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Gangs in Wisconsin: An Assessment of Law Enforcement Agencies

George W. Knox, PH.D.

National Gang Crime Research Center

Acknowledgements

First and foremost the researchers would like to thank each and everyone of the law enforcement agencies and their staff who made this research possible through their prompt cooperation and help.

In a day and age when accountability and public disclosure are also factors that correlate with the public's perception and evaluation of law enforcement agencies, the law enforcement agencies who are acknowledged here clearly have shown their willingness to be forthright and cooperative in developing information about a problem as important as gang crime and violence. Therefore we are grateful for the help and cooperation in terms of responses to our survey from the following law enforcement agencies in the State of Wisconsin:

City, Municipal, Village, Township and Tribal Police Departments: Altoona, Appleton, Arcadia, Ashland, Ashwaubenon, Baldwin, Balsam Lake, Barron, Beaver Dam, Belleville, Beloit, Berlin, Big Bend, Black Earth, Blair, Bloomfield, Brandon, Brillion, Brodhead, Burlington, Caledonia, Cambria, Campbell, Campbellsport, Cedarburg, Chenequa, Columbus, Crivitz, Cross Plains, Cuba City, Cudahy, Darien, DePere, Delafield, Delavan, Eagle, Eagle River, East Troy, Edgar, Edgerton, Eleva, Elkhorn, Everest Metro, Fitchburg, Fondulac, Fontana, Fox Point, Franklin, Fort Atkinson, Geneva Lake, Genoa City, Germantown, Glendale, Grantsburg, Gratiot, Greendale, Greenfield, Greenwood, Hales Corners, Hallie, Hartford, Hartland, Hayward, Holmen, Independence, Iola, Iron River, Jackson, Janesville, Johnson Creek, Kenosha, Kohler, LaCrosse, Ladysmith, Lake Delton, Lake Geneva, Lake Negagamo, Little Chute, Lomira, Madison, Manawa, Manitowoc, Marinette, Marshall, Marshfield, Mayville, Mazomanie, Menasha, Menomonee Falls, Mequon, Merrill, Merrillan, Milton, Millwaukee, Minong, Mishicot, Mondovi, Monroe, Mosinee, Mount Horeb, Mount Pleasant, Mukwonago, Neenah, New London, New Berlin, New Richmond, North Hudson, Oconto, Oneida, Oregon, Oshkosh, Phillips, Plateville, Pleasant Prairie, Plum City, Plymouth, Poynette, Prairie du Chien, Racine, Reedsville, Rib Lake, Rice Lake, Rio, Ripon, River Falls, Sharon, Shell Lake, Shorewood, Shullsburg, Siren, Slinger, South Milwaukee, South Wayne, Sparta, Spooner, Stoughton, Stratford, Sturtevant, Sun Prairie, Town of Delavan, Theresa, Thiensville, Thorpe, Tomahawk, Turtle, Two Rivers, Verona, Waterford, Waterloo, Watertown, Wauwatosa, West Bend, Whitehall, Whitewater, Wind Lake, Wisconsin Rapids, and several others who preferred their responses to be completely anonymous.

County Sheriff's Departments: Brown, Buffalo, Burnett, Chippewa, Dams, Door, Forest, Green, Green Lake, Jefferson, Kenosha, LaCrosse, Lincoln, Manitowoc, Marathon, Marinette, Marquette, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Pierce, Portage, Prairie Du Chien, Racine, Rusk, Sauk, Sawyer, Taylor, Vernon, Villas, Washburn, Waupaca, Waushara, and Waushava.

College and University Campus Police Agencies: The University of Wisconsin campuses at - Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Madison. We also thank three state law enforcement agency sites.

- ii -

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

This is a Task Force report undertaken jointly by the National Gang Crime Research Center and local law enforcement in the State of Wisconsin. It is a study of gang problems by means of a mail questionnaire that was completed by N = 206 law enforcement agencies in the State of Wisconsin. This represents approximately 40 percent of such agencies that constituted the sample universe for this study.

The Nature of the Gang Crime Threat in Wisconsin

*** Four fifths report gangs are a problem in their area, but mostly at a minor to moderate level.

*** Drug sales, burglary, violence, graffiti, car theft, and retail theft are the most frequently cited gang crime patterns.

*** Statewide mean values estimated that 8.9 percent of the total crime in Wisconsin is caused by gangs; and 18.2 percent of total juvenile crime is caused by gangs.

*** Gangs in Wisconsin date from 1980 to present, 90 percent of the communities reporting gangs first arising since 1990.

*** Half (51%) have noticed an increase in gang graffiti in the last year.

*** White gangs were cited as most frequently being involved in: illegal drug sales (42.3%), involved in turf issues (47.7%), and involved in racial extremism and bias crime (50.8%).

*** A third (32.2%) felt gangs still attract mostly minority members.

*** Many (41.5%) report Asian gangs in their area.

*** The largest gangs in Wisconsin were Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings, and Vice Lords. A host of other homegrown groups exist that could affiliate eventually or align themselves with the larger national gangs, if this has not already occurred.

*** Still rare at this point, a small number of agencies (3.9%) report that gangs control legitimate businesses in their areas, including: restaurant and fast food businesses, pool halls, game room/video arcade businesses, car repair shops, taverns, dance clubs, beeper/cellular phone stores, and paint and body shops.

*** Half (53%) of the agencies report gang disturbances in the public schools in their areas during the last year.

Limited Law Enforcement Resources to Deal With the Gang Problem

*** Most (92.1%) do not use a statewide gang tracking computer system, even though most (94%) also have seen gang influence from outside of their jurisdiction.

*** Most (81.3%) considered it hard to get gang members to be informants.

*** A total of N = 8,773 full-time sworn police officers were represented in the sample, along with N = 25,230 gang members in the same jurisdiction. Thus, gang members outnumber Wisconsin police officers by a multiplication factor of two or more.

*** Fifteen percent or less of the Wisconsin agencies rated federal agencies (FBI, BATF, DEA, and INS) highly cooperative.

- iii -

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: Continued

*** Half (52.6%) of the agencies do not provide police with pre-service gang training.

*** Most (89.1%) report local politicians try to influence the law enforcement function.

*** About a third (34%) indicate local ordinances have been passed against gangs.

*** Few (19.5%) have produced public education brochures about gangs.

*** While the sample revealed over ten thousand gang members in the same jurisdictions, the study also showed only a total of 81 and one-half police officers were assigned full-time to the gang problem in the same jurisdictions.

*** Most Wisconsin police agencies (90.2%) do not have a specialized gang unit in their organizational structure.

*** Most Wisconsin police agencies (79.3%) do not have a strategic plan to deal with gangs.

*** The most common law enforcement strategies to combat the gang problem were: aggressive patrol (70.6%), use of confidential informants (52%), intelligence gathering (55.9%), and the DARE program (62.7%). Least commonly used were: infiltration, formation of citizen patrols, witness protection, and wanted posters.

Gangs in Relation to Other Factors

*** A third (33.5%) report correctional institutions near their area, which is a factor associated with having a gang problem.

*** Half (50.5%) reported public housing in their areas, which is a factor associated with having a gang problem.

*** Few (10.8%) believe hate groups are a crime problem, but a fourth (27.5%) believe motorcycle gangs are a crime problem.

The Gangster Disciple Connection in Wisconsin

*** Among Wisconsin agencies experiencing gang migration, half (52.5%) report the Chicago-based Gangster Disciple gang as having had contact in their communities.

*** Gangs involved in politics in Wisconsin is a small problem at this point in time.

*** Three-fourths (76.6%) felt the Gangster Disciples could be considered a form of organized crime.

*** A small number of Wisconsin agencies (13.2%) report the spread of the Chicago-based public relations gang function (i.e., Gangster Disciples masquerading under the title of being a group for "Better Growth and Development").

*** Few report gangs active in politics, or politicians sympathetic to gang views, or gang leaders getting positive recognition in the media. Two respondents did indicate the present activity of the Chicago-based gang political group identified as the "21st Century V.O.T.E." front for the Gangster Disciple gang.

*** Many believe (68.8%) that some of the more organized gangs like the Gangster Disciples could pose a crime threat to

- iv -

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: Continued

major events like the 1996 Olympics; and to the 1996 Democratic - iv -

National Convention in Chicago (71.2%).

Characteristics of the Law Enforcement Sample

*** The study included towns as small as 300 to cities as large as 620,000.

*** About half of the agencies are using, experimenting, or considering community policing.

*** Two-thirds (70%) believe some politicians want law enforcement agencies to downplay or deny the gang problem.

*** The breakdown for type of agency responding to the survey was: 79.6 percent city or municipal level department, 17 percent county sheriff's department, the rest campus police departments and state agencies. Nearly all (97.1%) wanted a free copy of this report provided by the Task Force.

Beliefs About The Gang Problem

*** Most agree (70.8%) the federal government needs to play a stronger role against gangs.

*** All believe gangs do migrate.

*** Many (71.1%) attribute some of their problem to gang migration.

*** Most (92.6%) do believe in gang prevention, some agree (36.8%) jobs are important, but 71.2% also agree that strict law enforcement is the best solution.

*** Half believe (49.2%) that social workers can effectively reach out to persons who may want to quit the gang; and also half (49.8%) believe that social workers can help kids stay out of the gang.

*** Almost all (94%) believe gang members enjoy television coverage when they get it; and many (74.1%) agree that less media attention could mean fewer joining gangs.

*** Most (86.1%) agree it takes both suppression and prevention to deal with the gang problem effectively.

*** Most (80.1%) report females are also involved in the gangs in their areas in Wisconsin.

*** Most agree (77.2%) that media attention is a publicity benefit to gangs.

*** Most (82.2%) agree a very aggressive policy could substantially reduce the gang problem; but 24.9 percent believed over-reaction could help increase solidarity inside the gang.

