Gang activity and homicides in New York City

Policy Analysis -- Gang activity in New York City

Identification of a problem

Nowadays the American society is facing a pool of problems and this pool includes the well-known issue of gang activity, i.e. A group of people targeting innocent people for money and spreading violence. National Gang Centre (NGC) was amongst the first ones to take an initiative to address this problem within the United States. A National Youth Gang Survey (NYGS) was conducted in 1996 which provided an overall picture of gang problem in United States, including the distribution and level of gang problems within the state of New York. The NYGS is acknowledged as the first international survey that targets the responsible citizens of each dominion on an annual basis and inquires about the frequency of gang activity in their area and their idiosyncrasies. The survey was conducted each year from 1996 to 2009 using the same methodology, and this 14-year data has been used as the resource for quite a few related studies that aim to generate detailed reports as well as aim to provide an extensive analysis of gang movement (NGIC, 2011).

Brief overview of the report reveals an escalating curve in the frequency of gang activities reported. The rate of recurrence was much higher in 2009 as compared to 2001 and 2002. This is evident by the fact that one third of the districts encompassed under the umbrella of NYGS study population experienced related social problems in 2009 as compared to even less than one quarter districts in 2002. The increase of more than 20% in these years confirms the seriousness of this dilemma. The main aspect being studies here is the increasing gang activity being recorded especially in New York. The paper is structured to first give a brief historical background about gang activity in New York and then provides an analysis focusing on one aspect of ganag activity in New York i.e. homicides (NGIC, 2011).

Analysis

According to the NYGS report, gang crime is currently at its peak in New York. This is confirmed to be true for the U.S. In general also by further analysis that reveals that in all regions at least 48% of violence pertains to street crime. In few states such as Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Texas, rate of street crime hit its peak at 90%. The crime rate of 90% in these states is mostly because of gang activity. The FBI Uniform Crime Rate (UCR) in its 2009 report asserted that the vicious crime rate and confirms the high crime rate in Southern California, Texas and Florida. Along with this, 2010 NGIC Gang data further reveals that the regions of high crime rate have experienced high gang activity too. Thus, both are linked. Gangs are usually involved in sadistic activities which include murder, drug abuse and trafficking, extortion, and weapon trafficking, homicide and home invasion robberies. NGIC report highlights the fact that the increasing rates of street crime and violence pertains to gangs who can influence the drug distribution network. Along with the excess control, rivalries between gangs and release of imprisoned criminals further spread violence and fear in the society (NGIC, 2011).

NGIC further worked towards identifying the extent to which gangs are responsible for street crime. For a clear picture, NGIC collaborated with law enforcement partners in other regions and analyzed the effect of street gangs in society. The collaborated report states that cities and suburb areas are most affected by the presence of gangs. Furthermore, the percentage of gang slaughter in these areas reached to 96% in 2009 (See the table below for more detailed percentages on types and distribution of crimes committed by gangs) (NGIC, 2011).

The issue of homicides highlights the seriousness of matter and craves for attention within New York more so than any other issue. This is one of the most extreme forms of violence and therefore cannot be ignored. However, the percentage of gang killing varies in various regions. It is more in cities and suburbs, whereas in others the percentage is minimal (Egley et al., 2006). As mentioned earlier, immigration is one factor that triggered street crime. As more people emigrated from various areas, all having different values and beliefs, the city got split into various ethnic groups. This is one reason behind the high rates of gang homicide in cities. The clashes between these groups last for long, and as time passes by, the differences increase and result in violent fights (Decker, 2007; Howell and Moore, 2010; Papachristos, 2009). The American Revolution introduced various weapons, and this took the quarrel between groups to the next level. The 1980s was the time when use of firearms was at its peak. Availability of advanced weaponry made gangs more powerful and use of these firearms increased the chances of violent clashes/accidents and eventually resulted in the increased killing of gang people (Decker, 2007; Tita and Abrahamse, 2004, 2010). According to NYGS report, the gang killing and homicide in regions with high crime rates was at nearly 47%, whereas, in other regions where the crime rate was relatively lower, the gang killing was around 4% only. In other words, a region where more homicide cases are reported, there is a higher probability to have higher crime rates as compared to the region where homicide cases are minimal (Egley et al., 2006).

Furthermore, a step-by-step scrutiny of large cities was carried out by comparing the population with the number of homicide cases from Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data between the years 1996-2009. The purpose of this analysis was to identify the significance of the problem in each region by comparing the annual gang homicide cases reported annually with the total number of homicide cases for that particular city. For the purpose of this analysis, all large cities, i.e. whose population exceeded 100,000 had been selected; 247 cities met this criterion and became eligible for this research (Howell et al., 2011).

In this manner, the researchers were able to identify what proportion of total homicide cases comprise of gang homicide cases to know the extent to which gang activity is affecting the society and crime rate. Researchers reached to three conclusions at the end of this exercise. Firstly, approximately 8 out of each 10 cities had been noted to experience gang homicide cases on a frequent basis. Secondly, the pattern of gang homicide cases in these cities was experiencing an increasing curve allowing the problem to grow further and getting into the roots of the city. Thirdly, around 20-40% of all homicide cases pertained to gang killing in the two largest cities. These cities comprised 70% of the total population selected for the analysis (Howell et al., 2011).

The study revealed that gang activity has prevailed throughout the nation. It was not just confined to the State of New York. The presence of gangs in these regions raises doubts over the percentage of gang homicide. Gang homicide affects the whole society as it spreads terror and fear throughout and people feel insecure outside their homes. To address the problem, we need to identify the extent to which it prevails in society. This research work knocks some closed doors and reveals some unanswered questions including the all important issue of the increasing percentage of gang homicides in each region of United States (Howell et al., 2011).