DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02792.v1
title: Prevalence of Five Gang Structures in 201 Cities in the United States, 1992 and 1995
title: Version 1

description: The goal of this study was to provide useful data on how
 street gang crime patterns (by amount and type of offense) relate to
 common patterns of street gang structure, thus providing focused,
 data-based guidelines for gang control and intervention. The data
 collection consists of two components: (1) descriptions of cities'
 gang activities taken from an earlier study of gang migration in 1992,
 IMPACT OF GANG MIGRATION: EFFECTIVE RESPONSES BY LAW ENFORCEMENT
 AGENCIES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1992 (ICPSR 2570), and (2) gang
 structure data from 1995 interviews with police agencies in a sample
 of the same cities that responded to the 1992 survey. Information
 taken from the 1992 study includes the year of gang emergence in the
 city, numbers of active gangs and gang members, ethnic distribution of
 gang members, numbers of gang homicides and "drive-bys" in 1991, state
 in which the city is located, and population of the city. Information
 from the 1995 gang structures survey provides detail on the ethnic
 distributions of gangs, whether a predominant gang structure was
 present, each gang structure's typical size, and the total number of
 each of the five gang structures identified by the principal
 investigators -- chronic traditional, emergent traditional, emergent
 integrated, expanded integrated, and specialty integrated. City crime
 information was collected on the spread of arrests, number of serious
 arrests, volume and specialization of crime, arrest profile codes and
 history, uniform crime rate compared to city population, ratio of
 serious arrests to total arrests, and ratio of arrests to city
population.
description: The goal of this study was to provide useful data
 on how street gang crime patterns (by amount and type of offense)
 relate to common patterns of street gang structure, thus providing
 focused, data-based guidelines for gang control and intervention. The
 researchers utilized data from two sources to calculate estimates of
 the national prevalence of various types of gang structures, and of
 the perceived patterns of criminal activity associated with each
 structure. While previous attempts to typologize gangs relied heavily
 upon their crime patterns, these data describe gangs in relation to
their structural properties.
description: The data collection consists of two components:
 (1) descriptions of cities' gang activities taken from an earlier
 study of gang migration in 1992, IMPACT OF GANG MIGRATION: EFFECTIVE
 RESPONSES BY LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1992
 (ICPSR 2570), and (2) gang structures data from 1995 interviews with
 the police agencies in a sample of the same cities that responded to
 the 1992 survey. For the 1992 study, the researchers obtained
 membership lists of gang investigator associations and solicited
 candidate municipalities from law enforcement contacts across the
 country. The primary agency responsible for policing each city was
 identified from the 1991 National Directory of Law Enforcement
 Administrators. If the municipality contracted police services to an
 agency other than the local police department, this agency was
 contacted instead. In order to learn more about the varieties of gang
 types nationally, and how these might relate to different forms of
 crime, the researchers administered the gang structures survey in 1995
 to a sample of the same law enforcement agencies from the 1992
 survey. First, the researchers faxed or mailed the descriptions of the
 five types of gangs to the law enforcement officers. Then the law
 enforcement officers were contacted for an interview. At the
 beginning of the interview, the researchers ascertained that the
 officers had reviewed the descriptions, since survey questions were
based on understanding the descriptions.
description: Information taken from the 1992 study included the
 year of gang emergence in the city, numbers of active gangs and gang
 members, ethnic distribution of gang members, numbers of gang
 homicides and "drive-bys" in 1991, state in which the city is located,
 and population of the city. Information from the 1995 gang structures
 survey provides detail on the ethnic distributions of gangs, whether a
 predominant gang structure was present, each gang structure's typical
 size, and the total number of each of the five gang structures
 identified by the principal investigators -- chronic traditional,
 emergent traditional, emergent integrated, expanded integrated, and
 specialty integrated. City crime information was collected on the
 spread of arrests, number of serious arrests, volume and
 specialization of crime, arrest profile codes and history, uniform
 crime rate compared to city population, ratio of serious arrests to
total arrests, and ratio of arrests to city population.
description: Response Rates: The response rate was 80 percent (201 cities).
description: Presence of Common Scales: None
description: Random sampling.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Prevalence of Five Gang Structures in 201 Cities in the United States, 1992 and 1995
description: Law enforcement agencies nationwide.