Gang Related Crime Statistics
Gang related crime statistics should be a priority for all law enforcement. When I first began studying gang activity in Southern California, I was surprised there was not data on the crimes gangs committed. I spoke to agents and detectives and they had general ideas of gang crimes but no one had gone through gang member’s criminal histories to see if there were patterns. After going through thousands of records here is what I learned:
Gang Member’s Criminal Histories
Santa Paula sits in Ventura County with roughly 30,000 residents. Yet the gang related crime statistics I’ve compiled over decades of research tell an inciteful story. Five active gangs operated in this city as of 2014: the Crimies, 12th Street Locos, Crazy Boyz, Bad Boyz, and Party Boyz. In total, the five gangs had 211 documented members.
Those 211 individuals generated over 4,276 arrests between 1978 and 2014. That’s more than 20 arrests per gang member —an astonishing rate of criminal recidivism. I’ve seen career criminals in Los Angeles with fewer arrests than the average Santa Paula gang member. To learn more about Santa Paula gangs see the blog Santa Paula Gangs: Mayberry Gone Wrong.
Why More Charges Than Arrests
Gang members are often arrested once but charged with multiple crimes from the same incident. For example, one traffic stop for drunk driving might result in one arrest but two additional charges for illegal gun and drug possession.
Arrests vs. Convictions as Indicators of Criminal Activity
Arrest data better reflects actual criminal behavior than conviction data. This is because plea bargaining often results in gang members pleading guilty to lesser charges that don’t accurately represent the severity of their original crimes. An example is a gang member who committed armed carjacking was able to plea down to the much lesser offense of taking a vehicle without owner’s consent, after a witness refused to testify.
The Demographics of Santa Paula Gangs
A detailed analysis revealed that Santa Paula gang members were 96% male, 92% Mexican-American, and had an average age of 33. The average age of first arrest was 17. Here’s where conventional wisdom fails us. Many assume gangs are primarily a youth problem. Remember the gang related crime statistics I’ve gathered show the average age for a Santa Paula gang member was 33. These are career criminals well into adulthood. Nearly 26% of Santa Paula gang members were in jail or prison at any given time.
I’ve compared Santa Paula’s data with Bureau of Justice Assistance studies from Phoenix and Albuquerque. The patterns hold true across cities of vastly different sizes. Gang members in those cities are overwhelmingly Hispanic males, aged 18 to 35, primarily involved in drug crimes. To learn more read the blog Roles in Gangs: How Power and Profit Shape Street Culture.
Santa Paula’s gang-to-population ratio placed it in the top percentile nationally. Worse than 90% of U.S. states. This isn’t a big-city problem that trickled down. It’s a homegrown epidemic. To learn more read the blog Hispanic Gangs: Inside The Dirty Nickel.
The Six Pillars of Gang Crime
My analysis of over 4276 arrests reveals six main categories that capture more than 88% of gang criminal activity. These gang related crime statistics offer a framework for understanding criminal behavior patterns:
Drugs: 25% of charges. Mostly under the influence and possession.
Violence: 21% for crimes such as robbery, assault, and battery were prevalent. Domestic violence was shockingly common.
Property crimes: 14% for crimes of burglary, theft, and receiving stolen property created significant community impact.
Vehicle crimes: 11% for DUI, vehicle theft, and reckless driving were frequently documented.
Weapons: 9% a high numbers of concealed weapon charges and illegal firearm possession.
Parole violations: 8% repeat offenders showed consistent patterns of ignoring court orders.
Other: 12% for various offenses.
Three Crime Categories Top the List
Regardless of which of the five Santa Paula gangs I analyzed they all had the same top three gang related crime statistics, specifically drugs, violence, and property crimes which are interrelated. Drug use creates a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty and crime. Gang members use violence and steal property to fund their addiction. They get arrested. Ultimately they serve time. The pattern repeats endlessly. To learn more read the blog Laws on Gangs: What Works and What Doesn’t.
