Gangs in the United States
The most significant danger is posed by prominent national street gangs, as they engage in the smuggling, production, transportation, and distribution of substantial amounts of illegal drugs, often resorting to extreme violence.
[16] However, gangs in the 19th century were often multiethnic,[16] as neighborhoods did not display the social polarization that has segregated different ethnic groups in the postmodern city (see Edward Soja).
[20] Finally, they were unique in that, unlike gangs in the Midwest and the Northeast, they did not grow only out of social problems such as poverty, but also out of ethnic segregation and alienation.
[28] By the late 1960s, the construction of public housing in Chicago allowed gangs to consolidate their power in black neighborhoods, and the Vice Lords, P-Stones, and Gangster Disciples controlled the drug trade of the area.
Influential leaders of the black community had been killed, including Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Hampton.
[31][35] The Vice Lords Nation was established in 1958 in Chicago, Illinois, with the intention of assisting African Americans in overcoming poverty and discrimination within their local community.
However, as time passed, the organization transformed into one of the largest criminal groups in the United States, expanding its presence to nearly every city and town across the country.
Engaging in a range of illicit activities such as drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, and murder, the Vice Lords Nation has become notorious for its involvement in criminal endeavors.
Primarily operating in the Midwest and southern regions of the United States, the gang boasts a substantial membership estimated to be between 30,000 and 35,000 regular and associate members.
Despite being recognized as a criminal organization by the US government and witnessing numerous high-profile arrests, the Vice Lords Nation continues to maintain its significant influence and presence, particularly in Chicago.
Their involvement in criminal activities such as assault, intimidation, and murder is well-documented, including a highly publicized clash with members of the rival Hells Angels gang in Las Vegas in 2002.
[21] In the American West, as job cuts continued to rise and employers began to hire from the cheaper labor pool of the expanding Latino immigrant community,[39] unemployment rates of African-American men reached as high as 50% in several areas of South Los Angeles,[40] opening up large recruitment markets for the burgeoning gangs.
[41] Latino gang members interviewed in Napa said they had moved to the valley either to join family or to find a job, or were motivated by other social pressures like release from a nearby juvenile correctional facility.
In the aftermath of the riots, leaders of the Bloods and the Crips announced a truce (spearheaded by Compton's then-mayor Walter R. Tucker, Jr.), and in May 1992, 1,600 rival gang members converged on Imperial Courts, a main housing project of Watts, Los Angeles, California to demonstrate their new-found companionship.
But after only a few months of relative harmony, tensions between Los Angeles County's more than 100,000 gang members (in February 1993) began to raise the murder rates, rising to resemble previous levels.
In 1994, Mary Beth Pelz, a criminologist at the University of Houston–Downtown, said that Texas lacked "a rich history of street gangs" compared to other parts of the United States.
[48] As gang members and factions continued to grow, the introduction of cheap crack cocaine to American cities would prove fatal.
Telemundo, citing cases against suspected members of the gang, wrote in March 2024 that it shows "an increasingly widespread presence of the band also in the United States.
[53] In 2024, U.S. officials at the U.S.-Mexico border began interrogation of single Venezuelan male migrants in order to screen for Tren de Aragua members.
[57][58] Some individuals become gang members to profit from organized crime in order to obtain necessities such as food or to gain access to luxury goods and services.
Other motivations include social status, intimidation by gang members, pressure from friends, family tradition, and the excitement of risk-taking.
Involvement in non-gang illegal activity (especially violent crime or drug use) and a lack of youth jobs also increase a person's likelihood of becoming a gang member.
Established in the mid-1960s, the gang is not affiliated with the Aryan Nations and allegedly engages in violent crime, drug trafficking, and illegal gambling activities both in and out of prisons.
Working collaboratively, the gangs engage in drug trafficking, identity theft, and other white collar crime using contacts in the banking system.
[18] Youth gangs may be an ever-present feature of urban culture that change over time in their form, social meaning and antisocial behavior.
[25][70] One of the most notable examples of this was the 1959 case of Salvatore Agron and Antonio Hernandez, members of the Vampires, who were involved in the killing of two white teenagers and the wounding of four others in a gang-related crime.
[82] Mara Salvatrucha has been investigated by the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and in September 2005 the gang was targeted by raids against its members, in which 660 people were arrested across the United States.
Initially created to provide protection for Salvadoran refugees in the city, the group later transformed into a violent criminal entity involved in illicit activities such as drug and human trafficking.
Known for their brutal methods, which include the use of machetes and other melee weapons in conflicts with rival groups, MS-13 is considered a relatively small gang, with an estimated 6,000 – 10,000 members in the US.
In 2006, Scott Barfield, a Defense Department investigator, said there was an online network of gangs and extremists: "They're communicating with each other about weapons, about recruiting, about keeping their identities secret, about organizing within the military.