*** Most (82.4%) agree that zero-tolerance is the best approach for dealing with gangs and gang members.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page(s)

Introduction................................... 1

The Task Force Approach........................ 1

Methodology: How the Research Was Conducted.... 1 - 2

The Sample..................................... 2

Reliability.................................... 2

Validity....................................... 2 - 3

The Complete Descriptive Findings.............. 3

The Basic Question: Are Youth Gangs A Problem?. 3

Use of Computer Technology for Gang Tracking... 3 - 4

The Issue of the "Denial Syndrome"............. 4 - 5

Almost All Now Report Outside Gang Influence... 5

Crime Patterns By Wisconsin Youth Gangs........ 5 - 6

Estimates of the Total Crime Caused by Gangs... 7

Estimates of the Total Juvenile Crime Caused

by Gangs.................................... 7

Estimates of the Local Crime Caused by Gangs

or Gang Members From Outside the Area....... 7

Estimates of the Percent of All Arrests That

Were Non-Residents.......................... 7 - 8

Estimates About Local Economic Conditions...... 8

Perceived Difficulty: Getting Gang Informants.. 8

The Year Gangs Were First Became a Problem..... 9

Number of Sworn Personnel in Among Respondents. 10

Number of Gang Members in the Jurisdictions.... 10

The Familial Gang Transplant Phenomenon........ 10 - 11

Level of Cooperation With Federal Agencies..... 11 - 12

Are Wisconsin Police Officers Adequately Trained

to Confront the Modern Gang Problem......... 12

Increases in Gang Graffiti in the Last Year.... 13

Political Influences on Law Enforcement........ 13

Half of Local Public Schools Now Restricting

Color and Dress Patterns as Gang-Related.... 13

The Trend Towards Local Anti-Gang Ordinances... 14

Locally Produced Brochures About Gangs......... 14

The Existence of Correctional Institutions in

the Same Areas.............................. 14 - 15

Gang Migration................................. 15 - 16

A More Direct Test of the Familial Gang

Transplant Phenomenon....................... 16

Gangs as an Organized Crime Problem............ 16

Public Housing and Gangs....................... 16 - 17

Population Sixes in the Areas Studied.......... 17

Consensus on Greater Federal Involvement in

Gang Suppression........................... 18

A Small Problem: Gangs Active in Politics...... 18

Gangs and Race/Ethnicity....................... 18 - 20

Beliefs About Certain Gangs Being Forms of

Organized Crime............................ 20

Whether Gangs Attract

Predominantly Racial and Ethnic Minorities.. 20 - 21

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Table of Contents: Continued

Few Police Officers Are Assigned to Work

Full-time on the Gang Problem.............. 21

The Largest Gangs in the Jurisdictions Studied. 21 - 23

Most Wisconsin Law Enforcement Agencies Do Not

Have a Specialized Gang Unit............... 23

Overwhelming Support for the Belief that

Gangs Can Migrate.......................... 24

Half Attribute Some of Their Gang Problem

to Gang Migration.......................... 24

The Majority Do Not Have A Strategic Plan

to Deal With Gangs......................... 24

The Gang Franchising/Imperialism Variety of

Gang Migration............................. 24

Few Believe Hate Groups Are A Crime

Problem in Their Areas..................... 24

Gang Proliferation Because of the "Copy Cat"

Phenomenon................................. 24 - 25

A Fourth Believe Motorcycle Gangs Are a

Crime Problem.............................. 25

The Spread of the Gang Public Relations

Function................................... 25 - 26

A Strong Belief Exists Supportive of Gang

Prevention................................. 26

Attitudes About Job Training and Employment

As a Solution to the Gang Problem.......... 26

Attitudes That Strict Law Enforcement is the

Best Solution to the Gang Problem.......... 26

Attitudes That Gang Problems Can Be Prevented

By Drug Prevention/Education............... 27

Beliefs About Whether Social Workers Can Be

Effective in Reaching Out to Persons Who

May Want to Quit the Gang.................. 27

Beliefs About Whether Social Workers Can Be

Effective: Helping Kids Stay Out of Gangs.. 27

Absolute Agreement: Gang Members Enjoy

Television News Coverage................... 27 - 28

Most Agree: Less Media Attention

to Gangs Could Mean Fewer Joining Gangs.... 28

The Strategies Used by Wisconsin Law Enforcement

Agencies to Combat the Gang Crime Problem.. 28

Most Agree: It Takes Both Prevention and

Suppression................................ 28

The Growing Female Involvement in Gangs........ 28

Strong Support for Less Media Attention

to Gang Members............................ 29

Four-fifths Agree: Very Aggressive Suppression

Policy Could Reduce The Gang Crime Problem. 29

The Reaction-Formation Thesis.................. 29 - 30

The Trend Towards Community Policing........... 30

Gang Involvement in Local Businesses........... 30

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Table of Contents: Continued

Local Businesses Controlled by Gangs From

Outside of the Community................... 30

Strong Support for Zero-Tolerance Policy

on Gangs................................... 30 - 31

Few Agree Gangs Are a Social Problem and Not

A Law Enforcement Problem.................. 31

A Strong Warning Sign: Gang Disturbances in

Wisconsin Public Schools in the Last Year.. 31

Where to Place the Blame on the Gang Denial

Syndrome................................... 31

The Rising Impact of Asian Gang Members........ 32

Low Level of Gang Involvement in Politics...... 32

Gangs Could Pose a Threat to Major Public

Events Like the 1996 Olympics.............. 32

Gangs Could Pose a Threat to Major Public

Events Like the 1996 Democratic Convention. 32 - 33

Beliefs That Gang Members Are Primarily

Minorities................................. 33

Beliefs About Gang Members Seldom Coming From

Middle Class Families...................... 33

Beliefs About Females Rarely Being in Gangs.... 33

Half Report Community-School-Police

Partnerships............................... 33

Type of Agencies Responding to the Survey...... 33

Almost All Wanted the Report................... 33

Conclusion..................................... 34

References..................................... 35 - 36

Endnotes....................................... 36 - 37

- viii -

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this report is to summarize the findings from a statewide survey of law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin. The primary focus of this study centers on the issue of gang problems and what is being done about gangs by law enforcement. This report provides a descriptive preliminary analysis of all variables measured in The 1995 Law Enforcement Gang Analysis Survey for Wisconsin. The Task Force, as promised, is providing a copy of this report free of charge to all respondents from Wisconsin who requested a copy.

THE TASK FORCE APPROACH

The research project that gave rise to this report involved a task force approach involving the National Gang Crime Research Center (NGCRC), and local Wisconsin law enforcement. The National Gang Crime Research Center is currently based at Chicago State University, and since 1990 has specialized in all types of gang research and particularly task force or national consortium projects, and publishes the Journal of Gang Research.

The primary purpose of this task force project was to produce knowledge about gang activity in the State of Wisconsin, and to investigate a number of important issues such as the linkages of gangs in Wisconsin to their counterparts in Chicago.

METHODOLOGY: HOW THE RESEARCH WAS CONDUCTED.

This was a Task Force style of research, and because of this collaboration, there was much attention to detail at all stages of the research process. In fact, the kind of "checks and balances" made possible by this collaborative research process, made for a rather efficient way of conducting research. The reason this is true is because all tasks were identified along with a time table for their completion. At no point was any deviation experienced from the time table agreed to by Task Force members. The sampling strategy was that of saturation: all agencies were considered in the sample frame. This meant that all city or municipal police departments, all county sheriff's offices and/or county police departments, state and military base police agencies, and all campus police departments were identified. This total universe of law enforcement agencies in the State of Wisconsin is just over N = 500 in size. Each such agency was mailed a copy of the questionnaire during the first week of September, 1995.

Federal law enforcement agencies with offices in the State of Wisconsin were not included in the sample frame. These include, for example: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). It is our experience that federal agencies are not highly cooperative with research of this nature. In fact, such agencies may not be allowed to respond to questionnaires of the kind used in this research project.

The fact that this project was a probono project without funding of any type meant that no resources could be used for purposes of follow-up to non-responding agencies. The research itself was conducted during the summer of 1995. Thus, the questionnaire packages (each containing a cover letter from NGCRC, a copy of the questionnaire, and a stamped return envelope) were mailed out on September 1, 1995. The cover letter asked the responding agencies to return the questionnaire by September 30, 1995. Thus, the planned time period for data collection was a one month period during the Fall of 1995.

THE SAMPLE

For several reasons, we consider the sampling strategy was a success for purposes of our research. We did receive data back from all types of police agencies (city police agencies, county police agencies, college/university campus police agencies, stage police agencies, and military police). Further, by the time of the "cut off" period in October, 1995 some N = 206 law enforcement agencies in the State of Wisconsin had returned useable questionnaires for purposes of our research project.

Thus, about 40 percent of the law enforcement agencies in the State of Wisconsin were able to quickly respond to our mail questionnaire survey. This level of response therefore represents about two-fifths of all law enforcement agencies in the State of Wisconsin. This response rate is more than acceptable for a mail questionnaire research strategy without the benefit of follow-up work.

RELIABILITY

The respondents to this survey were law enforcement leaders who we feel took the survey very seriously. In smaller and medium sized agencies, the typical respondent completing the questionnaire was the police chief or county sheriff. In larger agencies, the questionnaire was completed by the ranking gang specialist in the agency, typically holding the rank of detective or above. There are also some built-in measures of consistency within the many variables measured in the questionnaire. Almost all of the respondents also chose to be identified when they could have been totally anonymous. For these and other reasons we conclude that the level of reliability for this study is acceptable for surveys of this kind.

VALIDITY

This project was able to benefit from an external source of information against which to compare our own findings. The NGCRC recently obtained a large gang member as the unit of analysis sample in its current national gang research consortium task force, Project GANGECON. This sample represents youths incarcerated in a Wisconsin state training school, also known as a long term juvenile correctional center. The NGCRC therefore knew what gangs did in fact exist in Wisconsin from this and other sources. What we found was a strong consistent pattern of gang names being identified in both data sources. Thus, in regard to the existence of such gangs, the validity for this study is considered acceptable for surveys of the type conducted here.

THE COMPLETE DESCRIPTIVE FINDINGS FROM THIS RESEARCH

The survey instrument or questionnaire used in this research project consists of a six page document. A copy of the survey instrument is available on request. The intent and purpose of this report was to provide a preliminary report. Thus, in terms of statistical analysis only basic descriptive statistics are used (i.e., frequency distribution, percentage distribution, and the arithmetic mean or average were appropriate), because it is intended to be a non-technical report capable of being used and understood by a non-technical audience.

The procedure for the presentation of the descriptive statistical findings from this research will be systematic in nature. Thus, the findings presented here correspond exactly with the same order of the questions found in the survey instrument itself. Therefore, we begin with the first question presenting its results, proceeding systematically through the survey instrument until the last question in the same item order.

The Basic Question: Are Youth Gangs A Problem?

The survey asked the law enforcement agencies "are youth gangs a problem in your jurisdiction". The response modes or choices were: yes or no. The results show that 79.1 percent indicated that youth gangs are a problem in their jurisdiction. Thus, only about a fifth (20.9%) reported that youth gangs are not a problem in their jurisdiction.

A separate follow-up question was used for this variable as well for agencies that responded "yes" (i.e., that youth gangs were a problem in their jurisdiction). The follow-up question asked the agency to rate the severity of the problem as being either: a major problem, a moderate problem, or a minor problem. Thus, among those acknowledging that youth gangs are a problem in their respective jurisdiction, the results show that 1.3 percent regard youth gangs as a major problem, 37.4 percent regard youth gangs as a moderate problem, and 61.3 percent consider gangs a minor problem.

Use of Computer Technology For Tracking Gang Members

Computer tracking technology is regarded as an essential intelligence tool for law enforcement in dealing with gangs. Examples of such uses include statewide tracking systems based on model state-level legislation such as that of the Illinois S.W.O.R.D. system. A complete copy of the statute authorizing this kind of statewide system that could be easily adapted to other states is detailed in the textbook by Knox (1995). The importance of this kind of informational technology is the ability to identify local gang members as well as those who travel and operate across governmental jurisdictional boundaries. Without such database capabilities there is no structured opportunity for local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with each other through the systematic sharing of information.

Therefore the survey asked "does your agency use a statewide computer system that is specifically designed to track gang members". The results show that the overwhelming and vast majority, some 92.1 percent, indicated they do not have nor do they use such a gang tracking system. Only about 7.9 indicated they have this basic modern tool for use in law enforcement against the gang problem.

