-GANG or 703-522-4007 locally for
assistance.

ASSESSMENT: STAGE 1

Full Reports Available:

1. Literature Review: Youth Gangs: Problem and
Response, 1991, 357 pages. This comprehensive
literature review covers what has been written on
the youth gang issue from a research and program
standpoint.

2. Survey of Youth Gang Problems and Programs in 45
Cities and 6 Sites, 1990, 297 pages. This survey
reports aggregate gang or community level data on
youth gang problems and programs in 45 cities and 6
institutional sites for the year 1987. 

3. Community and Institutional Responses to the
Youth Gang Problem, 1990, 184 pages. This report
consists of case studies of how five communities
and one correctional institution addressed youth
gang problems in promising ways.

4. Report of the Law Enforcement Youth Gang
Symposium, 1988, 152 pages. This report describes
the gang intervention activities of fourteen police
departments located across the United States,
particularly with respect to their attempts to
reduce the gang problem.

5. Law Enforcement Youth Gang Definitional
Conference--Transcript, 1990, 138 pages. This is a
proceeding of a conference at which gang experts
from law enforcement and academia from Los Angeles
city and county, Chicago and New York City were
brought together in an effort to develop a uniform
set of definitions (i.e., gang, gang member, gang
incident) applicable to street gang phenomena
across the country.

6. The Youth Gang Problem: Perceptions of Former
Youth Gang Influentials. Transcripts of Two
Symposia, 1990, 139 pages. These are the
proceedings of two symposia at which former gang
influentials--Black and Hispanic--describe why they
joined the gang, what activities they were involved
in while gang members, what factors caused them to
depart from the gang, and what recommendations they
had for community, policy and agency changes.

7. Client Evaluation of Youth Gang Services, 1990,
53 pages. This document reports on the perceptions
of current and former youth gang members concerning
the nature and efficacy of services provided by
some of the programs located at our field visit
sites.

8. Preventing Involvement in Youth Gang Crime,
1990, 173 pages. This report identifies indicators
of Black and Hispanic youth at risk of becoming
gang members in inner-city Chicago communities with
high gang crime rates.

9. Stage 1: Assessment Executive Summary, 1990, 25
pages. This report summarizes the findings of the
Assessment Stage of the National Youth Gang
Suppression and Intervention Program. 

MODEL DEVELOPMENT: STAGE 2

Gang Intervention Models recommend policies and
procedures for addressing youth gang members 12 to
24 years of age. Strategies of suppression and
intervention are described. Issues of prevention,
although essential, are not highlighted in these
documents. The models emphasize mobilizing
community interest and developing distinctive
institutional missions within the local juvenile
justice system. Gang Intervention Models Available:

Document #Title

D0001 Executive Summary: Prototype Models, 33
pages.
D0002 Community-Based Youth Agency, 24 pages.
D0003 Community Mobilization, 20 pages.
D0004 Corrections, 19 pages.
D0005 General Community Design, 56 pages.
D0006 Grassroots Organization, 19 pages.
D0007 Judges, 15 pages.
D0008 Parole, 14 pages.
D0009 Police, 21 pages.
D0010 Probation, 16 pages. 
D0011 Prosecution, 12 pages.
D0012 Schools, 19 pages.
D0013 Youth Employment, 17 pages.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE MANUALS: STAGE 3

Technical Assistance Manuals provide detailed step-
by-step guidelines for implementing the models.
Strategies are designed to encourage gang-prone and
gang-involved youth to terminate criminal activity
and participate in legitimate social, academic, and
employment pursuits. It cannot be sure the policies
and practices proposed to reduce the youth gang
crime problem are effective until they are tested.
Gang Manuals Available:

Document #Title

D0014 Community-Based Youth Agency, 92 pages.
D0015 Community Mobilization, 102 pages.
D0016 Corrections, 84 pages.
D0017 General Community Design, 110 pages.
D0018 Grassroots Organization, 92 pages.
D0019 Judges, 102 pages.
D0020 Parole, 98 pages.
D0021 Police, 98 pages.
D0022 Probation, 116 pages.
D0023 Prosecution, 74 pages.
D0024 Schools, 150 pages.
D0025 Youth Employment, 120 pages.

_________________________________________

Appendix B: GLOSSARY AND DISCUSSION OF TERMS
_________________________________________

There is much variation in the definition of youth
gang or its equivalent terms depending on
particular agency, city, or region of the country,
race/ethnicity, gang generation, and cultural
factors. The terms delinquent group, gang, and
criminal organization need to be distinguished for
policy and program purposes to the fullest extent
possible. 

