NCJ Number
142699
Date Published
1992
Length
117 pages
Annotation
This report profiles how government agencies and community groups have and are working together to suppress and intervene in the juvenile gang problem in Hawaii and recommends measures the State legislature could take to improve the response to the gang problem in the State.
Abstract
The 1990 legislature passed House Bill No. 2308, which was signed into law as Act 189. The Gang Response System established by the Act uses a multiagency, community-based collaboration in countering youth gangs. The Gang Response System has facilitated gang information sharing among criminal justice agencies, increased public awareness about gangs and the need for a communitywide response to the problem, established community-based "Action Teams," expanded the school-based gang prevention curriculum, and provided evaluative research on the State's response to the youth-gang problem. The coordination and cooperation among agency staff to deal with youth gangs are the highlights of the Gang Response System effort. This report recommends a refocus of the scope of the Gang Response System to juvenile gang and community crime prevention. It also proposes that the Office of Youth Services be the lead agency in the coordination of juvenile gang prevention/crime prevention effort. Also proposed are continued funding of the program initiated by Act 189-90, exploration of a range of services for the adult gang members currently in the criminal justice system, and ways to improve the funding process. Appendixes contain a copy of Act 189 and discussions of building an effective response system and county action team activities.