The Issue of the "Denial Syndrome"

The denial syndrome is sometimes called the "ostrich syndrome": the problem is denied to be a problem per se, or the problem is not recognized as a problem per se. We feel this issue has been oversimplified with regard to governmental authority. For example, in studying the gang problem in correctional institutions, it is not necessarily the fact that a prison warden denies the problem even though the gang problem may be very severe indeed in her/her state or specific institution. State correctional agencies are usually centralized bureaucracies, where the warden or superintendent is far down the organizational ladder of such agencies. Some states like Virginia simply institute overly restrictive policies that do not allow their prison wardens to respond to outside researchers even if the survey is anonymous. The reason for such restrictive policies is often ignorance and political encroachment on criminal justice agency functions. Thus, in the field of law enforcement, it can be possible that a mayor or city manager having authority or influence over the police executive may be able to set the policy that prefers the gang problem be denied or ignored.

What we are saying here should be very clear: politicians and elected officials having greater governmental authority than the police chief are often able to influence what the official position is in terms of public disclosure about the "gang problem". Just as state level central office administrators can prevent local prison wardens from responding to surveys as in the State of Virginia, the same governmental chain-of-command function regarding policy also affects the field of law enforcement. What is oversimplified is the issue of blame: who is really engaging in denial? Is the source of the denial found in the agency used as a unit of analysis (i.e., a prison, a municipal police department, etc)? Or is the denial really a top-down, externally imposed policy, having its origin in a higher level of governmental authority?

This report is the first of its kind to basically examine this issue of denial with greater analytical rigor.

Our survey asked "to what extent do community leaders in your jurisdiction deny the gang problem". The respondents were asked to check one rating level between a low of zero for "no denial" to a high of ten for "high denial". Thus, the higher the number the higher the denial; the lower the number rating, the lower the denial. We felt that the phrase "community leaders" was the preferred non-stigmatizing language to refer to politicians in the same jurisdiction. Thus, for the local city police chief the corresponding political authority having influence over law enforcement functions would be the city mayor or city manager.

The results for this inquiry are presented in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1

Frequency and Percentage Distribution for

Ratings of Gang Denial Level:

Responses to the Question "To What Extent Do

Community Leaders in Your Jurisdiction Deny the Gang Problem"

Denial Rating Number Percentage

No denial 0 33 16.8

1 10 5.1

2 19 9.6

3 15 7.6

4 14 7.1

5 42 21.3

6 13 6.6

7 14 7.1

8 19 9.6

9 11 5.6

High denial 10 7 3.6

As can be seen in Table 1, 18.8 percent of the law enforcement agencies gave ratings of 8 or higher! The mean or average rating for the findings in Table 1 was a value of 4.3 on a zero to 10 point scale.

Out of deference to the responding agencies we will not now nor in the future disclose the data we have in terms of the names of specific cities with high levels of denial, because of the political conflict this could induce, of harm to respondents.

It is also relevant to note that the denial syndrome can vary by a number of factors we have measured in this research. One would be whether or not the responding law enforcement agency gave us permission to use their geographic identifier in the analysis and the reporting of results. Another variable might be whether the agency made itself completely anonymous by not requesting a copy of this report and thus not disclosing its identity.

Almost All Now Report Outside Gang Influence

The survey asked the question "have you seen gang influence from outside of your community or jurisdiction". Some 94.0 percent indicated that they have in fact had such outside gang influence in their area. Thus, only 6.0 percent of the agencies responding to this survey indicated they have not seen such outside gang influence.

Crime Patterns By Youth Gangs

A check-off list was used that involved eleven different crime pattern variables to examine the crime patterns by youth gangs in Wisconsin. The survey asked the question "what kinds of problems do youth gangs cause in your jurisdiction (check all that apply)", and the options included: violence, drug sales, graffiti, burglary, robbery, drive-by shootings, arson, prostitution, car theft, extortion, and retail theft. Table 2 presents the results of this inquiry.

Table 2 examines the entire sample and thus does not partial out those who do not report a gang problem to begin with. We do recognize here the need to examine gang crime patterns in this regard. One reason is that some agencies that reported they did not have a gang problem also reported gangs causing some of these crime problems in their jurisdictions. However, Table 2 looks at the statewide picture, for all law enforcement agencies responding to the survey. What it clearly suggests is that most of the index and more serious crimes being reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR) may in fact be "gang-related crimes", even though we have no idea nationally or anywhere in the USA for that matter, how much local crime is now explained by gangs or gang members. We should further point out that the UCR is not currently structured to track and report whether the arrestee is or is not a gang member.

Thus, as seen in Table 2, the gang crime patterns in Wisconsin rarely include arson, prostitution, or extortion. Similarly, over half of the law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin are reporting gang involvement in the following crime patterns: violence, drug sales, and burglary.

A small number of respondents provided "other" responses that are not coded here. While these are rare, the "other" types of crime patterns will be analyzed for possible future research considerations.

Table 2

Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Gang Crime Patterns

From the 1995 Wisconsin Law Enforcement Survey

ARE GANGS INVOLVED IN THE

VARIOUS CRIME PATTERNS?

No Yes

Crime Pattern N % N %

Violence 89 43.2 117 56.8

Drug sales 94 45.6 112 54.4

Graffiti 63 30.6 143 69.4

Burglary 111 53.9 95 46.1

Robbery 173 84.0 33 16.0

Driveby shootings 183 88.8 23 11.2

Arson 200 97.1 6 2.9

Prostitution 199 96.6 7 3.4

Car theft 138 67.0 68 33.0

Extortion 200 97.1 6 2.9

Retail Theft 124 60.2 82 39.8

Estimates of the Total Amount of Crime in Wisconsin Caused by Gangs

The survey asked "please estimate the percent of total crime in your jurisdiction that is caused by gang activity". The response mode included an open line where the respondent would insert the percentage number. The results overall varied between a low of zero percent to a high of 70 percent. In fact, some 35.9 percent of the respondents gave estimates of ten percent or higher. The mean or average estimate was that 8.9 percent of the total crime in Wisconsin jurisdictions was caused by gang activity.

Estimates of the Total Amount of Juvenile Crime Caused by Gangs

The survey also asked "please estimate the percent of total juvenile crime in your jurisdiction that is caused by gang activity". The response mode included an open line where the respondent would insert the percentage number. The results overall varied between a low of zero percent to a high of 95 percent. In fact, 57.2 percent gave estimates of ten percent or higher! The mean or average estimate was that 18.2 percent of the total juvenile crime in Wisconsin jurisdictions was caused by gang activity.

Estimates of The Percent of Local Crime Caused By Gangs or Gang Members From Outside of the Same Area

Gangs do extend their operations outside of their immediate areas, this is well known to the present researchers. In fact, this survey project revealed that in at least two cases, the political arm of the notorious criminal gang known as the Gangster Disciples has its political action wing known as "21st Century V.O.T.E." operating in Wisconsin. So, the fact is gangs and gang members do travel or do extend their influence outside of their own base camps.

Thus, the survey asked "please estimate what percent of the crime in your community/jurisdiction is caused by gangs or gang members from outside of your same area". Again, the response mode included an open line where the respondent would insert the percentage number. The results show a range of estimates from a low of zero percent to a high of 100 percent. Some 37.9 percent gave ratings of 10 percent or higher. The mean or average estimate was that 15.6 percent of the local crime is caused by outside gangs or outside gang members.

Estimates of the Percent of All Arrests That Were Non-Residents

The survey asked "please estimate what percent of all arrests in the last year were of non-residents of your community or jurisdiction". The response mode included an open line where the respondent could insert the percentage number. This variable basically gets at an important feature about crime: the outsider syndrome, meaning outsiders or non-residents of a community who target or commit crimes in that community. The results showed a range of estimates from a low of zero percent to a high of 95 percent. In fact, some 78.7 percent gave estimates of ten percent of more of their arrests last year involved outsiders. Some 30.3 percent estimated that 50 percent or more of their arrests last year involved outsiders. The mean or average estimate for this variable was that 32.5 percent of the arrests in Wisconsin last year involved persons who did not reside in the communities in which they were arrested.

Estimates About Local Economic Conditions: Declining or Improving.

The survey asked the law enforcement agencies to "rate the extent to which you believe your jurisdiction is economically declining (e.g., loss of jobs, etc) or improving". The response mode involved a forced choice between a range of values, the low range of zero for "declining" and a high range of 10 for "improving". The results show a fairly normal distribution, with a range of estimates also between zero and ten, covering the full spectrum of choices. The mean or average value was 6.2 on a scale between zero to ten, where the higher the value the more the local economy is improving, where the lower the value the more the local economy is declining.

Perceived Difficult in Getting Gang Informants

Recent research by the National Gang Crime Research Center in its Project GANGECON that interviewed over a thousand gang members in several states showed that about a third of all gang members, regardless of the type of gang or their level of involvement with the gang, will "flip": i.e., cooperate with law enforcement or prosecution. One of the reasons federal agencies like the FBI are effective in their gang investigations is that they do in fact make use of paid gang informants. Most jurisdictions in the United States at time of prosecution also find that gang members are no different than other criminals: if several are involved in the offense, you can count on some of them wanting to "make a deal" when the case comes to court. So we thought it would be worthwhile to assess the perceptions of local law enforcement agencies about this same issue. We do so knowing in advance that typically local law enforcement agencies do not have the vast financial resources available to them for developing confidential reliable informants that some federal agencies have historically benefited from.

The survey asked "in your opinion, is it hard to get gang members to be confidential informants". Some 18.8 percent indicated "no", that it was not hard to get gang members to be informants. However, some 81.3 percent indicated "yes", that it was in fact hard to get gang members to be confidential informants. As one of the most powerful tools against criminal gangs involves this aspect of intelligence, one way that local law enforcement could be bolstered to combat gang crime and gang violence might mean creating a state level account that could be used by those local law enforcement agencies that feel they could make use of it. A little amount of funding in this regard could go a long way to improve the effectiveness of the law enforcement response to the gang threat in Wisconsin.

In What Year Did Gangs First Become Active in Wisconsin Jurisdictions?

The survey asked "in what year did gangs first become recognized as a problem in your jurisdiction". There were two types of reponses: (1) the respondent could fill in the blank for the year "19_____", of (2) the respondent could check the box for "___Not yet recognized as a problem". For example, the latter category (not yet recognized as a problem) could involve the situation where the executive authority for the jurisdiction (i.e., mayor, city manager, etc) has imposed a "gang denial" policy on the local law enforcement executive. The fact is, some N = 53 of the respondents did indicate that gangs are not yet recognized as a problem, and this could very well be that gangs are not in fact a problem in such jurisdictions, just as it could also mean some might be under a denial policy.

However, some N = 149 respondents did give exact years in which the gang problem first became recognized in their governmental jurisdictions in the State of Wisconsin. This distribution is provided in Table 3.

Therefore, Table 3 shows that 90.6 percent of the jurisdictions report gangs were first recognized as a problem on or after 1990. In fact, 52.3 percent report that gangs were first recognized as a problem on or after 1993! Thus, for many of the local law enforcement agencies, the gang problem is a very new and recent problem these agencies must now adapt to. The mean or average year in which gangs were first recognized by these agencies was 1991.9 (i.e., about 1992), with gangs first being recognized as early as 1980 and as recently as the current year in which the research was conducted (i.e., 1995).

