The past decade has seen alarming trends in the composition and activities of youth gangs. Planners, providers, and consumers of school-based interventions need to know about these trends. Guidelines for interacting with social service agencies and the juvenile justice system will conclude the chapter. Every large urban school district is affected to some degree by street gang activity. Gangs are present within the boundaries of virtually every major school district in the United States.
Armed children continue to appear at the schoolhouse door as fear escalates in many communities.
The exact relationship between gang presence in the community and the phenomenon of armed students in unknown. It is certain, however, that gangs contribute to a culture of fear and heighten students' perceived need to go to school armed to defend themselves in case of attack. The gang is generally, though nor always, ethnically homogeneous. Behavioral expectations for gang members are usually expressed through some form of directive gang leadership, whether hierarchical or consensual. Individual members may be rewarded or sanctioned for compliance or noncompliance with those exprections.