1. Gang. This term generally refers to a group or
collective of persons with a common identity whose
members interact on a fairly regular basis in
cliques or sometimes as a whole group. The
activities of the gang may be regarded as
legitimate, illegitimate, or criminal in varying
combinations.

o Street Gang. This term preferred by law
enforcement, emphasizes the organized character of
a group of persons on the street, often engaged in
significant illegitimate or criminal activity. The
ages of members of these street gangs vary; some
street gangs are more street-based than others.
Some authorities report arrests of street gang
members in their 30's, 40's, and 50's.

o Youth Gang. This term may refer to a youth
segment of a street gang, usually between the ages
of 12 and 24. Some youth gang members are younger
or older. The term youth gang is often used as
equivalent to street gang, and is somewhat
preferred by community-based agencies.

o Traditional Youth Gang. This term refers to a
youth gang comprising mainly adolescents,
juveniles, and some young adults primarily
concerned with issues of status, prestige, and turf
protection. The youth gang may have a name, a
hangout, codes of conduct, colors, special dress,
signs, symbols, etc. Traditional youth gangs often
have a leadership structure (implicit or
explicit), differ in degree of a gang activities,
and may persist over several generations.
Traditional youth gangs vary by community as to
characteristics of age, gender, race/ethnicity,
scope, and nature of delinquent or criminal
activities. The traditional youth gang contains
many types of subgroups engaged in various
delinquent, criminal, and social group activities.

o Posse/Crew. The terms posse and crew are
sometimes equivalent to street or youth gang. The
posse or crew, more often than the traditional
youth gang, is characterized by a commitment to
criminal gain activity, particularly drug
trafficking, rather than to status-based conflict.
It may be loosely organized and/or connected to an
adult criminal organization. It emphasizes
employer-employee relationships and has fewer
social status-related or symbolic interests or
characteristics than the traditional youth gang.

o Other Types of Youth "Gangs". Other types of
groups or "quasi" gangs may include Stoners, Punk
Rockers, Neo-Nazi Skinheads, Hate Groups, Satanic
Groups, Motorcycle Gangs, Prison Gangs. They may be
similar to traditional or street youth gangs in
various ways, but have distinctive organizational,
cultural, political, religious and institutional
lifestyles, perspectives, and biases. They can be
loosely organized or ephemeral and engage in group-
oriented violent or criminal behavior to sustain or
defend these beliefs. They may also be
characterized by distinctive dress, leadership
structure, and concerns with status and turf.

o Other Youth Group Considerations. It is important
to distinguish these gangs and gang-like groups
from youth or street groups of an earlier era,
which are still present today. These groups have
been called street clubs, youth organizations, or
social and athletic clubs are usually less violent
or delinquent, generally contain fewer regular
members, and are not as often regarded as
delinquent youth gangs by local residents. They
serve to socialize low-income, working-class,
sometimes first-generation youths in transition
from childhood to adulthood. Their activities may
constitute acceptable behaviors that are considered
normal rites of passage in the particular
community.

"Copycat" gangs may be increasingly present in some
low-income and middle-class communities, often
located in smaller cities, suburban, and rural
areas. Youth in these groups may identify and
attempt to imitate the mannerisms and behaviors of
youth gangs in urban centers. Identification with
gang culture, in significant measure through media
influence, may be a source of novel experience and
excitement for youth. The behavior of such groups
constitute a challenge to authority in communities
undergoing change and where family disruption is
increasing. The activities of copycat gangs may
sometimes have serious violent or criminal
consequences.

Most of these youth gangs, however, are ephemeral,
engage in relatively minor delinquent acts and have
little if any actual or ongoing contact with other
criminal juvenile or adult groups. The threat these
groups pose to the community and to the social
development of their members should be carefully
assessed so that a problem is not created or
exaggerated where no, or very little, evidence of a
sustainable or serious gang problem exists.

2. Delinquent Group. This refers to a group or
collectivity, mainly of juveniles and/or
adolescents, engaged usually in less serious law-
violating behavior. This law-violating behavior is
sometimes of a wider range, particularly with
respect to property crimes, than those of youth
gangs, posses, crews, and other "quasi" gangs. The
delinquent group is usually less organized and more
ephemeral than a youth gang. It is characterized by
none of the special characteristics of gangs such
as turf, distinctive dress, colors, signs or
symbols. The delinquent group is the most prevalent
of all deviant youth groups in most communities.