TABLE 3

The Year In Which Gangs First Became Recognized

As A Problem Among Wisconsin Law Enforcement Agencies

Year Gangs Were

First Recognized

As a Problem: N %

1980 1 .7

1982 1 .7

1984 1 .7

1985 2 1.3

1986 2 1.3

1987 2 1.3

1988 1 .7

1989 4 2.7

1990 18 12.1

1991 11 7.4

1992 28 18.8

1993 46 30.9

1994 25 16.8

1995 7 4.7

Number of Sworn Personnel In the Agencies Responding to the Survey

As a way of understanding the diversity in the agencies studied in this analysis of gang problems in Wisconsin, the survey asked "how many sworn police officers are employed by your Department: ___full-time and ___part-time". The results for full-time sworn personnel showed a range between a low of zero to a high of 2,100! The results for part-time sworn personnel ranged between a low of zero to a high of 40. There were some N = 8,773 total full-time sworn personnel in the agencies in this sample, and another N = 623 part-time personnel.

Number of Gang Members in the Same Jurisdictions

The survey asked the question: "what would you estimate the total core and periphery gang membership in your jurisdiction to be? ____total members". The results show a range between a low of zero to a high of 7,000. The total number of gang members in these Wisconsin jurisdictions --- recall our study includes only about 40 percent of all such agencies in Wisconsin --- was N = 25,230.

Thus, gang members outnumber sworn personnel in Wisconsin by a factor of two or more is the finding of this survey . Where the police are outnumbered by gang members is also called the Fort Apache syndrome, so-named after a number of Hollywood movies where the bad guys outnumber the police and attack the police as enemies , and may be subject to further analysis in this research. It is the issue of whether gang density --- as an escalating social epidemic in Wisconsin --- has so rapidly outpaced public expenditures and resources provided for social defense (i.e., law enforcement, public safety, etc) that a unique type of public vulnerability may now exist: the issue is where it exists, and what pattern this shows statewide (i.e., is it related to the lack of training resources for law enforcement, etc).

The Familial Gang Transplant Phenomenon

The familial transplant phenomenon is one explanation that accounts for one major cause of gang proliferation, specifically gang member migration and the spread of gang activity (Laskey, 1994; see also Project GANGGUNS, 1995). What is basically means is that a parent, typically living in a larger urban center, in good intentions to remove the child from discovered gang affiliations, simply moves to a smaller or new geographical area. The parent has the mistaken idea that simply moving away to a new area will mean the cessation of the child's gang activity. What actually seems to happen is the child, once moved to a new area, simply starts up a new unit or new chapter of the same gang, or affiliates with an existing clique that has some affiliation to the gang of origin for the child. Often, it can mean the same gang gets spread to new areas.

Thus, the survey asked "please estimate what percentage of the total gang population in your jurisdiction is attributable to families or individuals who have recently moved to your community or jurisdiction". The response mode was an open line with a percentage sign (____%) so that the respondent could simply fill in the percentage figure estimate. The results ranged from a low of zero percent to a high of 100 percent. The mean or average was 28.9 percent for this entire Wisconsin sample.

What this variable gets at is the difference between indigenous and exogenous gang influence. Indigenous gang influence is the basic "locally originated" or homegrown gang members. Exogenous gang influence represents gang members from outside of the existing community or jurisdiction. Exogenous gang influence is outside gang influence. Thus, this variable is an estimate of exogenous gang influence in Wisconsin jurisdictions.

The fact is that some 61.1 percent of the law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin responding to this survey gave estimates of ten percent or higher for exogenous gang influence. Some 43.3 percent gave estimates of 25 percent or higher for this variable.

A follow-up question was also used in conjunction with this measure of exogenous gang influence in Wisconsin communities. Thus, the survey asked "were any of these families or individuals from Chicago?". Some 53.4 percent indicated that these gang transplants were not from Chicago. However, 46.6 percent did report that they had experienced this type of exogenous gang influence from Chicago.

Ratings for the Level of Cooperation With Federal Agencies Regarding Gang Investigations

The survey asked the respondents to "rate the level of cooperation your agency gets with gang cases from the following federal agencies". This basically involves four variables: the four federal agencies --- FBI, BATF, DEA, and INS. The response modes for rating the level of cooperation involved the following forced choice options: ___Low, ___Medium, ___High.

The results of for these ratings are provided in Table 4.

Thus, there is slightly higher cooperation with the FBI and somewhat lower cooperation with the INS is all this says. Further, the real story here is that generally, less than a fourth of the law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin rate the level of cooperation as "high" with federal law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, BATF, DEA and INS regarding gang cases.

TABLE 4

Frequency and Percentage Distribution for the

Ratings of Cooperation With Federal Agencies

Regarding Gang Investigations

Ratings for the Level of Cooperation

Federal LOW MEDIUM HIGH

Agency N % N % N %

FBI 68 51.9 44 33.6 19 14.5

BATF 73 58.9 35 28.2 16 12.9

DEA 73 57.0 41 32.0 14 10.9

INS 84 68.3 30 24.4 9 7.3

A methodological note is useful here. Most federal gang research is sponsored by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) or the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Both of these are within the federal Justice Department. Thus, if this were a federally funded piece of research (it was not), such raw data would routinely be turned over to the federal funding source. The researchers did take care in alerting the respondents that this was not a federally funded piece of research. Thus, we feel that our particular research style was ideally suited to this type of assessment, that is by being independent of federal funding this increases the validity of the results reported here for this assessment. It is also fair note that historically such federal agencies are more likely to be interfacing with larger urban-based law enforcement agencies, rather than smaller suburban or even rural police departments.

Are Wisconsin Police Officers Adequately Trained To Confront the New Gang Crime Problems Emerging In Their Jurisdictions?

As illustrated earlier, the gang problem in Wisconsin like the gang problem throughout the United States, shows a common trend: for the much larger urban areas, gang problems go back a decade or longer. But for most medium sized and smaller jurisdictions in Wisconsin and the rest of America, the gang problem is relatively new as a crime threat. The issue here is whether the sophistication in training for police officers tends to lag behind the social change represented by the emergence of a new gang crime threat in these same Wisconsin communities. It is possible to therefore hypothesize --- where a community has recently been inundated with the gang problem, and the gang membership density level has surpassed that of sworn police officers in the same civilian population (i.e., the Fort Apache syndrome), if we also examine such at-risk communities we are likely to find those that are particularly vulnerable to a new national crime threat in terms of the lack of training provided to these same local law enforcement personnel.

Two variables are actually examined in the survey: gang training as a part of pre-service training, and gang training as a part of in-service training. The results show that 52.6 percent of the Wisconsin law enforcement agencies responding to this survey report that their officers are not provided with training in "gang awareness" or handling gang problems as a part of pre-service training. Thus, some 47.4 percent of the agencies do provide pre-service training to their police officers on gang awareness or handling gang problems. Also, some 80.7 percent of the agencies do report that their officers are provided with gang awareness training as a part of in-service training. Thus, some 19.3 percent of the agencies responding to the survey indicated that their officers do not receive in-service training in dealing with gangs.

It is also possible to examine this training factor in terms of agencies that do not provide either pre-service or in-service gang training to their sworn personnel. This may be addressed in future analysis.

Half Report Increases in Gang Graffiti During The Last Year

The survey asked "have you noticed an increase in gang graffiti or tagging in the last year". The results show that about half (49%) report they have not noticed any increase in gang graffiti in the last year. Similarly, about half (51%) report that they have in fact noticed an increase in gang graffiti during the last year.

Most Report Political Influence on the Law Enforcement Function

This is one of the taboo topics in law enforcement, something rarely discussed in textbooks in modern criminal justice. It basically means that political officials often seek to influence the law enforcement function. For example, the "denial syndrome" often attributed to police in America, we have already shown is probably a function of this external or exogenous political influence: that is, higher officials in the same area setting the "official policy" regarding gangs (i.e., ignore the problem). While no one talks about it, political influence on the law enforcement function is a known historical phenomenon (Knox, 1995). The survey asked "do you believe that local politicians have influence on local law enforcement agencies". The results show that 89.1 percent reported "yes" : that is that such political influence on the law enforcement function does exist among these Wisconsin respondents. Thus, only in 10.9 percent of the cases does the respondent indicate that local politicians do not have influence on the local law enforcement agency. Further analysis might be warranted here to examine specifically the local or municipal police agencies.

Half of All Wisconsin Communities Report Local Public Schools Are Now Restricting Color and Dress Patterns As Being "Gang Related"

The fact is, in many larger urban areas, gang colors and certain gang dress modes have long been recognized as a way in which gang members "represent", that is communicate their gang affiliation. Thus, some school officials in many jurisdictions of the United States today have adapted by trying to prevent gang conflicts by having to place new restrictions on all students regarding color patterns and styles of dress.

The survey therefore asked "to your knowledge, are certain color patterns or modes of dress identified as gang related prohibited in local public schools". The results show that 58.9 percent of the law enforcement agencies in this survey of Wisconsin now report that their local public schools do in fact prohibit gang attire. Thus, some 41.1 percent of the respondents indicated that this kind of dress code policy has not yet come into play in the local public high schools.

Obviously, we would hypothesize for further analysis that those jurisdictions reporting a gang problem would be more likely to also report this type of recent policy change in local schools as well.

A Third of Wisconsin Communities Show The Trend Towards City and County "Anti-Gang" Ordinances

Another national trend regarding the law enforcement response to gangs expresses a kind of frustration over the lack of effective state statutes to respond to the growing threat from gangs. Thus, local communities pass their own ordinances to try to come to grips with the new and growing gang crime problem. A common response in this fashion is new curfew laws, and "gang loitering" laws, even prohibiting gang clothing or the displaying of gang tattoos in public.

The survey therefore asked "has your city/county jurisdiction passed any laws recently that are specifically aimed at gangs (e.g., curfew, etc)". The results show that about a third (34%) of the law enforcement agencies responding to this survey report that their jurisdictions have in fact recently passed such "anti-gang" laws. Two-thirds (66%) do not report this trend towards city and county anti-gang ordinances.

Locally Produced Public Education Brochures About Gangs

Another national trend, one that correlates strongly with the movement towards "community policing", is that some police departments facing a gang crime problem produce their own local public education brochures about the gang problem. The survey therefore asked "has your department produced any public education brochures or pamphlets related to gangs". Some 19.5 percent of the Wisconsin law enforcement agencies reported that they have in fact produced such public information brochures about gangs. Most (80.5%) have not produced such local information brochures about gangs.

The Existence of Correctional Institutions in the Same Area

There are many ways in which gangs proliferate or spread in the United States (see Knox, 1995), one of these is the existence of correctional institutions in the same area. The fact is, this works in several ways. If the correctional institution holds convicted persons who are gang members, then the contamination effect can occur: gang members come to visit the confined gang member, family's relocate to the same area to more effectively maintain contact with the confined gang member, and sometimes the gang member upon release stays in the same area of the institution. Most communities needing new employment opportunities are generally in favor of building prisons, however the trade-off might mean also needing to increase resources for law enforcement if the existence of a nearby correctional institution also means bringing in a gang problem.

