OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem
OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
A Guide to Assessing
Your Community’s Youth
Gang Problem
Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention
June 2002
Copyright 2002 Institute for Intergovernmental Research
All Rights Reserved

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OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem
This document was prepared under Cooperative Agreement Number
2000-JD-FX-0001 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
The opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in
this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent
the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

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OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ...................................................................... 6
1.
Introduction ...................................................................... 8
Purpose of the Assessment Guide..................................................................................... 10
Adapting the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model ........................................................11
Conducting a Community-Wide Scan ............................................................................... 12
2.
The OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model ...................................... 14
3.
Why Assess the Gang Problem?............................................... 19
Why Focus on Gangs and Not Juvenile
Delinquency? ........................................................................................................................ 19
4.
Laying the Groundwork ......................................................... 22
The Steering Committee ................................................................................................... 22
The Assessment Team ........................................................................................................ 24
The Research Partner........................................................................................................ 25
The Project Coordinator ................................................................................................... 27
Working With the Media ................................................................................................. 27
5.
Collecting the Data ............................................................. 43
Narrowing the Focus of the Assessment ........................................................... 44
6.
General Descriptive Data ...................................................... 46
7.
Gang Data....................................................................... 49
Law Enforcement Gang Data ............................................................................................ 49
Gang Characteristics ............................................................................................. 52
Gang Crime By Type .............................................................................................. 52
Gang Crime Incidents ............................................................................................ 54
When and Where Gang Crimes Are Committed ................................................ 55
Victims of Gang Crime ........................................................................................... 56
Gang-Involved Youth ......................................................................................................... 57

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OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem
8.
Student and School-Level Data ............................................... 69
Student Characteristics and Disciplinary Incidents .................................................. 70
Student Characteristics ....................................................................................... 70
Disciplinary Incidents ........................................................................................... 71
Student Survey .................................................................................................................. 72
Conducting the Survey .......................................................................................... 76
School Staff Perceptions ................................................................................................. 90
9.
Community Perceptions of Gang Crime ........................................ 94
10. Current Activities and Resources............................................ 101
Community Agency Resources ........................................................................................ 102
Justice System Programs ............................................................................................... 104
11. Data-Collection Tools......................................................... 106
Self-Administered Survey ............................................................................................. 106
Personal Interviews ......................................................................................................... 107
Focus Groups ..................................................................................................................... 108
12. Analyzing and Interpreting the Data ....................................... 111
Quantitative Data ............................................................................................................. 112
Qualitative Data ............................................................................................................... 113
Analyzing and Interpreting the Data ........................................................................... 113
Descriptive Statistics.......................................................................................... 114
Cross-Sectional Analysis ..................................................................................... 115
Time-Series Analysis ........................................................................................... 117
13. Writing the Assessment Report ............................................. 118
Assessment Report Outline ............................................................................................ 120
14. References .................................................................... 124

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OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem
List of Tables
Table 1: General Descriptive Data–Multiyear
47
Table 2: Gang Crime Data
51
Table 3: Gang-Involved Youth
58
Table 4: Student and School Level Data
69
Table 5: Community Perception of Gang Crime
95
Table 6: Current Activities and Resources
101

