2000 Survey of Youth Gangs in Indian Country

By Aline K. Major and Arlen Egley, Jr.

Response Rates

Survey distribution efforts initially targeted tribal leaders.

To increase response rates, NYGC later extended efforts

to include law enforcement agencies that serve tribal

communities. Overall, 300 (52 percent) of the communities

responded to the survey. Survey findings are based solely

on completed surveys and are not necessarily

representative of all Indian communities.

Findings

Twenty-three percent (n=69) of Indian communities

reported active youth gangs during 2000 (see Figure 1).

For the remainder of this Fact Sheet, these will be called

the “respondents.” Seventy percent of communities

reported no gang activity, and 7 percent reported they could

not make a determination.2

The estimated number of youth gangs reported by

respondents ranged from 1 to 40 gangs per Indian country

community. As shown in Figure 2, 59 percent reported

1 to 5 gangs, 19 percent indicated 6 to 10, and 6 percent

reported more than 10. Sixteen percent could not provide

an estimate. The estimated number of gang members per

community reported by respondents ranged from 4 to 750.

Figure 3 reveals that 32 percent reported 25 or fewer gang

members, 12 percent identified 26 to 50, 16 percent

reported more than 50, and 41 percent did not know.3

Background

Since 1995, the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) has

conducted an annual survey of law enforcement agencies

regarding gang activity. The National Youth Gang Survey

(NYGS) is based on a nationally representative sample of

more than 3,000 law enforcement agencies serving larger

cities, suburban counties, smaller cities, and rural counties.

As tribal police departments are not included in the survey

sample, detailed data about youth gang activity in Indian

country1

 has largely been absent. In 2001, NYGC

implemented a survey of youth gangs in Indian country,

surveying 577 federally recognized tribal communities to

measure the presence, size, and activity of youth gangs in

these communities.

Definitions

The survey defines an Indian “community” as:

[P]ersons of American Indian, Alaska Native, or

Aleut heritage who reside within the limits of Indian

reservations, pueblos, rancherias, villages, dependent

Indian communities, or Indian allotments, and who

together comprise a federally recognized tribe or

community. Communities also include people who have

been recognized by the United States government as a

tribe or tribal community, but who do not occupy tribal

trust, tribally owned, or Indian allotment lands.

Communities are the people and land together or tribal

community viewed as a group. Land without the people

is not considered a community for the purpose of this

survey.

Survey respondents provided information for “youth

gangs,” defined as groups of youth or young adults in their

community that they or “other responsible tribal members

or service providers [were] willing to identify or classify”

as “gangs.”

Figure 1:

Youth

Gang

Activity in

Indian

Country,

2000

(n=300)

No 70%

Yes 23%

Do Not

Know 7%

June 2002 #01

NYGC Fact Sheet NYGC Fact Sheet
Respondents estimated that, on average, 80 percent of

gang members in Indian country were male and 20 percent

were female.4 They reported that the vast majority

(78 percent) of gang members in Indian country were

American Indian, Alaska Native or Aleut, followed by

Hispanic/Latino (12 percent), Caucasian (7 percent),

African American (2 percent), and Asian (2 percent).

Respondents reported that approximately one-quarter of

the gang members in their community were younger than

15 and that almost half were between 15 and 17 years old,

suggesting that almost 75 percent were juveniles (younger

than 18). Figure 4 highlights a few of the most significant

findings related to demographic characteristics.

Respondents also estimated, on average, that 82 percent of

the identified gangs included both male and female

members, 10 percent were female-dominated (more than

50 percent of the gang members were female), and

35 percent were racially/ethnically mixed.

According to respondents, the offense that gang members

were most frequently involved in was graffiti (47 percent

of gang problem communities reported a high degree of

involvement for this offense), followed by vandalism

(40 percent), drug sales (22 percent), and aggravated

assault (15 percent) (see Figure 5). Seventy-eight percent

of respondents reported no gang-related homicides,

14 percent reported one, and 8 percent reported two or

more gang-related homicides in 2000.

Figure 6 is a cumulative time line of when those

respondents who reported gang activity in 2000 first

identified a gang problem in their community. Less than

10 percent of respondents reported youth gang activity in

their communities before 1988, suggesting the relatively

recent emergence of gang problems in most of the

communities (see Figure 6). Seventy-four percent of the

communities reported their year of gang problem onset

after 1990.