The survey therefore asked "is any state or federal correctional institution located in or very near your community/jurisdiction". The results showed that 33.5 percent report the existence of correctional institutions in their area. Thus, two-thirds (66.5%) report not having correctional institutions in their area.

What effect, if any, does this have on gang problems in the same communities? Table 5 shows this effect.

TABLE 5

The Distribution of Correctional Institutions

Existing in a Community Area By

Whether The Same Areas Also Report a Gang Problem

Among a Sample of Wisconsin Law Enforcement Agencies

Are Youth Gangs A Problem In

Your Jurisdiction?

NO YES % Yes

Is any state or federal

correctional institution

located in or very near

your community? NO 34 103 75.1%

YES 9 60 86.9%

Chi-square = 3.85, p = .05

Table 5 shows a statistically significant difference in the percentage of communities reporting a gang problem knowing whether or not the same communities also have state or federal correctional institutions nearby. Where the community does not report the existence of correctional institutions, some 75.1 percent also report a gang problem in their community. However, where the community does report having correctional institutions nearby, some 86.9 percent report having a local gang problem. Thus, there is a significant ecological effect that has not been previously known would be our conclusion. We should note for the record we have verified this same "spill over" effect in similar recent research in Illinois and Georgia.

Gang Migration

The spread and rise of gangs in new areas of the United States that have not previously had a gang problem like the larger urban areas is called gang proliferation (Knox, 1995). Gang migration is one part of gang proliferation. Gang emulation and the "copycat" syndrome is another part of gang proliferation, which is discussed later in this report. A series of questions addressed different aspects of gang migration in the Wisconsin study.

The survey asked "have gang members recently made even temporary visits (of at least a few days, for whatever reasons) to your community/jurisdiction". The results show that 69.9 percent do in fact report this type of gang migration. Thus, 30.1 percent do not report this type of gang migration.

A follow-up question asked "were any of these gang members from Chicago". Here the results show that 44.2 percent indicated this type of gang migration had its origins in Chicago. Thus, there is an important Chicago connection it would appear.

Another question was more specifically directed at a particular gang that itself originated in Chicago. The survey therefore asked "have any Gangster Disciples from Chicago made even temporary visits to your area". The results show that about a half of the law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin responding to this survey (52.5%) do in fact report the Chicago-based Gangster Disciple gang members as having made some level of contact in their communities!

A More Direct Test of the Familial Gang Transplant Phenomenon

The survey asked "have you seen cases where a parent relocates to your area (knowing their child was involved with a gang and perhaps thinking they can simply move away from the problem), and basically transplants the gang problem to your area". The results show that 68.2 percent said "yes". Thus, some 31.8 percent have not seen examples of this familial gang transplant phenomenon.

A follow-up question asked "if yes, were any of these cases from Chicago". Some 40.7 percent indicated that they have seen examples of the familial gang transplant phenomenon where the gang member origin was from Chicago, Illinois.

Gangs as an Organized Crime Problem

The United States armed forces and federal law enforcement have come to appreciate the value of using a threat analysis system to understand the gang crime problem. The first such threat analysis system advanced was that by Knox (1991, 1995), where gangs can be classified in terms of the level of their threat: Level zero being pre-gang formations not really a crime problem, Level 1 being a small group with some involvement in crime, Level 2 being a gang with units in several jurisdictions, and Level 3 being a formal organization existing in many jurisdictions. All a level 3 gang needs to become organized crime (Level 4) is basically political corruption capabilities and enough capital to penetrate legitimate business. The fact is today Level 3 gangs do control and operate a number of for the most part "cash" business enterprises (see Project GANGECON, 1995).

The survey therefore asked "do you consider any of the gangs in your jurisdiction to be an organized crime problem". The results of this line of inquiry show that a fourth of the law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin responding to this survey (24.6%) did in fact report that they consider some of the gangs in their area to have reached the level of threat to be regarded as an organized crime problem.

Public Housing and Gangs

The survey asked "does your community/jurisdiction have any public housing other than that for the elderly". Some 50.5 percent indicated that they did in fact have such public housing in their communities. Thus, some 49.5 percent did not have public housing in their communities. What our data also shows is that the existence of public housing in a community is also associated with a higher probability of having a gang problem. This social-economic ecological effect is shown in Table 6.

TABLE 6

The Distribution of Whether A Community Has Public Housing

(Other Than That For Seniors) By Whether The Same

Community Also Reports Having a Gang Problem

Are Youth Gangs A Problem

in Your Jurisdiction?

NO YES % Yes

Does your community/

jurisdiction have any

public housing other than

that for the elderly?

NO 26 71 73.1%

YES 15 84 84.8%

Chi-square = 4.02, p = .04

Thus, there is a significant increased likelihood the community will report a gang problem knowing that the same community also has public housing is what Table 6 shows. Ongoing research soon to be reported at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (Tromanhauser, 1996) may show that this factor is also a surrogate measure of community problems over which law enforcement has no control (i.e., the poverty factor, or the surplus population theory, or the economic strain affecting a community that results in increased demands for welfare assistance).

A follow-up question did reveal that 30.4 percent did report that gangs have been a problem in their public housing areas in this study of Wisconsin law enforcement agencies. There is only one known large study of the nature of the gang problem inside public housing complexes (see Project ALTGELD, 1995).

Population Sizes in the Areas of Wisconsin Studied in this Sample

The survey asked "what is the current population estimate of your community/jurisdiction". The results ranged between a low of 300 to a high of 5,500,000 in terms of population sizes for the areas represented in this sample of law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin. It may be worthwhile at a later date to analyze this in reference to only the municipal respondents in the sample, which would allow for analyzing how the gang problem varies in terms of the same variation in city size --- i.e., the ripple-effect hypothesis . In fact, we did examine the subset of respondents who were municipal police: here the city sizes ranged from a low of 300 to a high of 620,000. In fact half (50%) of the law enforcement agencies were from jurisdictions of 4,500 or less.

Consensus On Greater Federal Involvement in Gang Suppression

The survey asked the law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin "do you believe the federal government should play a greater role in the prosecution of gang crimes". The majority of the responding law enforcement agencies (70.8%) agreed that yes in fact the federal government should play a greater role in the prosecution of gang crimes. Only 29.2 percent did not feel a greater federal role was needed.

Still A Small Problem at this Point: Gangs Active in Politics

It is now known that the Chicago based gang, the Gangster Disciples, have penetrated at least one Wisconsin community with their political arm known as "21st Century V.O.T.E.". In Chicago, this group ran two candidates for city council positions, and in both instances, the 21st Century V.O.T.E. candidates forced the incumbents into the run-off election. However, both of these gang connected candidates were subsequently defeated by a 2-1 margin. The Gangster Disciples are the largest "Folks" gang in Chicago. Usually gangs emulate one another. Thus, it was not unusual to see the "Peoples" gang the Black P. Stone Nation recently initiate its equivalent of the gang political arm as well. The fact is among the more organized gang organizations (i.e., Level 3 especially), they often have written constitutions that allude to some type of political ideology, typically of the "oppressed peoples" underdog variety (see Knox, 1995 for examples of these constitutions for several major groups such as the Vice Lords, Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings, etc).

Therefore the survey asked "are any gangs in your jurisdiction getting involved with or active in politics". The results show that most of the law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin responding to this survey (99.5%) report that their gangs are not getting involved yet in politics. Only one-half of one percent (.5%) of the respondents did in fact indicate that the gangs in their area are in fact involved in politics.

Gangs and Race/Ethnicity: In Relationship to Drug Sales, "Turf Issues", and Bias Crime

Not long ago a piece of federally funded gang research concluded that based on aggregate homicide data in Chicago, that Hispanic gangs were more "expressive" and that Black gangs were more "instrumental". That is, that Hispanic gangs were more likely to be involved in "turf issues" while Black gangs were more involved in making money by illegal drug sales. A more logical position might be that it is not likely that any ethnic or racial group is going to have an absolute monopoly on any type of human motivation. We therefore offered a test of this issue here. The results through the federal research into serious question and support our basic position, with one surprising result about bias crime.

The survey asked three similar questions about "what gangs do" with exactly the same response modes (___Black ___Hispanic ___White ___All races). The results are shown in Table 7.

The survey asked "which type of gang is most active in illegal drug sales". This showed the federal research in question was not right: Black gangs are cited by only 12.3 percent of the responding law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin as being the "most active" in illegal drug sales in their areas. Whites are most active overall (42.3%) as a single ethnic group, but are closely rivaled by the melting pot effect of mixed-racial/ethnic composition (i.e., all races being equally involved).

The survey also asked "which type of gang is most active in turf issues in your area". As seen in Table 7, it was not Hispanic or Latino gangs that were most active (i.e., the expressive motivation for violence) in "turf issues". Rather, again the Black gangs dominated here: 47.7 percent of the responding law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin cited Black gangs as being more involved in turf issues. Latinos or Hispanics accounted for only 11.4 percent in Table 7.

As racial conflict does intertwine with the gang problem in a predictable kind of way (Knox, 1995), the survey also asked "which type of gang is most active in racial extremism and bias crime". Our hypothesis, of course, was that this would pick up groups like the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads, neo-nazis, etc, and therefore perhaps show this racial crime motivation more likely to be associated with white gang members. The data does support such a conclusion. As seen in Table 7, nearly half (50.8%) of the law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin responding to the survey identified white gangs as more likely to be involved in racial extremism and bias crime in their areas.

These findings in Table 7 lead us to believe that crime and particularly gang crime is sufficiently differentiated so that it is still unlikely that any single ethnic or racial group has an absolute monopoly on certain types of motivational issues. However, at least in this study (and we intend to replicate this research to validate it in other states shortly), the results generally point to white gangs being more active in bias crimes. In fairness to the criticism of the recent federal research in question, that research did not address the racial bias issue.

TABLE 7

FREQUENCY AND PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF TYPE

OF GANG BY BEING MOST ACTIVE IN

DRUG SALES, TURF ISSUES, AND BIAS CRIME

AMONG A 1995 SAMPLE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES IN WISCONSIN

Black Hispanic White All Races

N % N % N % N %

Which type of gang is

most active in

illegal drug sales

in your area? 20 12.3 9 5.5 69 42.3 65 39.9

Which type of gang is

most active in

"turf issues"

in your area? 9 6.8 15 11.4 63 47.7 45 34.1

Which type of gang is

most active in

racial extremism and

bias crime in

your area? 12 9.8 12 9.8 62 50.8 36 29.5

Beliefs About Certain Gangs Being Forms of Organized Crime

The survey asked "do you feel any of the following gangs could be considered forms of organized crime". The respondent was then asked to check all that applied among the six choices. Some 57.3 percent felt the Crips could be considered a form of organized crime. Some 56.3 percent felt the Bloods could be considered a form of organized crime. Some 76.6 percent felt that the Gangster Disciples could be considered a form of organized crime. Some 63.4 percent felt that the Vice Lords could be considered a form of organized crime. Some 68.1 percent felt that the Latin Kings could be considered a form of organized crime. Finally, some 54.7 percent felt that the Aryan Brotherhood could be considered a form of organized crime. As will be seen in a later section of this report, some of these gangs having their origin in Chicago (Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings, Vice Lords) are the most active gangs in the State of Wisconsin today.

