Violent crime

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established this Federal Medicolegal Death Investigation (MDI) Interagency Working Group (MDI-IWG) to coordinate Federal initiatives to strengthen the MDI system and support death investigation services practiced by medical examiner and coroner offices (ME/Cs) across the United States. The MDI-IWG...

Jakeem Everett was 11 years old when members of a Fort Pierce, Florida, gang began to ensnare him.  An A student who attended church faithfully with his mom and six siblings, he was an unlikely candidate for gang involvement.

"I got tired of being picked on," Jakeem, now 21, says.  "So I started hanging out with these kids in a gang known as the...

There is no single definition of a gang, but there are a number of widely accepted criteria for classifying groups as gangs (Decker and Curry, 2003; Esbensen et al., 2001; Klein, 1995; Miller, 1992; Spergel, 1995). This review used the following criteria: (1) the group has three or more members, generally aged 12-24; (2) members share an identity, typically linked to a name and/or symbols...

A study of a national sample of American children found that over the past year 60 percent were exposed to violence, crime, or abuse in their homes, schools, and communities. Almost 40 percent of American children were direct victims of 2 or more violent acts, and 1 in 10 were victims of violence 5 or more times. Children are more likely to be exposed to...