U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

March 2001 #03

Youth Gang Homicides in the 1990’s

by G. David Curry, Cheryl L. Maxson, and James C. Howell

The overall number of youth gang homicides in U.S. cities declined during the 1990’s, but trends varied in the early and later

parts of the decade and by city. This Fact Sheet discusses the

results of a study of youth gang homicides in U.S. cities in

the 1990’s, which was conducted by the Office of Juvenile Justice

and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP’s) National Youth Gang

Center. The study combined results from multiple years of National Youth Gang Surveys and previous law enforcement surveys

of gang activity in general and gang homicides in particular.

Throughout this Fact Sheet, the word “gang” refers to “youth

gangs.” The term “gang homicides” refers to incidents that involve

gang members as victims and/or offenders; some cities reported

figures on more narrowly defined, gang-motivated incidents. Because the study used several databases, gang homicide trends during the decade were examined in two parts: the early to mid-1990’s

and the late 1990’s.

Results

Gang Homicide Trends in the Early to Mid-1990’s

The study used three gang databases to examine gang homicides

in the first part of the decade. These databases included cities surveyed in 1991 by either Maxson and Klein or Curry1

 that also

provided homicide data in the 1996 National Youth Gang Survey.

Trends for the early to mid-1990’s reflect data for 408 matched

cities. The matched-city comparison for 1991 and 1996 was the

only explicit comparison that could be made, because the three

surveys used different samples. If no 1996 data were available for

one of the cities, data from the 1995 National Youth Gang Survey

were used for the mid-1990’s comparison.

During these years, the total number of gang homicides decreased

among the cities in the survey by nearly 15 percent, from 1,748

to 1,492 incidents. Thirty-two percent of the cities reported a

decrease, 29 percent reported an increase, and 39 percent

reported no change.

Gang Homicide Trends in the Late 1990’s

For the late 1990’s comparison, data from the 1996, 1997, and

1998 National Youth Gang Surveys were analyzed.2 The study

looked at data from 1,216 cities with populations greater than

25,000 that reported on gang problems and gang homicides

between 1996 and 1998.

A total of 237 cities reported both a gang problem and a gang

homicide statistic in all 3 years. Forty-nine percent reported a

decrease in gang homicides over the 3-year period, 36 percent

reported an increase, and 15 percent reported no change. The

total number of gang homicides for these cities was 1,293 in

1996, 1,260 in 1997, and 1,061 in 1998.

Relatively few cities reported large numbers of gang homicides.

From 1996 to 1998, 88 percent (383) of the 436 responding cities3

had a maximum of 1–10 gang homicides in any single year, 10

percent (45 cities) reported a maximum of 11–50, and 2 percent (8

cities) had more than 50 gang homicides in any of the 3 years. The

trend in cities with the most gang homicides overshadows the patterns in cities with low numbers of gang homicides.

Los Angeles, CA, and Chicago, IL, stand out among cities with the

highest rates of gang homicide. In 1998, Los Angeles reported 173

gang homicides and Chicago reported 180. Although the two cities

use different reporting methods (Los Angeles reports gang-related

homicides and Chicago reports gang-motivated homicides), both

cities reported substantial decreases in gang homicides from

1996 to 1998, with a far greater decrease reported in Los Angeles

1

 Klein, 1995a; Maxson, 1998; Maxson, Woods, and Klein, 1995, 1996; Curry,

Fox, Ball, and Stone, 1992; Curry, Ball, and Fox, 1994.

2

 See National Youth Gang Center, 1997, 1999a, 1999b, 2000.

3

 Cities with populations over 25,000 that reported a gang problem and gang

homicides in at least 1 year between 1996 and 1998.
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(41 percent) than in Chicago (19 percent). Thus, these two cities

contributed significantly to the overall drop in gang homicides

from 1996 to 1998.4

Summary

From the early to mid-1990’s, the total number of gang homicides reported in more than 400 cities decreased 15 percent. This

15-percent drop provides little comfort when two other findings

are considered. First, just one city—Los Angeles—accounts for

29.7 percent of the 256-homicide decrease nationwide from 1991

to 1996 (or 1995, if 1996 data were not available). Second, the

number of cities with decreases in gang homicides during this

period is counterbalanced by a similar number of cities with increases. More cities (39 percent) reported no change in the number of gang homicides than reported either an increase (29 percent) or a decrease (32 percent). Thus, gang homicides remained

a serious problem in most U.S. cities during the first part of the

decade, increasing and decreasing in almost the same proportion

of cities.

Gang homicide trends from 1996 to 1998 were more dynamic.

One-half of the surveyed cities reported a decrease in homicides,

36 percent reported an increase, and 15 percent reported no

change. The finding that more cities reported a decrease over

these recent years should encourage law enforcement and social

service practitioners to continue their efforts to reduce and

prevent gang violence. However, the overall decrease in the numbers of homicides is strongly influenced by the trends in Chicago,

Los Angeles, and a handful of other cities with substantial numbers of gang homicides.

For Further Information

For more information about youth gangs, contact the National

Youth Gang Center or call OJJDP’s Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC), 800–638–8736.

National Youth Gang Center

P.O. Box 12729

Tallahassee, FL 32317

800–446–0912

850–386–5356 (fax)

www.iir.com/nygc/ (Internet)

G. David Curry, Ph.D., is Professor, Department of Criminology and

Sociology, University of Missouri–St. Louis. Cheryl L. Maxson, Ph.D.,

is Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Law and Society,

University of California, Irvine. James C. Howell, Ph.D., is Adjunct

Researcher with the National Youth Gang Center, Institute for Intergovernmental Research, Tallahassee, FL. For a list of sources cited in this

Fact Sheet, call JJC. The list is also available as an addendum through

Fax-on-Demand at the toll-free number and from OJJDP’s Web site,

www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org.

4

 Gang homicides in Los Angeles were reported to be increasing in 2000, reflecting the cyclical pattern of gang homicides (Klein, 1995b).