NCJ Number
238595
Date Published
2012
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This inaugural issue of the National Gang Center's (NGC's) Newsletter features facts and discussions on challenges to schools anti-gang policies, gang activity and the declining crime rate, bullying in schools, North Carolina's approach to youth gangs, and the G.R.E.A.T. Program for Central America.
Abstract
Based on successful legal challenges to inappropriate school interventions intended to prevent gang activity, an article advises that school gang policies should be specific and linked to a demonstrable threat to school safety, preferably based on supporting evidence from local law enforcement. A discussion of gang activity in relation to the general decline in the crime rate notes that a recent analysis of three key indicators in the NCG annual survey determined that trends in gang membership and activity are diverging from or occur independently from overall crime trends. A brief announcement refers to a bulletin that is part of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP's) Bullying Schools Series. The bulletin provides an overview of OJJDP-funded research on this topic. A report on North Carolina's approach to youth gangs focuses on the enactment in 2008 of the State's Street Gang Prevention and Intervention Act, which mandates that the Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils in each county assess the level of gang activity, address youth involved in gangs and/or those at high risk for gang membership, and establish appropriate evidence-based programs and practices. The Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) Program for Central America broke ground in piloting an international effort to train Central-American officers in the use of proven measures for addressing criminal gangs. To date, 135 officers from 6 Central-American countries have been certified to teach the G.R.E.A.T. curriculum in middle and elementary schools; approximately 12,000 students have graduated from the program.