3. Criminal organization. This is usually a
relatively well-organized, stable, and
sophisticated clique, group, or organization of
youths and/or adults committed primarily to
systematic, income-producing activity of a criminal
nature. Its members are essentially employees of a
criminal business organization. The criminal
organization may at times use intimidation and
violence to achieve or protect its economic
interests. The organization often provides
employment for current or former gang members. Such
organizations may provide illegal services or goods
to the community and acquire rewards from local
residents in mutually acceptable and reinforcing
ways. The Loose Crew Triad and Mafia are subtypes
of criminal organizations.

4. Gang clique, set, klika. The gang clique and set
are terms sometimes used as equivalent to youth
gang. On the other hand, a klika on the west coast
may represent an entire cohort or age sector of
youth (e.g., 13- and 14-year-old males) who join or
are "jumped into" a street gang. The clique in its
smaller-size connotation may signify a "tight"
grouping of two or three youths who have similar
characteristics or criminal interests.

5. Youth Gang Member. This term can indicate
various types of members who engage in a range of
legitimate, illegitimate, criminal, and/or violent
behaviors. Leaders and core members of youth or
street gangs are often (but not always) more
serious and frequent offenders than are other kinds
of gang members. Arrested gang members are more
likely to become career criminals than arrested
nongang delinquents.

The following represent membership categories of
the more traditional turf-based gang. In the course
of a gang member's career, he or she may assume
several roles:

o Gang leader. This individual makes central or
important decisions that affect the gang's
behavior. The leader may be formally recognized as
President, King, Queen, Prince, Ambas-sador, Old
Gangster, or have no title. Leadership may also be
a function shared by different members of the
group, depending on particular situations, such as
initiating a social or athletic affair; starting or
sanctioning a gang fight; conducting a drug
transaction; or negotiating criminal deals.

o Core or Hardcore gang member. This is an
attribution assigned, often by law enforcement, to
gang members who engage consistently in gang
violence and other serious gang-motivated crime,
e.g., a shooter. It refers to the few gang members
who are most influential in the development or
implementation of the gang's violent patterns of
criminal behavior.

o Regular member. This gang member participates in
the gang's criminal activities on a consistent and
frequent basis. He or she is recognized as a member
in good standing or status.

o Associate. This term refers to a youth who
occasionally associates with gang members on the
street or elsewhere but who neither recognizes
himself nor is usually, or fully, recognized by
others as a gang member, except sometimes by law
enforcement officials when a gang crime is
committed and the particular youth is located
nearby.

o Soldier or peon. This is a reliable but low-
status gang member.

o Peripheral or Fringe member. This gang member
participates periodically and selectively in gang
events. He or she usually does not have high status
and is not regarded as a reliable or committed gang
member. The gang member may readily leave the gang
and be excused from participation in many of the
gang's activities.

o Wannabe. This refers ordinarily to a younger
(less frequently to an older) youth who wants to
join the gang. He or she may be a friend or
relative of a gang member or former gang member, or
already be a member of a "tot" or a juvenile gang-
related group. The wannabe may be sought after to
join the gang and participate in its activities. 

o Recruit. A recruit may at times be an older youth
recruited for certain skills or talents useful
during crises, e.g., gang fighting. He or she may
be requested to join for a limited period of time.

o Youth at risk of gang membership or gang-prone
youth. This is a youth who is not yet a gang
member. He or she may not explicitly aspire to gang
membership, nor be a target for gang recruitment.
However, certain social characteristics and
conditions within his or her immediate environment
make the youth likely to become a gang member, such
as:

o he or she lives in a gang neighborhood; 

o a member of his or her family is a gang member; 

o he or she experiments with drugs; 

o he or she commits delinquent acts; 

o he or she is failing at school;

o he or she has certain physical or social
attributes which are attractive to the gang;

o he or she is knowledgeable about gang lore; 

o he or she occasionally flashes gang signs or
wears gang colors;

o he or she is suspected by school or police of
being a gang member.

These characteristics or conditions, singly, may be
insufficient to predispose the youth to gang
membership or actually identify him or her as a
gang member. The National Youth Gang Suppression
and Intervention Program is primarily concerned
with the high-risk, gang-prone youth or incipient
gang member who gives clear evidence of likely or
actual criminal gang involvement.

o Floater, go-between, operator, broker. Such a
youth or adult is ordinarily not a member of a
specific gang, but is well-known and has high
status or respect among several gangs in the
community. He or she has certain knowledge,
talents, or resources useful to gangs, e.g., access
to other gangs, capacity to mediate a gang fight,
ability to provide legal advice, access to weapons
or drugs.

o Veterano, Old Head, O.G. (Old Gangster), Senior,
Advisor, Counselor. This is usually an honorific
status assigned to or taken by a young adult who
was (or was reported to be) a gang member when he
or she was younger. These adults are often no
longer active gang members. They may be junkies,
drug dealers, informers, racketeers, legitimate
business operators, human service workers, a
parent, or other respected members of the
community. They sometimes attempt to influence the
group or its membership to maintain gang tradition,
increase or reduce gang violence, or leave the gang
and pursue a legitimate (or illegitimate) adult
career. A few may participate selectively on
occasion in gang-motivated criminal activity.

