GANG MEMBERSHIP

This indicator reports the number, percent and rate per 100,000 youth of known gang members 10 to 17 years of age.

Data consistently shows that gang members are responsible for a disproportionately high number of crimes committed by youth offenders. Compared to other delinquent youth, gang members are more extensively involved in serious and violent criminal behavior. Juvenile gang members commit serious and violent offenses at a rate several times higher than non-gang adolescents. Gang crime often involves drug trafficking, the use of weapons and violence that includes rape, carjacking, assault and murder. 1 According to the 2015 National Gang Report , neighborhood street gangs continue to be a significant threat to local jurisdictions across the country. 2 From a societal standpoint, the issue of juvenile gangs is one that requires swift action both for the well-being and safety of communities and the youth who get caught up in gang life.

• In the last 10 years, there was a 65.9% decrease in the total number of known gang members ages 10 to 17 years old in Orange County, from 1,204 in 2006 to 411 individuals in 2015.

• Since 2006, there was a 78.3% decrease in the total known gang members ages 10 to 14 years old (152 in 2006 to 33 in 2015) and a 64.1% decrease in gang members ages 15 to 17 years old (1,052 in 2006 to 378 in 2015).

• The rate of known gang members was 121 per 100,000 for 10 to 17 year olds in 2015; this reflects a 76.6% decrease from a high mark of 517 per 100,000 in 2009.3

• Broken down by age, 10 to 14 year old juvenile gang members decreased from 27 to 10 per 100,000 from 2006 to 2015. For 15 to 17 years old, the rate decreased from 227 to 111 per 100,000 from 2006 to 2015.

• In 2015, across ethnicities, Hispanic youth represented the highest percent of juvenile gang members (96%), followed by White (1.5%), Black (1%), Other (1%) and Asian (1%) youth.

• Nationally, in 2015, respondents to the National Alliance of Gang Investigators Associations Survey indicated that street gang members increased in approximately 49% of jurisdictions since 2013, stayed the same in 43% and decreased in approximately 8% of surveyed jurisdictions.4

More than nine in 10 gang members are Hispanic youth.