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OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem
Acknowledgements
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) wishes
to thank the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) for their help and
guidance in writing this document. In particular, OJJDP would like to thank
Candice Kane, Ph.D., Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, and
an NYGC consultant, and Van Dougherty, NYGC, who gathered the
material and prepared the the document for OJJDP. John Moore and
Michelle Arciaga of the NYGC provided input as the document was being
prepared. Jim Burch, Special Emphasis Division, OJJDP, and
Phelan Wyrick, Research and Program Development Division, OJJDP, also
provided material and invaluable guidance and oversight to the project.
Based on their experiences with other collaborative efforts, review and
comments by NYGC consultants James C. Howell, Ph.D., and former
Commander Lin Adams, Mesa, Arizona, Police Department, strengthened
and improved this guide.
This guide relies heavily upon the research and practical experience of a
number of professionals in the field of youth gangs. OJJDP is grateful for
the work of Dr. Irving Spergel, University of Chicago, and his associates
who, in the early 1990s, collected and analyzed the practices of agencies
involved in combating gangs. From this research, Spergel developed a model
comprehensive program to reduce gang violence. Implemented in the Little
Village neighborhood of Chicago by the Chicago Police Department, the
“Spergel Model” has been tested, evaluated, and found to have positive
results. With some adaptation, this design gave rise in 1995 to the OJJDP
Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gangs. OJJDP’s
Comprehensive Gang Model has been implemented in Bloomington, Illinois;
San Antonio, Texas; Riverside, California; and Mesa and Tucson, Arizona.
OJJDP thanks the project directors, staff, and the many other individuals at
these five sites who have contributed so materially to this program and, in
the process, learned the “lessons” incorporated into this guide.
OJJDP also thanks the project directors, staff, and the other individuals
who participated in the first year assessment and planning process of the
Rural Gang Initiative (RGI). The four rural sites (Cowlitz County,
Washington; Elk City, Oklahoma; Glenn County, California; and
Mount Vernon, Illinois) concluded their assessment and planning process in
May 2000. Comments from many RGI staff were invaluable to the
improvement of this assessment guide.
Acknowledgements
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OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem
OJJDP also thanks the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Police Executive
Research Forum, and the individuals who contributed to Addressing
Community Gang Problems: A Practical Guide. Portions of this BJA
publication appear throughout.
In addition, OJJDP would like to thank Dr. Howell; Finn-Aage Esbensen,
Ph.D., University of Nebraska at Omaha; Karl Hill, Ph.D., Director, Seattle
Social Development Project; and Jack Pollard, Ph.D., and Scott Bates of
Developmental Research and Programs, Seattle, Washington, for their
insightful comments and assistance regarding risk factors and development
of the student survey used in the assessment.

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OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem
1
Introduction
In 1987, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
began supporting a research and development project to design a
comprehensive approach to reduce and prevent youth gang violence. The
initial phase of this project was directed by Dr. Irving Spergel at the
University of Chicago. The project concluded in the early 1990s and resulted
in the development of the “Spergel” Model of Gang Intervention and
Suppression, also known as the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
(Model). The OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model calls for five core
strategies to be delivered through an integrated approach from a team of
community agencies and organizations. The five strategies are:
(1) community mobilization; (2) social intervention, including street outreach;
(3) provision of opportunities; (4) suppression; and (5) organizational change.
For a more detailed discussion of the Model, please refer to Chapter 2,
“The OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model,” on pages 7-11.
The OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model requires that these strategies be
delivered in a focused manner, based on a thorough assessment of the
current gang problem in a community, its potential causes, and contributing
factors. Although the Model specifically and principally involves intervention
and suppression, it is based on the premise that focused gang prevention
efforts consistent with the assessment are or will be in place. It is this
combination of strategies that ensures both short- and long-term reduction
in gang crime and violence, and that the most cost-effective approach,
prevention, can have an effect on those most at risk of gang involvement.
In 1995, OJJDP began to test the Model in five sites selected through a
competitive process—Bloomington, Illinois; Mesa and Tucson, Arizona;
Riverside, California; and San Antonio, Texas. These sites, part of OJJDP’s
Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention,
Intervention, and Suppression Program, participated in a demonstration of
the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model in urban and suburban areas. In
the process of establishing these sites, it was clear that to successfully
implement the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model, the lead agency and
its partner agencies must fully understand the Model, the implementation
process, and perhaps most important, the nature and scope of the
community’s gang problems. Experience with these five sites reinforced
the principle that a thorough assessment of the community’s gang problem
was a prerequisite to implementation.
1. Introduction
8

