Description and Analysis of the Different Types of Gangs in the US

Historically, gangs began to develop within the time frame of the 1970s. As we all know, the Irish gang is the first gang followed by Germans, Jews and Italians (Pacheco, 2010, p. 10). Compared with other countries, gangs are more populous and more common in the United States. According to statistics of 2008, there are 20,000 active gangs and over 1 million gang members in the United States (Pacheco, 2010, p. 12). According to Pacheco (2010), there are various kinds of gangs.

An important difference in gang research is that gangs can be classified into one of three different types. Klein 16, 17 respect 1) drug trafficking gang, 2) prison gang, 3) youth street gang. He explained that they are very different in terms of formation, organization and behavior. For example, prison gangs and drug trafficking groups often have strong leadership and loyalty. Junior street gangs are not usually suitable for this model. The behavior of young people is often unstable, sometimes even every week. Children may have a group of friends this week, and the next person may have a new group. Considering the gang, young people who decided to participate in gang today may not be members next month. Studies have shown that the turnover rate of boys' gangs is high, as members are only part of the gang. 14, 17 This shows the need to clarify gang membership. When the gang changes composition, it is difficult to measure and understand the gang

One misconception in gang research is the assumption that prison gangs and street gangs are synonyms in terms of organization and ideology. A few people think that prison gangs differ in quality and quantity from other gangs (Fleisher & Decker, 2001). In this article, we use thirty detailed semistructured interviews to New England 's previously imprisoned gang members to assess the impact of the environment on organizational structure, ideology, and the practices of prisons and street gangs. This analysis provides a comparative model of prison and street gang, highlighting the main differences in various organizations, including members, leadership, organization management, and relations with the authorities. These findings suggest that researchers need to explore prison and street group as their own existence.