Gang Violence Emerges In 2006 As Key Factor In Homicide Resurgence

Organized Crime Digest, Dec 29, 2006

The emergence of violent drug and street gangs affecting large and small cities and urban and rural states was a key factor in the reversal of a decade of declining homicide rates.

There was a divergence in many cities-the overall crime rates declined while the most violent felony of homicide increased in 2006.

Murders of police officers continued at a high rate, which has predominated throughout the 21st Century including stalking of officers in Los Angeles.

The anecdotal information for 2006 suggests a continuation of the Bureau of Justice Statistics' data released earlier in the year, which showed firearms-related violence increased in 2005 from 1.4 to 2.0 victims per 1,000 persons age 12 or older.

New York State enacted new laws to stiffen penalties for gun crimes and assaults on police officers.

While the murder rate declined in Los Angeles and Washington, homicides increased in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Newark, New York and Sacramento even as overall crime rates declined. Sacramento recorded 59 homicides, the highest number since 1994.

In Florida, statewide homicides jumped 27 percent in the first half of 2006 despite a decline in all types of reported offenses, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

For the year, Orange County and its largest city, Orlando, each set records for homicides.

The hip-hop culture has helped to create an image of gang life nationwide that appears to have increased acceptance among youths for gang gear, guns and violence.

The Las Vegas Sheriff's Office has gone to the extreme of asking casinos to avoid booking musical performers who depict themselves in gang gear and sing gang lyrics after a hip-hop artist murdered a deputy.

The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission found secondary school students in 2006 more likely to use violence to settle issues and more accepting of gangs than youths in a similar survey in 2002.

Rural states such as Idaho and New Hampshire began campaigns at the gubernatorial level to address emerging problems linked to gangs.

In the Sacramento suburb of Elk Grove, which calls itself the fastest growing city in California, the police department has identified 226 gangs and 6,000 gang members among the school system's 61,000 students.

There were 59 homicides in the city of Sacramento in 2006, the highest total since 1994.

In cities that introduced aggressive policing such as Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, there was a downturn in overall crime, but results for homicide were mixed.

In Baltimore, civil activists complained that police were too zealous in enforcing community nuisance ordinances. Violent crime fell, but homicides increased.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles turned to RICO to prosecute members of the largest street gangs

Los Angeles reduced the rate of assaults on officers and gang-related homicides, although incidents of witness intimidation increased from a year earlier.

Chicago used a program of concentrating resources on felons and conducting educational sessions for re-entering offenders to instruct them that their criminal history guarantees a return to prison if they are caught with a firearm.

Despite the warnings, Chicago Police Department found that nearly half of all murders were gang related and gang retaliation murders increased 9 percent from 2005.

Washington expanded patrols and introduced surveillance cameras to reverse the crime cycle after a rash of murders and robberies in tourist areas in the early summer. The homicide rate for the year fell to the lowest level since 1985.

Boston revived the community-policing concept that it initiated nearly two decades ago to try to reverse an upsurge in youth gun violence.

The federal government under constraint from budget cuts and a redirection of law enforcement assets toward terrorism provided support primarily through the offices of the U.S. attorneys and a pilot program of $2.5 million grants for anti-gang programs in Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Tampa and Southeastern Pennsylvania.

State legislatures for the most part concentrated their attentions on sex offenders and meth crimes.

A provision in a new federal law directed at sex offenders, the Children's Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act, HR 4472, continued authorization of $20 million in annual grants to police from the Gang Resistance Education and Training program through 2010.

But the federal government offset that support with deep cuts in nearly every other Justice Department grant program for state and local law enforcement agencies dealing with gang-related crime.