National Gang Intelligence Center Analysis

The National Gang Intelligence Center emphasizes that gang activity is on the rise, and is expanding and evolving to adapt to new cultural contexts and technological advances. Some of these groups have reached a surprising level of sophistication and can be involved in transnational sale and purchase of wholesale quantities of drugs as well as weapons and even human trafficking (National Gang Intelligence Center, 2011). Many people in law enforcement and the public have worried that gangs may start contracting and cooperating with terrorist groups to make domestic US terrorism a greater threat than it already is. However, most experts concur that there is little evidence of such cooperation as of yet, and that gangs are typically not willing

to become involved with terrorist groups being monitored by federal agencies (National Gang Intelligence Center, 2011).
Gang Formation
There are many important aspects to the study of gang formation in the United States. Among the most crucial factors is ethnicity, with most gangs consisting of a relatively uniform racial, ethnic, religious, or national background. This phenomenon is quite clearly understood by historians and scholars studying gangs and organized crime over the decades. Essentially, individuals in marginalized and oppressed communities, new to the US, have sometimes looked to crime for sustenance, income, and social belonging. The authors of the study by the Bureau of Justice Assistance comment that, “The early white European ethnic gangs of New York City inevitably emerged from wave after wave of immigrants and extreme economic and social conditions characterized as ‘hypoghettoization’” (Howell, Egley, Tita, & Griffiths, 2011, p. 2). The power of these groups grew as barroom toughs joined forces with organized crime syndicates and corrupt political officials in ways which benefited all of the above. Often, it was the children of immigrant populations which became members of gangs, since these groups were often persecuted by society and barred from regular employment. The arrest of immigrants and their children for gang activity only strengthened stereotypes about the ethnic groups they belonged to, helping to perpetuate a cycle of crime and violence in poor communities around the country (Howell et al., 2011).