Report examines N.C. gang statistics
Monday, July 30th, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
BY BRIANNE DOPART, The Herald-Sun
July 29, 2007 9:33 pm
DURHAM — The long-accepted link between gangs and violent crime may not be as strong as law enforcement has contended, according to a recently released study that is raising skeptical eyebrows among police officials in Durham.
The Justice Policy Institute of Washington, D.C., report also says current law enforcement tactics to suppress gang activity have proven ineffective and expensive.
The institute defines itself as a public policy organization "dedicated to ending society’s reliance on incarceration and promoting effective solutions to social problems."
Employment and family, rather than arrest and incarceration, are what most former gang members say motivated them to leave gang life, the study says.
The 108-page document focuses largely on gangs in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. North Carolina is the only state to receive its own section.
The reason for that, the study’s authors say, is not because North Carolina has more gangs than other states but because it has more information available on gangs.
That information — taken from the Governor’s Crime Commission report and an SBI report created for the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division — indicates that while gang membership was on the rise in North Carolina, violent crime was headed in the opposite direction. (more…)
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