National Youth Gang Survey Analysis: Gang-Problem Assessment Trend

Gang-Problem Assessment Trend

Respondents annually provided information regarding an overall assessment of their local gang problems: “getting worse,” “getting better,” or “staying about the same.”

• Less than one-third (29 percent) of gang-problem jurisdictions indicated that their local gang problems were “getting worse” in 2012, the lowest annual figure recorded over the past decade.
• Conversely, a majority (55 percent) of the survey respondents characterized their gang problems as “staying about the same” in 2012, the largest percentage ever recorded in the NYGS (results not shown in figure).
• The observed percentages varied very little between area types across the years.