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OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem
The nation’s youth gang problem, as disclosed in the National Youth Gang
Survey (NYGS), continues to affect a large number of jurisdictions. Over
3,300 communities reported gang activity in 2000. Since 1996, all cities
with a population greater than 250,000 and 86 percent of cities with a
population between 100,000 and 250,000 reported persistent gang activity.
Between 1996 and 2000, the estimated numbers of gangs and gang
members in the U.S. have fluctuated. In 2000, more than 24,500 gangs
were estimated to be active in the U.S. While this was an overall decline
nationally of 5 percent from 1999, cities with populations over 25,000 actually
experienced an increase of 1 percent in the number of gangs.
Estimates of the number of gang members nationally have exceeded 750,000
in each of the past 5 years and, in 2000, counter to the overall national trend
downward, cities over 25,000 saw a 2 percent increase.
Survey respondents reported a high degree of youth gang involvement in
aggravated assaults, larceny/theft, burglary, and robbery (Egley 2002).
These results are echoed by research findings from OJJDP and the National
Institute of Justice (NIJ) that suggest youth gangs continue to present a
serious threat to public safety despite the recent downturn in juvenile crime.
OJJDP’s Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of
Delinquency (Browning et al., 1999) found that youth who are involved in
youth gangs commit three to seven times as many delinquent and criminal
offenses as youth who are not gang involved. The studies found this trend
holds true even when comparing gang youth to non-gang youth who are
delinquents.
Responding to the continuing problems of youth gangs and youth gang
violence, OJJDP launched three programs based on the “lessons learned”
from the original urban sites’ demonstration of the OJJDP Comprehensive
Gang Model. Each site in these three programs is funded for one year to:
(a) conduct an assessment and analysis of its gang problem and (b) develop
a plan to implement the Model. OJJDP objectives for each of these
programs are to:
!
Assist the sites in developing an understanding of the local
gang problem, its origins, potential causes, and contributing
factors.
!
Assist the sites in understanding how the Model can be adapted
and applied to the local gang problem as identified and assessed,
as a part of the planning process.
1. Introduction
9

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OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem
!
Support the sites with relevant assistance, including technical
assistance on the Model, data collection, data analysis, gang
problem assessment, and implementation plan development.
!
Assist the selected sites in documenting the processes used in
this planning and assessment process.
In 1998, citing recent evidence that youth gangs were emerging in rural
areas, OJJDP developed the Rural Gang Initiative (RGI). Based on the
lessons learned from the urban sites, OJJDP limited first-year objectives
for the RGI sites to an assessment of the community’s gang problem and
the development of a plan to implement the Model. No programs or services
were funded in this first year. Two of the original four sites are currently
implementing the Model.
In 2000, OJJDP, in collaboration with the U.S. Departments of Education,
Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury, announced two new
gang programs designed to address and reduce youth gang crime and
violence in schools and communities across America:
Gang-Free Communities Program. This program offers seed funding to
replicate OJJDP’s Comprehensive Gang Model.
Gang-Free Schools Program. This program supports demonstration sites
that will develop an enhanced Model approach to address youth gang
problems that exist in the community and community’s schools. These
enhancements will include current school and youth violence prevention
efforts.
Purpose of the Assessment Guide
Research has consistently shown that gang problems differ among and
within communities. Unless communities explore and clearly understand
the nature and scope of their gang problem based on multiple sources of
information, they cannot begin to respond effectively or efficiently. A
properly conducted assessment of the gang problem will:
!
Identify the most serious and prevalent gang-related problems.
!
Determine potential factors contributing to gang problems.
!
Identify target group(s) for prevention, intervention, and
suppression efforts.
!
Shape community mobilization efforts and identify community
members who should be involved.
1. Introduction
10

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Document Outline

• Table of Contents
  • Acknowledgements
  • 1. Introduction
  • Purpose of the Assessment Guide
  • Adapting the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
  • Conducting a Community-Wide Scan
  • 2. The OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model
  • 3. Why Assess the Gang Problem?
  • Why Focus on Gangs and Not Juvenile Delinquency?
  • 4. Laying the Groundwork
  • The Steering Committee
  • The Assessment Team
  • The Research Partner
  • The Project Coordinator
  • Working With the Media
  • 5. Collecting the Data
  • Narrowing the Focus of the Assessment
  • 6. General Descriptive Data
  • 7. Gang Data
  • Law Enforcement Gang Data
  • Gang Characteristics
  • Gang Crime By Type
  • Gang Crime Incidents
  • When and Where Gang Crimes Are Committed
  • Victims of Gang Crime
  • Gang-Involved Youth
  • 8. Student and School-Level Data
  • Student Characteristics and Disciplinary Incidents
  • Student Characteristics
  • Disciplinary Incidents
  • Student Survey
  • Conducting the Survey
  • School Staff Perceptions
  • 9. Community Perceptions of Gang Crime
  • 10. Current Activities and Resources
  • Community Agency Resources
  • Justice System Programs
  • 11. Data-Collection Tools
  • Self-Administered Survey
  • Personal Interviews
  • Focus Groups
  • 12. Analyzing and Interpreting the Data
  • Quantitative Data
  • Qualitative Data
  • Analyzing and Interpreting the Data
  • Descriptive Statistics
  • Cross-Sectional Analysis
  • Time-Series Analysis
  • 13. Writing the Assessment Report
  • Assessment Report Outline
  • 14. References

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