About A Third Report Gangs Attract Predominantly Racial And Ethnic Minorities

The survey asked "are the gang members in your area predominantly racial and ethnic minorities". Some 32.2 percent indicated that the gang members in their areas were in fact predominantly racial and ethnic minorities. About two-thirds (67.8%) indicated that the gang members in their areas were not predominantly racial or ethnic minorities. Thus, the image most common in the mass media (television, print, etc) is that the gang problem is a problem of minority groups. But apparently, when we consider the large statewide picture in the State of Wisconsin, the gang problem is not predominantly a minority group problem. This is consistent with the earlier repudiation of a recent federal study suggesting Blacks would be more "instrumental" and Hispanic/Latino gangs would be more "expressive": what we found was neither group dominated in either category --- whites did.

Few Police Officers Are Assigned to Work Full-Time on the Gang Problem

The survey asked "how many officers from your department are assigned to work full-time on the gang problem". The results varied between a low of zero (86.9% reported zero full-time officers assigned to work on the gang problem) to a high of 42. The total sum of all police officers for the entire sample assigned to work on the gang problem among the Wisconsin law enforcement agencies responding to this survey was N = 81.5 officers.

The Largest Gangs in the Jurisdictions Studied

To capture essentially alpha-numeric information, that is the names of gangs, the survey also asked the law enforcement agencies "what are the names of the largest three gangs in your area". We did cross-check these names against other known sources, and found in all cases complete consistency between the two sources. Thus, there is no need here to create a city listing of gang names. However, we did find some gangs there were not known from other sources. Therefore it is useful to simply provided a pooled list in terms of rank ordering of the most active gangs reported among Wisconsin law enforcement agencies. This may be helpful in establishing statewide priorities for gang suppression.

Table 9 shows the list of the most active gangs from the respondents to this survey. This shows that the Gangster Disciples are reported among the top three gangs in 29.4 percent of the agencies providing such data here. Latin Kings are reported in 22.5 percent of the communities providing such data. Vice Lords are reported in 15.3 percent of the communities providing such data. Thus, the top three largest gangs in Wisconsin are in the same order: Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings, and Vice Lords.

Obviously, as seen in Table 9, we have a situation where among the 206 respondents, not all provided such information on the top three gangs in their area; as some reported no such gang problem. A total of 347 gang names appeared in the data for which are the top three gangs for these Wisconsin agencies.

TABLE 9

DISTRIBUTION OF GANG NAMES IN THE SURVEY

CUM CUM

COUNT COUNT PCT PCT GANGNAME

1 1 .3 .3 2-1 (Milwauk

1 2 .3 .6 3Sisters

1 3 .3 .9 4CornHust

1 4 .3 1.2 AryanBro

3 7 .9 2.0 AsianKnights

1 8 .3 2.3 AsianPosse

2 10 .6 2.9 AsianRoy.Cla

1 11 .3 3.2 Asians

1 12 .3 3.5 BDs

5 17 1.4 4.9 BGDs

5 22 1.4 6.3 Bloods

1 23 .3 6.6 CMB

1 24 .3 6.9 Clay.Co.Gang

1 25 .3 7.2 Clay.Co.Gs

1 26 .3 7.5 Coal.ofColor

1 27 .3 7.8 CrazyBoys

8 35 2.3 10.1 Crips

1 36 .3 10.4 DeloboLobo

1 37 .3 10.7 DragonLords

1 38 .3 11.0 E.Si.Mafioso

1 39 .3 11.2 E.s.Mafiosos

2 41 .6 11.8 E.sideMafios

1 42 .3 12.1 folks

14 56 4.0 16.1 Folks

1 57 .3 16.4 GD

95 152 27.4 43.8 GDs

1 153 .3 44.1 GDs/Crips

1 154 .3 44.4 Hmonggangs

1 155 .3 44.7 Homeboys

1 156 .3 45.0 Imper.GDs

1 157 .3 45.2 ImperialGs

1 158 .3 45.5 In.Unknowns

1 159 .3 45.8 InsaneGDs

1 160 .3 46.1 KingBoys

1 161 .3 46.4 KrazedGDs

1 162 .3 46.7 LaoPosse

1 163 .3 47.0 Laos Posse

3 166 .9 47.8 LaotianPosse

1 167 .3 48.1 Lat.Eagles

1 168 .3 48.4 Lat.King

77 245 22.2 70.6 Lat.Kings

1 246 .3 70.9 Lat.Queens

1 247 .3 71.2 LocalWannabe

1 248 .3 71.5 LofDelafield

2 250 .6 72.0 M.O.D.

4 254 1.2 73.2 MLDs

TABLE 9: Continued

1 255 .3 73.5 ManiacGDs

1 256 .3 73.8 ManiacLDs

5 261 1.4 75.2 MenOfDestruc

1 262 .3 75.5 N.HammerSkin

1 263 .3 75.8 NativeMob

1 264 .3 76.1 PPP

3 267 .9 76.9 People

1 268 .3 77.2 Peoples

1 269 .3 77.5 RoadDogsMC

1 270 .3 77.8 RoadHogs

1 271 .3 78.1 RollerBoyz

1 272 .3 78.4 RoyalCripGs

1 273 .3 78.7 Russiangangs

1 274 .3 79.0 S.E.Asian

1 275 .3 79.3 Sat.Rit.Assn

1 276 .3 79.5 Site2Boys

3 279 .9 80.4 Skinheads

1 280 .3 80.7 Sov.N.Warrio

1 281 .3 81.0 Sov.Nat.Warr

1 282 .3 81.3 SovereignIN

2 284 .6 81.8 Span.Cobras

1 285 .3 82.1 T.M.C.

1 286 .3 82.4 TMC

1 287 .3 82.7 TMC (Asian)

1 288 .3 83.0 TaggerCrews

1 289 .3 83.3 VatosLocos

2 291 .6 83.9 ViceLord

51 342 14.7 98.6 ViceLords

1 343 .3 98.8 W.SideFOLKS

1 344 .3 99.1 W.sideFolks

1 345 .3 99.4 WestSide

1 346 .3 99.7 WhitePower

1 347 .3 100.0 WsideGDs

Most Wisconsin Law Enforcement Agencies Do Not Have A Specialized Gang Unit In Their Organizational Structure

The survey asked "does your department have a special unit to handle gang problems". Only 9.8 percent of the respondents indicated that their law enforcement agency had a special unit to handle gang problems. Thus, most of the respondents from this study of Wisconsin law enforcement agencies (90.2%) report that they do not have a unit in their organizational structure that deals specifically with gang problems.

The organizational lag is probably a function of the fact that for most of these Wisconsin communities, the gang problem is a recent one: having first become recognized in the few years. All Agree That Gangs Can Migrate.

The survey asked "do you believe some gangs can migrate to jurisdictions such as your own". Some 100 percent indicated "yes": they do believe some gangs can migrate to jurisdictions such as their own. Wisconsin has a long history as a vacation and tourist attraction. Apparently gangs and gang members like to have fun too might be what the respondents are really saying.

Over Half Attribute Some of Their Gang Problem to Gang Migration

The survey asked "do you believe any of the gang problem in your jurisdiction is due to gang migration". Some 71.1 percent of the respondents said "yes", that they do attribute some of their gang problem to gang migration. Still, some 28.9 percent responded "no" to this question.

The Majority of Wisconsin Law Enforcement Agencies Do Not Have A Strategic Plan To Deal With Gangs

The survey asked "does your department have a strategic plan for dealing with youth gangs". The majority (79.3%) of the respondents indicated "no". Only about a fifth (20.7%) indicated that their departments did in fact have a strategic plan for dealing with youth gangs.

The Gang Franchising/Gang Imperialism Variety of Gang Migration

Another type of way in which gangs arise in any community is because some gangs do truly seek out to develop "new territory", often for the purposes of drug income. The survey therefore asked "please estimate to what extent the gang problem in your area arose because of gang migration (i.e., outside gangs coming into your area to develop their own local franchises or local chapters)". The forced choice response modes consisted of values between a low of zero for "not a factor" to a high of ten for "major factor". The actual results in this scale score also ranged from a low of zero (23.2% gave an absolute low rating of zero) to a high of ten (8.1% gave an absolute high rating of ten). The mean or average score was 4.0 on a scale between zero to ten.

Most Do Not Believe Hate Groups Are A Crime Problem In Their Areas

The survey asked "do you feel that hate groups (KKK, neo-nazis, skinheads, etc) are a crime problem in your area". Some 89.2 percent responded "no", that such hate groups were not a crime problem in their area. However, 10.8 percent did believe that such hate groups were in fact a crime problem in their areas of Wisconsin.

Gang Proliferation Because of the "Copy Cat" Phenomenon

The copy cat phenomenon is also called the contagion effect, it is also called emulation or social imitation or mimicking behavior. A very large test of this issue is currently underway in Project GANGPINT by the National Gang Crime Research Center, interviewing several thousand gang members across the United States. All we know is that it does occur. A secondary issue along these lines has to do with the role of the mass media, particularly "movies" or videos.

The survey therefore asked "please estimate to what extent the gang problem in your area arose because of the copy cat phenomenon (i.e., youths who use names of national groups without really having ties to the same groups in other areas)". The response mode included forced choice options between a low of zero (for "not a factor") to a high of ten (for "major factor"). The results also showed a full range along this continuum from a low of zero (11% indicated zero) to a high of ten (8.5 percent indicated ten). The mean or average rating was 5.7 on a scale of zero to ten.

A Fourth Believe Motorcycle Gangs Are A Crime Problem

The survey asked "do you feel that motorcycle gangs are a crime problem in your area". Here some 72.5 percent responded "no": that they did not feel motorcycle gangs were a crime problem in their area. But 27.5 percent reported that they felt motorcycle gangs were a crime problem in their area.

The Spread of the Gang Public Relations Function

Criminal gangs use a number of gimmicks to deflect attention from police investigation. Historically, they have hidden behind religious fronts like the El Rukns in Chicago. Political fronts have also emerged among American gangs. One of the most currently active gangs in the political arena is the Gangster Disciple gang having its origins in Chicago. Using many juvenile members, the juveniles could go to their parents and deny gang membership by saying "I am not a gang banger, I am involved with a group for Better Growth and Development of our community". It is a "put on". But it is effective in part of the allures that modern gangs use to recruit children, just like a cult that denies it is a cult, some gangs do not like to be called gangs and in fact try to affect a public relations function that they are something other than a criminal enterprise.

By using this kind of public relations function a gang member can "accentuate the positive and deny the negative". One major gang figure in the Gangster Disciples in Chicago, for example, who ran for office recently and lost began his political campaign by saying: "I am a gang member, but not a gang banger....there is a difference". When he found this did not sell very well to his own African-American community, towards the end of the election he began to describe himself as an "ex-gang member". He is still very much a full gang member, albeit one with more than a little suave in being able to manipulate the media.