Forty-nine percent of respondents indicated that, when

compared with 1999, their youth gang problem in 2000 had

stayed about the same. Thirty-four percent reported that it

had worsened, and 17 percent indicated that it had

improved.

Figure 2: Number of

Gangs in Indian

Country, 2000 (n=69)

Figure 3: Number of Gang

Members in Indian Country,

2000 (n=69)

Figure 4: Demographic

Characteristics of Gang Members

in Indian Country, 2000 (n>55)

Figure 5: Gang Member Involvement

in Offenses in Indian Country, 2000

(n>66)

59%

19%

6%

16%

Percent of Respondents

1 to 5 6 to 10 More Do Not

Than 10 Know

32%

12% 16%

41%

Percent of Respondents

25 or 26 to 50 More Do Not

Fewer Than 50 Know

78% 80%

74%

Average Percent

% American % Male % Juvenile

Indian/Alaska (Under 18)

Native/Aleut

15%

10%

100

8 0

6 0

4 0

2 0

0

22%

Percent of Respondents Reporting

“Most/All” Gang Member Involvement

Aggravated Burglary/ Drug Grafitti Larceny Motor Robbery Vandalism

Assault Breaking Sales Theft Vehicle

and Theft

Entering

8 % 6 % 5 %

47%

40%

100

7 5

5 0

2 5

0

100

7 5

5 0

2 5

0

100

7 5

5 0

2 5

0
When respondents were asked to rate the seriousness of

various social problems in their community, 96 percent

reported alcohol abuse as a serious or very serious

problem, followed by drug abuse (88 percent), and

domestic violence (80 percent). Of the eight social

problems respondents were asked to rate, youth gangs

ranked second to last as a problem (52 percent of

communities), above violent juvenile crime (42 percent).

Summary

Twenty-three percent of responding tribal communities

reported experiencing a youth gang problem in 2000. The

extent of the gang problem varied considerably among

communities, with many reporting comparatively few youth

gangs and gang members. Gang members were most

often reported to be juvenile and male. Although gang

members’ reported involvement in crime varied, it most

often included graffiti and vandalism.

These findings add to the current understanding of the

presence and impact of gang activity in Indian country and

have important implications for subsequent policy and

practice regarding tribal youth. Recognizing that the

majority of gang members in Indian country are young and

many are female, gang prevention efforts should target all

youth during late childhood and early adolescence.

Additional programs addressing a range of strategies

devoted to the prevention, control, and reduction of youth

crime in Indian country, such as the Tribal Youth Program,5

should be established in these communities. Furthermore,

as the gang problem in Indian country appears to be an

extension of more serious community problems, policies

aimed at improving overall conditions of these areas most

likely will have a concurrent positive impact on the

community’s gang problem.

Notes

1. “Indian country” is defined in 18 U.S.C. §1151(a)- (c).

2. Communities reporting “do not know” are presented

here due to their appreciable number. Unless noted,

elsewhere in this Fact Sheet “do not know” responses

are excluded from the analysis.

3. Percentages do not total 100 due to rounding.

4. Throughout this Fact Sheet, all results are based on

unweighted data due to the significant reduction in

eligible cases for weighting procedures. Therefore,

caution must be exercised when interpreting these

results.

5. For more information about the tribal youth program,

which is administered by OJJDP, see Andrews, Chyrl,

1999; Tribal Youth Program. Fact Sheet.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of

Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention.

For Further Information

Additional analyses of the 2000 Survey of Youth Gangs in

Indian Country are ongoing and a comprehensive report of

the findings is forthcoming. For additional information

about youth gangs, contact NYGC at (800) 446-0912, or

www.iir.com/nygc/.

Aline K. Major and Arlen Egley, Jr. are Research

Associates with NYGC, which is operated for the Office

of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention by the

Institute for Intergovernmental Research in Tallahassee,

Florida.

Figure 6: Proliferation of Gang Activity in Indian Country

Communities with Gang Problems in 2000 (n=51)

6 8

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Cumulative Percent of Gang Problem

1 0

Communities

1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000

and

Before

3 3

6 1

100

Year of Onset

6 8

2 6

4 3

8 6