Crimies – drugs 25%, violence 19%, property 15%
12th Street Locos – drugs 25%, violence 19%, and property crimes 13%
Crazy Boyz – drugs 30%, violence 20%, and property 12%
Bad Boyz – violence 25%, property 19%, and drugs 18%
Party Boyz – drugs 26%, property 26%, and violence 23%
The Hispanic Thousand Oaks gang named the Tocas, like the Santa Paula gangs, had the same top three criminal charges – violence 27%, drugs 18%, and property 16%
A Deep Dive Into the Crimes Charges
From 1978 to 2014, the Crimies had been arrested 1530 times for 170 different violations and had 2615 charges filed. These statistics give the Crimies the distinction of the gang in Santa Paula with the most arrests. Of the 67 Crimies identified, the average age when a gang member was first arrested was 17 years old. Five of the Crimes were arrested for the first time when they were 13 years old. The gang’s arrests peaked in 2010 with 106 arrests.
The following is a detailed list of charges against the Crimies – 25% drugs, 19% violence, 15% property crimes.
Approximately 57% or 379 of the drug charges were for being under the influence and possession of controlled substance paraphernalia. Based on these charges one can conclude that Crimies gang members have drug problems.
To learn more about drug crimes committed by gangs see the blog Gangs Drugs: A Glimpse Into the Underground Economy of Crime.
In the violence category three charges accounted for 54% or 265 of the charges:
Penal Code or PC 148(A) Obstruct Public Officer, 162 charges;
PC 211 Robbery, 59 charges;
PC 242 Battery, 44 charges
A person under the influence of drugs has lower inhibitions and is more likely to hit or rob someone especially if they need money for drugs.
To learn more about violent crimes committed by gang members see the blog Gangs and Violence.
In the property charges category the following accounted for 215 or 54% of the charges:
Vandalism PC 594(A) over $400; Vandalism PC 594(B) Under $400, 122 charges
PC 459 Burglary, 93 charges
Again people on drugs who can not maintain employment will look for alternate sources of income via theft.
Ranking the Worst
Based on a weighted formula of felonies, number of arrests, violence, and weapons charges, the worst gang in Santa Paula appears to be the Party Boyz, followed by the Crimies, 12th Street Locos, Bad Boyz, and Crazy Boyz. However, all had disturbing levels of criminality.
The real takeaway from these gang related crime statistics is not which gang is the worst. It’s that all of them represent a sustained threat to their community. Each gang’s members routinely commit violent crimes, sell drugs, and ignore probation or parole terms.
The Multiplier Effect
What makes gang related crime statistics particularly troubling is their multiplier effect. Each gang member doesn’t commit crimes in isolation. They recruit family members, sell drugs to community members, and victimize neighbors.
In Santa Paula, 211 gang members impacted a city of 30,000. That’s one gang member for every 142 residents. But their criminal activity touched far more lives. Victims of robberies, families of drug addicts, children growing up in violent neighborhoods.
The gang related crime statistics represent more than numbers. They represent community trauma that extends across generations.
Vehicle Charges Should Not be Overlooked
Pulling a gang member over in a vehicle should not be dismissed as insignificant. Every vehicle stop should be viewed as an opportunity to protect the public. In Heather Mac Donald’s book When Race Trumps Merit: How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives, she wrote “For decades, research has found that neighborhoods with the highest rates of fatal accidents also have the highest rates of violent crime. In other words, criminals violate traffic law as routinely as they violate other laws, …”
For the Crimies three Vehicle Codes or VC charges stand out and totaled 141 charges or 48% of the vehicle charges category: VC 23152(A) DUI Driving Under the Influence;
VC 23152(B) DUI .08, Driving Under the Influence over .08 grams of alcohol present in every 100 milliliters of someone’s blood;
VC 10851(A) Take Vehicle Without Owner’s consent in this category.
Taking a Vehicle could just as well be placed in the property crime category.
Conclusion
Santa Paula’s gang related crime statistics provide a microscopic view of a macroscopic problem. Five gangs, 211 members, over 4,000 arrests. The numbers reveal career criminals primarily committing drug, violence, and property crimes in America’s small towns.
Understanding gang related crime statistics isn’t just for academics or police. It should inform policy, social services, and community planning. The gang related crime statistics are clear. The question is whether we’ll respond with the urgency they demand.
To learn more about gang related crime statistics, get the book Less Tagging More Killing.