To test the spread of this issue, for the Chicago example, the survey asked "have any gang members in your jurisdiction used the phrase Growth and Development or Better Growth and Development to refer to the Gangster Disciples or Black Gangster Disciples respectively". Most of the Wisconsin law enforcement agencies responding to this survey (86.8%) did not report this public relations function had yet reached their area. However, some 13.2 percent of the respondents did in fact report that they have witnessed this spread of the gang public relations function, specifically for the Gangster Disciple gang organization, to their community areas. What we may have caught here and elsewhere is the time lapse in the spread of social-linguistic forms, i.e., subcultural argot, or gang slang: it originates in large urban areas like Chicago, and later spreads to outlying areas in what we call the ripple effect. This "ripple" simply may not yet have hit these areas of Wisconsin.

A Strong Belief Exists Supportive of Gang Prevention

Some gang researchers have vilified police officers as persons who simply want to "lock up" gang members. Our research sheds some new factual insight on the issue. The survey asked "do you think that programs could be effective in preventing kids from getting involved in gangs". The fact is that 92.6 percent of the responding law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin did in fact agree that programs could be effective in keeping kids out of gangs. Only 7.4 percent did not believe programs can be effective in keeping kids out of gangs.

Attitudes About Job Training And Employment As A Solution To The Gang Problem

The survey asked the respondents three different attitudinal questions about gang prevention and gang intervention, the first of which is described here. The respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the statement: "Job training and employment opportunities are the best solution to the gang problem." The results showed: 7.8 percent "strongly agree", 28.9 percent "agree", 36.8 percent "neither agree or disagree", 24.0 percent "disagree", and only 2.5 percent "strongly disagree". Thus, some 36.8 percent either agreed or strongly agreed with this belief about the role of job training and employment as a solution to the gang problem.

Attitudes That Strict Law Enforcement is the Best Solution to the Gang Problem

The survey also asked the respondents how they felt about the following statement: "Strict law enforcement is the best solution to the gang problem". The results were as follows: 24.4 percent "strongly agree", 46.8 percent "agree", 20.0 percent "neither agree or disagree", 8.8 percent "disagree", and 0 percent "strongly disagree". Thus, 71.2 percent agreed or strongly agreed with this idea. The message to Wisconsin citizens here is that police do believe they can do something about the gang problem. Unfortunately, other messages from this research suggest the people of Wisconsin have not been providing adequate resources for training, gang unit details, etc, to combat this recent menace now facing the entire State of Wisconsin.

Attitudes That Gang Problems Can Be Prevented By Drug Prevention/Education

The survey also asked the respondents how they felt about the following statement: "Gang problems can be prevented by means of effective drug prevention and drug education". The results were as follows: 6.8 percent "strongly agree", 39.0 percent "agree", 37.6 percent "neither agree or disagree", 16.1 percent "disagree", and .5 percent "strongly disagree".

Half Believe Social Workers Can Be Effective in Reaching Out to Persons Who May Want to Quit the Gang.

The survey asked "Do you think social workers can be effective in reaching out to persons who might want to quit the gang". Here some 49.2 percent did agree that social workers can be effective in this role. Still, some 50.8 percent did not believe that social workers can be effective in this role. The truth is there really is no evidence that even if social workers do make contact with gang members that currently society has any kind of "parachute" to offer. For some gangs, also, it really is "kill to get it, die to get out". The more organizationally sophisticated the gang is, the more difficult it is to get out of the gang without facing the risk of great bodily harm or even death.

Half Believe Social Workers Can Be Effective in Helping Kids Stay Out of Gangs

The survey asked "do you think social workers can be effective in helping kids stay out of gangs". The results show that 49.8 percent do agree that social workers can be effective in this capacity. However, the other half (50.2%) do not agree that social workers can be effective in helping kids stay out of gangs. This problem is particularly acute in correctional environments, where a youth or adult may have to join up with some gang just to survive on a daily basis. It is also the case that in the community, kids join gangs for complex reasons reflecting powerful social forces that are not subject to control by social workers. In other words, counseling from a social worker is not effective in warding off violence a "neutron" might face on a daily basis to and from school. Children facing the menace of gang recruitment are probably less likely to seek out the help of social workers and perhaps more likely to try and arm themselves, thereby continuing to the spiraling rise in gang-related violence.

Absolute Agreement: Gang Members Enjoy Television News Coverage.

The survey asked "do you think gang members like seeing themselves on the news". Some 94 percent of the law enforcement agencies responding to this survey from Wisconsin agreed that gang members do in fact relish the opportunity to see themselves on television. Only 6 percent did not think gang members like seeing themselves on the news. Shortly the NGCRC will release the results of the first major national study in this regard from its Project GANGPINT, asking the gang members themselves in this regard, a multi-state multi-site study of 2,000 gang members from Wisconsin to Houston, from Los Angeles, to North Carolina. The results are planned to be released first to the subscribers of the Journal of Gang Research.

Three-Fourths Agree: Less Media Attention to Gangs Could Mean Fewer People Joining Gangs.

The survey asked "do you feel that if less attention was given to gangs on television, in newspapers, and in movies that fewer people would join a gang". Here some 74.1 percent agreed: eliminating this coverage that might glorify a gang or hold it up as the penultimate way of "resisting larger societal authority" would in fact result in fewer people joining gangs. Still, 25.9 percent did not agree that less media attention to gangs would be any guarantee of fewer people joining gangs.

The Strategies Used By Wisconsin Law Enforcement Agencies To Combat the Gang Crime Problem

A long check list was used here after the question "which of the following strategies does your agency employ to combat gang crime (check all that apply)". The results were as follows: Surveillance (38.2%), aggressive patrol (70.6%), infiltration (2.5%), intelligence gathering (55.9%), foot patrol (28.9%), citizen block clubs (25.5%), formation of citizen patrols (1.5%), gang sweeps (2.5%), satellite police stations (1.5%), meetings between beat officers and the community (24.0%), use of confidential informants (52.0%), identifying by name and/or photo in local newspapers gang members who have been arrested (9.3%), targeting gang leaders (24.0%), vertical prosecution (3.4%), civil legal actions against gang members (3.9%), covert buy-bust operations (16.7%), DARE (62.7%), GREAT (9.8%), witness protection (3.4%), wanted posters (1.5%), close surveillance of gang probationers (12.7%), close surveillance of gang parolees (8.3%), multijurisdictional task forces (34.3%), gang tracking computer system (13.2%).

Most Agree: It Takes Both Prevention and Suppression

The survey asked "in your opinion, which is the most effective law enforcement strategy for dealing with gang problems", and three forced choice options were provided: prevention, suppression, both prevention and suppression. The results showed that 9.5 percent preferred prevention only, only 4.5 percent preferred suppression only, and most (86.1%) preferred both prevention and suppression.

The Growing Female Involvement in Gangs: Results From Wisconsin

The survey asked "are females also involved in the gangs in your area". The results showed that 80.1 percent of the law enforcement agencies from Wisconsin responding to this survey did in fact report that females are also involved in the gangs in their areas. Thus, about a fifth (19.9%) reported that females were not involved in the gangs in their areas.

Strong Support For Less Media Attention To Gang Members

The survey asked "do you think that media attention to the arrests of gang members (i.e., television or newspapers identifying the name of arrestee and his/her gang affiliation) is a publicity benefit to the same gang whose members are arrested". The results show that 77.2 percent feel less media attention should be given to gang members, that is they agreed with this idea that the attention is a publicity benefit to the gang itself. Still, some 22.8 percent did not feel the coverage helped the gang. The fact is, until the recent Project GANGPINT no national needs assessment had ever been conducted on the issue of gang prevention and gang intervention to provide the quantitative hard factual basis for policy formation in regard to this media issue and a host of program design issues.

Four-Fifths Agree: Very Aggressive Suppression Policy Could Reduce the Gang Crime Problem Substantially

The survey asked "do you believe that a very aggressive gang suppression policy by your agency could substantially reduce the gang crime problem in your area". The results indicate that 82.2 percent agree: such a policy could substantially reduce the gang problem. Still, some 17.8 percent did not believe a very aggressive suppression policy could substantially reduce the gang problem. Again, the finding here concurs with previous findings in this report: Wisconsin police are optimistic about being able to do something about reducing the threat represented by gangs, but we must also face the reality that Wisconsin policy makers and Wisconsin law makers have also not provided their police with the training and other resources to combat this escalating problem.

The Reaction-Formation Thesis

While not fully articulated, some contemporary gang researchers believe in what might be called the reaction-formation thesis. According to the reaction-formation thesis of police strategies to deal with gangs, strong suppression oriented policies like police sweeps and roundups could simply make a gang stronger. In a more general sense most researchers do agree, as demonstrated by Knox (1991), gangs do thrive on conflict.

So the survey asked "do you believe that a very aggressive gang suppression policy by your agency could inadvertently increase the solidarity of the gang members prosecuted". The results are mixed. Some 75.1 percent did not believe in the reaction-formation thesis, that is they did not believe aggressive policies would increase gang solidarity. Still, some 24.9 percent did agree that very aggressive gang suppression policies could inadvertently increase gang solidarity.

It is important to state here that this is the first hard data on this very same issue. Prior to this all discussion by the proponents of the reaction-formation thesis has pretty much boiled down to discussion, inference, and speculation. And the present data in no way provides a true assessment of the issue, it is only opinion data from law enforcement. No known data exists that actually addresses this issue directly (i.e., the gangs and gang members themselves as the source of data). So, all we can conclude here is that the need for hard data on this issue is even more vital to resolve this apparent issue of debate.

The Trend Towards Community Policing in Wisconsin

Three separate variables were used to inquire about the trend towards community policing among law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin. The results show that about half are already using it in some fashion.

Gang Involvement in Local Legitimate Businesses

Soon to be published in the Journal of Gang Research, Project GANGECON, a very large scale national study of gang members showed that modern gangs are using their illegal drug income to buy and operate what may appear to be legitimate business enterprises. Therefore the survey asked "has your agency uncovered any gang involvement in local legitimate businesses". Only 3.9 percent of the responding Wisconsin law enforcement agencies reported that in fact gangs have penetrated legitimate businesses. Most (96.1%) indicated that gangs had not yet made this foray into the business world.

A follow-up question for those who indicated that gangs were involved in local legitimate businesses, asked the respondents to identify which types of businesses gangs were involved in. The results were as follows: N = 1 reported gangs involved in restaurant and fast food businesses, N = 1 reported gangs involved in pool halls, N = 2 reported gangs involved in game room/video arcade businesses, N = 0 reported gangs involved in car washes, N = 1 reported gangs involved in car repair businesses, N = 3 reported gangs involved in taverns, N = 1 reported gangs involved in dance clubs, N = 1 reported gangs involved in beeper/cellular phone stores, N = 0 reported gangs involved in jewelry stores, N = 2 reported gangs involved in paint and body shops.

Few Local Businesses Controlled By Gangs From Outside the Community

The survey asked "has your agency found any evidence of legitimate businesses being controlled by gangs from outside of your own community". Some 99 percent reported they had seen no evidence of this trend. Thus, only one percent of the law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin reported that they have in fact seen evidence of legitimate businesses in their jurisdiction being controlled by gangs from outside of their own community area.

