"The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines a Violent Street Gang/Drug Enterprise As: A criminal enterprise having an organizational structure, acting as a continuing criminal conspiracy, which employs violence and any other criminal activity to sustain the enterprise. From the FBI’s perspective a gang is a group of individuals involved in continuing criminal activity. A gang DOES NOT have to have similar clothing (colors), tattoos, hand signs, initiation rituals, or even have a specific name such as Crips or Bloods."
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Firearms are intimately linked to a particular and highly publicized form of gang violence, drive-by shootings.
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"Local law enforcement agencies define gangs and gang crimes differently. A gang crime based on the participation of a gang member in the act, either as a victim or an offender."
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"The most common age that youth join a gang is around 15, but
the
early adolescent years (12–14 years of age) are a crucial
time when
youth are exposed to gang"
...
While some gangs have reduced their use of specific colors to avoid
identification by law enforcement, many gangs still use one or
more
colors as a symbol to represent themselves
...
"Gang-related tattoos are used to show affiliation, rank,
crimes committed, racial and ethnic alliances, and loyalty
to a gang. These tattoos often include the name, initials,
or symbols of a specific gang and may be found on the
hands, neck, face, chest, back, or arms."
...
"Some gangs use specific hand gestures and handshakes
to
communicate their affiliation with the gang, to issue
threats or
challenges to rival gangs, or to communicate in
code when
authority figures are present."
...
"Letters, colors, or symbols associated with professional
sports teams may have specific gang meanings in local
street gang culture."
...
"There is certainly no one-step solution to solving the gang problem here, or in any city. But Open Door has developed a program that is targeted both at prevention and at showing current members alternate paths for their lives."
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"This is designed to give potential and actual gang members a number to call and place to come when they need support, help making choices, answers, assistance or just someone to talk to. Much like AA, we believe the strongest counseling comes from someone who has lived through similar experiences."
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"Open Door’s most important goal is to prevent kids in our community from ever joining gangs. We have developed successful programs for our elementary and middle school-aged children that focus on gang recruitment prevention."
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Reverend Leon Kelly Jr., serves as the Executive Director of Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives
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"He has been a member of the California Gang Investigator’s Association for over 25 years, and has developed a program in collaboration with the Colorado Department of Corrections called “Flippin’ the Script”."
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"In 1979 he served prison time for drug-related charges at the Colorado State Penitentiary and received a full and unconditional Pardon from Governor Bill Ritter in 2010."
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"He provides gang education to schools, other non-profit agencies, law enforcement, and civic groups on how to suppress gang-related violence and recruitment on the streets of our communities in Colorado."
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“Any ongoing organization, association or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, having as one of its primary activities the commission of one or more of the criminal acts […], having a common name or common identifying sign or symbol, and whose members individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity”. (What is a Gang 4)
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“are predominantly composed of male youth, have shaped American urban life for centuries (Gary W. McDonogh 1).
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The most common age that youth join a gang is around 15, but the early adolescent years (12-14 years of age) are a crucial time when youth are exposed to gangs (National Gang Center 2).
...
“While some gangs have reduced their use of specific colors to avoid identification by law enforcement, many gangs still use one or colors [SIC] as a symbol to represent themselves (3).
...
gang-related tattoos are used to show affiliation, rank, crimes committed, racial and ethnic alliances, and loyalty to a gang. These tattoos often include the name, initials, or symbols of a specific gang and may be found on the hands, neck, face, chest, back, or arms. (3)
...
Some gangs use specific hand gestures and handshakes to communicate their affiliation with the gang, to issue threats or challenges to rival gangs, or to communicate in code when authority figures are present (3).
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An examination of homicides by Pyrooz (2012) found that the gang homicide rate is approximately 12 per 100,000 citizens in the top 88 most populated cities in the United States ( Jesenia M. Pizarro 2).
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In 1979 he served prison time for drug-related charges at the Colorado State Penitentiary and received a full and unconditional Pardon from Governor Bill Ritter in 2010 (Our Story 1).
...
He provides education to schools, other non-profit agencies, law enforcement, and civic groups on how to suppress gang-related violence and recruitment on the streets of our communities in Colorado (Our Story 1).
...