6. Group delinquency and gang crime incidents. Not
all group delinquency or crime should be classified
automatically as a gang incident, e.g., purse
snatching, disturbing the peace, mob action, or
group assault by nongang members. Group delinquent
acts are often incorrectly classified as gang
motivated incidents, particularly in emerging gang
problem contexts where the problem is just starting
and officials do not clearly recognize or
understand the distinctive character of the
problem. Authorities may initially over-react and
classify co-offending youth as members of a gang
when their delinquent activity is neither gang-
motivated nor gang-related.

o Labelling gang-motivated and gang-related
incidents. The police in practice often employ a
combination of gang-motivated and gang-related
procedures to define gang crime incidents. We
believe that a system should be developed to gather
and record information on gang crime which neither
exaggerates nor denies, but accurately and
meaningfully describes a gang event. A definition
should be devised which emphasizes the gang-
oriented nature of the incident, i.e., preferably
using gang motivation criteria, and not simply the
fact that the participant is a gang member.

The argument that the gang member is influenced by
his experience in the gang even when he commits a
nongang crime must be balanced by two counter
arguments. Often the gang member was a serious
delinquent before he joined the gang. Subsequent
gang-related activity should not thereby be
regarded as simply those of a gang delinquent. More
importantly, excessive reference to the individual
as a gang member simply enhances his prestige and
exaggerates the threat of the gang or gang member
to the community.

However, since the gang member, especially the
leadership or core member is likely to be a serious
offender, an information system should be developed
that records both gang-motivated and gang-related
crime of certain types of offenders. Special
justice system attention should be paid to the gang
member who is a repeat serious offender whether he
commits gang-motivated or non-gang-motivated crime.

Due regard must be given to the fact that not all
gang members are delinquent or criminal, and not
all delinquent or criminal gang members will be
hard-core offenders. The complexity of the gang
problem as well as due process and civil rights
require that the individual gang youth should be
correctly identified as a criminally-oriented gang
member. He or she should not be subjected to
excessive labelling and punishment, which will
probably contribute neither to the protection of
the community nor to the social development of the
gang member in the long run.

7. Social Disorganization. As used in this manual,
social disorganization refers to a lack of
integration across the individual, family,
organizations and community. It indicates, for
example, an inability to mesh motivations, norms,
values, and activities by the individual youth with
those of his or her family; by family units with
organizations such as the school; by units within a
particular agency or organization; and across
organizations in a community.

At the societal and community levels, social
disorganization is often associated with large and
rapid population movements and social changes or
disruptions, e.g., the influx of a new minority
population, the outflow of middle-class families,
and the failure of key institutions such as
schools, law enforcement, and employers to
understand and meet the needs of a new or changing
population.

Gangs, or even certain communities, may be regarded
as coherently organized for their particular
purposes. However, the predominant norms and values
of these gangs and communities are usually in
conflict with the legitimized norms of the larger
society. Gangs meet the social and often economic
needs of people in ways not approved by the
dominant culture.

Variables of social disorganization may not be
related to variables of poverty, racism, cultural
conflict,[1] and social isolation.[2] We believe
the interaction of at least two variables,
particularly social disorganization and poverty,
creates high risks of gang involvement.

Social disorganization may also refer to changes
that bring about excessive stress or crises in
patterns of transition from one state or social
situation to another. These transitional patterns
may be normal, expected, and desirable under
circumstances of stable relationships at home and
in the community. They include the transition from:
childhood to adolescence; adolescence to young
adulthood; one level of schooling to another; and a
segregated to an integrated school system, which
may require bussing.

Early gang involvements are likely to occur during
the transition of youth from elementary to junior
high, and from junior high to high school in
certain neighborhoods. Social disorganization may
also be inherent in the changing of seasons. For
example, gang activity seems often to rise in the
fall as youth begin school, just before and after
holiday breaks, and during the late spring before
summer vacation. 

________________________________________

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