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Home > Gang Laws > Gang Definition
Exactly how a street gang is defined has not found a consensus among the most prudent researchers on the topic. For research purposes, a gang definition is extremely important to define, for operational uses, for cross disciplinary work and for comparative analysis. Cities, states and countries all have differing views on what a gang is, and for the prosecution of gang members, the state of California derived the below definition in 1988.
A criminal street gang is defined as any organization, association or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, which (1) has continuity of purpose, (2) seeks a group identity, and (3) has members who individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal activity. (Reference section 186.22(f) of the California Penal Code).
In California court, gangs are always called "criminal street gangs" because of the statutory definition and young people who have brief, temporary experiences with gangs, can get the unfortunate situation of getting arrested for an offense that then gets enhance to a gang related offense, regardless of whether or not gangs played any role in the offense. Its extremely prejudicial for a prosecutor to tell a jury that "Johnny" is part of a "criminal street gangs," and it becomes virtually impossible for a gang member to receive a fair trial.
Gangs are labeled as "criminal street gangs" except Alabama, Connecticut,
One of the first gang definitions was published in Frederic Thrasher's 1927 study of gangs in Chicago in The Gang and in it he defined a gang as:
Other definitions
Definition of "criminal street gang"
What's unique about the definition above is that it is NOT defining the term "gang" or "street gang" but rather the State is defining "criminal street gang" and then using the same term "criminal" in the definition. The definition is awkwardly written, vague, redundant and offers an extremely simplified view of a gang. Because of this, any youth who participates in a gang can be labeled as a "criminal" regardless of their individual activity or role. Prosecutors have been able to use the flaw in the definition to their benefit by applying gang-related "enhancements" that can transform a simple misdemeanor offense into a felony which carry heavier penalties, including prison time.
The gang is an interstitial group originally formed spontaneous, and then integrated through conflict. It is characterized by the following types of behavior: meeting face to face, milling, movement through space as a unit, conflict, and planning. The result of this collective behavior is the development of tradition, unreflective internal structure, esprit de corps, solidarity, morale, group awareness, and attachment to a local territory (Thrasher 1927: 57).
…who act in concert to achieve a specific purpose or purposes which generally include the conduct of illegal activity or control over a particular territory or type of enterprise (Miller 1975).
…an organization of young people usually between their early teens and early twenties, which has a group name, claims a territory or neighborhood as its own, meets with its members on a regular basis, and has recognizable leadership (Julie Gardner 1983).
…group of associating individuals which has an identifiable leadership and organizational structure, either claims a territory in the community, or exercises control over an illegal enterprise; and engages collectively or as individuals in acts of violence or serious criminal behavior (California Office of Criminal Justice Planning 1987).
… group whose members meet together with some regularity, over time, on the basis of group-defined criteria of membership and group-determined organizational structure, usually with some sense of territoriality (Jim Short 1990).
...group of individuals with a common ethnic and/or geographic identity that collectively and/or individually regularly engage in a variety of activities, legal or illegal that claim to be the dominant group in their locale, exercising territoriality either fixed or fluid and that engage in at least one rivalry and/or competition with another organization (Alex Alonso 1999).
Other US State's gang definition | Federal Government Defintion
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