Strong Support For Zero-Tolerance Policy on Gangs

Attitudes toward the zero-tolerance policy on gangs was measured by the response modes of agreeing or disagreeing with the statement: "A zero-tolerance policy is the best approach for dealing with gangs and gang members". The results were as follows: 45.6 percent strongly agree, 36.8 percent agree, 11.8 percent neither agree or disagree, 5.4 percent disagree, and .5 percent strongly disagree. Thus, 82.4 percent agreed or strongly agreed with the idea that zero tolerance is the best approach to gangs and gang members.

Most Disagree That Gangs Are A Social Problem and Not A Law Enforcement Problem

Attitudes about this issue were measured by the response modes of agreeing or disagreeing with the statement: "Gangs and gang members are a social problem and not primarily a law enforcement problem". The results were as follows: 12.6 percent strong agree, 18 percent agree, 16 percent neither agree or disagree, 28.6 percent disagree, and 24.8 percent strongly disagree. Thus, only 30.6 percent agreed or strongly agreed with the idea that gangs were a social problem.

A Strong Warning Sign: Half of All Wisconsin Communities Report Gang Disturbances in Public Schools During The Last Year

When the investigators at the National Gang Crime Research Center and the Task Force are called frequently by some towns and communities that want to know if they have a gang problem, we have a sure fire investigatory solution. First we do not always rely on what official government agencies may say, for while they are in the minority there are some agencies in a denial mode who often cannot resist the pressure from local politicians to downplay or deny the gang problem. Secondly, we know that parents are not always the best source of data either. The first to know about the gang problem are school students. There is an excellent book that is not widely known about this subject: Schools Under Siege (Knox, Tromanhauser, and Laske, 1992). But the national evidence shows that when the problem is sufficiently large to appear in the school system, the community has a problem with gangs.

The survey therefore asked "have there been any gang disturbances in the public schools in your area in the last year". The results show that some 53 percent of the law enforcement agencies responding to this survey did in fact report that there have been gang disturbances in the public schools in their area during the last year. Thus, 47 percent reported that no such gang disturbances have occurred in the public schools in their area during the last year.

Where To Place The Blame on the Gang Denial Syndrome in Wisconsin

The survey asked "do you believe that some politicians want law enforcement agencies to downplay or even deny the gang problem". The results show that 70 percent of the law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin responding to this survey did in fact report that this was true. Thus, 30 percent did not report that politicians want law enforcement agencies to downplay or deny the gang problem. These are the same politicians who are not providing sufficient resources to local law enforcement agencies to deal with the gang problem.

The Rising Impact of Asian Gang Members

The survey asked "have any Asian gangs or Asian gang members been active in your jurisdiction". The results show that 41.5 percent report that Asian gangs or Asian gang members have been active in their jurisdictions. Thus, 58.5 report no such Asian gang activity.

Low Level of Gang Involvement in Politics At This Point in Time

A series of questions were addressed at this issue. First, the survey asked "have gangs become active in politics in your jurisdiction". Only one respondent reported that gangs have become active in politics in their Wisconsin jurisdiction.

Another question asked "are any politicians sympathetic to gangs in your jurisdiction". Here again, only four respondents indicated that any politicians in their jurisdiction were sympathetic to gangs.

Another question asked "has a group known as 21st Century V.O.T.E. (having its origins in Chicago and associated with the Gangster Disciples) been active in any capacity in your jurisdiction". Two respondents indicated this group had been active in their jurisdiction in Wisconsin.

Another question asked "Has anyone tried to stage political protests involving gang members in your area". Here five respondents indicated this type of activity.

Finally, the survey asked "have any gang leaders received positive recognition from the mass media in your area". Again, only 8 responding agencies indicated this had occurred.

Thus, overall there is a low level (at this point in time) of gang involvement in politics according to this source of information (i.e., law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin).

Gangs Could Pose A Crime Threat to a Major Event Like the 1996 Olympics

The survey asked "do you believe some of the more organized gangs like the Gangster Disciples could pose a crime threat to major events like the 1996 Olympics". Some 68.8 percent of the responding Wisconsin law enforcement agencies agreed that gangs like the Gangster Disciples could pose a crime threat to the 1996 Olympics. Some 31.2 percent did not believe that such gangs could pose a crime threat to the 1996 Olympics.

Gangs Could Pose a Crime Threat to a Major Event Like the 1996 Democratic National Convention

The fact is the gangs have already made this threat on television of promising to make the 1996 Democratic National Convention to be held in Chicago "look like a slumber party compared to the 1968 Chicago Convention". But we asked anyway.

The survey asked "do you believe some of the more organized gangs like the Gangster Disciples could pose a crime threat to major events like the 1996 Democratic National Convention". Some 71.2 percent of the Wisconsin respondents agreed that gangs like the Gangster Disciples could pose a crime threat to the 1996 Democratic National Convention. Some 28.8 percent did not feel that gangs like the Gangster Disciples could pose a crime threat to the Democratic National Convention to be held in Chicago in the summer of 1996.

Beliefs That Gang Members Are Primarily Minorities

The survey asked the respondents to give their beliefs about the truth or falsehood of the statement "gang members are usually African-American or Latino". Three fourths (77.8%) felt this was a false statement. Only 22.2 percent felt it was true.

Beliefs About Gang Members Seldom Come From Middle-Class Families

The survey asked the respondents to give their beliefs about the truth or falsehood of the statement: "gang members seldom come from middle-class or upper middle-class families". Some 81.5 percent felt this was false. Only 18.5 percent felt it was true that gang members seldom come from middle-class families. Clearly, law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin are dispelling the myth that the gang problem is primarily a male minority poor kid problem.

Beliefs About Females Rarely Belonging to Gangs

The survey asked the respondents to give their beliefs about the truth or falsehood of the statement: "young women rarely belong to gangs". Some 93.4 percent felt this statement was false. Only 6.6 felt the statement was true. Obviously, it is not unusual for Wisconsin female teenagers and even younger female children to become involved in gangs.

Half Report Community-School-Police Partnerships

The survey asked "do you have a community-school-police partnership in dealing with gang activity". The results show that 57.1 percent now report this partnership in place. Some 42.9 percent do not report having this type of multi-social institutional partnership in place to deal with the gang problem in Wisconsin.

Type of Agencies Responding to This Survey

The vast majority of the law enforcement agencies responding to this survey are local law enforcement agencies. Some 79.6 percent were city police departments or other municipal law enforcement agencies (village, township, tribal). Some 17 percent were county sheriff's departments. Some 1.5 percent were campus police departments and 1.9 percent were state agencies.

Almost All Wanted The Report

Some 97.1 percent wanted to receive a copy of the report. What this suggests to us is a strong hunger for hard information that can be put to use in combatting the gang crime problem in Wisconsin. The Task Force has agreed to provide a full copy of the report at no cost to all who requested it.

CONCLUSION

There are over 500 law enforcement agencies in the State of Wisconsin when we consider the different levels of governmental jurisdiction. This includes, military, state, county, city, as well as campus or university police departments. The findings reported here are based on a sample of N = 206 such agencies, approximately a fifth of the sample universe.

Federal agencies such as the FBI, BATF, DEA, and INS in Wisconsin were not included in this research, because it is our experience that these agencies are prevented by their respective organizations from responding to inquiries of this nature. In short, as centralized organizations they are more experienced in receiving than in giving hard information of the type sought in the present survey.

The research reported here is a preliminary descriptive analysis of the data. It is expected that the individual authors will at a later date make further analysis of this same information.

Our research agenda included tracing the effects of Chicago gangs on gang crime problems in the State of Wisconsin. The effects appear to be very real indeed, suggesting substantial evidence of interstate gang crime influence from Chicago, Illinois to numerous locations in the State of Wisconsin. While we do not intend to release these geographical findings in a report of this type, that could easily find its way into the public, we will make such information available to law enforcement and investigatory agencies that could play a role in combatting the gang crime threat.

Wisconsin has joined the rest of the nation in having a clear and present gang crime problem. As the gang crime problem is relatively recent, this is also reflected in the preparedness of the law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin to adequately respond to the problem. In other words, the sophistication of law enforcement resources tends to lag behind the scope and extent of the gang crime problem in the State of Wisconsin. For example, while over two-thirds (69.8%) clearly admit a gang problem, only 15.1 percent have had time to yet produce brochures for use in public education about the gang problem. It may be useful to have a statewide law enforcement organization sponsor the development of such an "anti-gang" or "gang prevention" brochure that can be used by local police agencies in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin needs what the other 49 states need: a national gang database. This does not currently exist and as a result many gang members and gang crimes go undetected and undeterred. A nationwide gang intelligence database for use by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies would be of immediate benefit to most local law enforcement agencies.

REFERENCES

Chicago Crime Commission

1995 Gangs: Public Enemy Number One. Chicago, Illinois.

Knox, George W.

1991 An Introduction to Gangs. First edition. Vande Vere

Publishing, Ltd., Berrien Springs, MI.

1995 An Introduction to Gangs. Third edition. Wyndham Hall Press. Bristol, Indiana.

Knox, George W.; Edward D. Tromanhauser; and David L. Laske

1992 Schools Under Siege. Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa.

Knox, George W.; et al

1995 "Gang Migration: Recent Research Findings", in J.

Mitchell Miller and Jeffrey P. Rush (Eds.), A Criminal Justice Approach to Gangs: From Explanation

to Response, Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing Company, (in press).

Laskey, John A.

1994 "The Familial Gang Transplant Phenomenon", paper

presented at the Annual Meeting of the American

Society of Criminology. (Soon to be published in

the Journal of Gang Research).

Project ALTGELD

1995 Gangs and Other Problems in Public Housing: A Special

Report. Preliminary Results of the 1995 Anonymous

Survey of Altgeld-Murray Homes Residents. George W. Knox, et al, National Gang Crime Research Center.

Project GANGECON

1995 The Economics of Gang Life: A Task Force Report

of the National Gang Crime Research Center. March 11,

1995.

Project GANGGUNS

1995 "Gangs and Guns: A Task Force Report", American Jails

May/June, Vol. IX, Number 2, pp. 59-63.

Project GANGPINT

1995 Gang Prevention and Gang Intervention: A National

Needs Assessment: What Several Thousand Gang Members

Have To Say About Gang Program Effectiveness", A

Report of Project GANGPINT: A National Research Consortium of the National Gang Crime Research Center.

Results to be released at the Annual Meeting of the

American Society of Criminology, November 16, 1995,

Boston, Mass.

Bibliography: Continued

Project GEORGIA95

1995 The Gang Problem in Georgia: A Law Enforcement Assessment. A Joint Task Force Report of The National Gang Crime Research Center and the Chicago Crime Commission. For release in the fall of 1995.

Project ILLPOL94

1994 The Gang Problem in Illinois: A Law Enforcement Assessment. National Gang Crime Research Center.

Project ILLPOL95

1995 The Gang Problem in Illinois: A Law Enforcement Assessment. National Gang Crime Research Center (in progress now).

ENDNOTES: