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11.2: CRIMINAL GANGS

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    It is important for a jurisdiction’s gang statute to define criminal gang and criminal gang member precisely, to avoid constitutional challenges under the First Amendment or void for vagueness and overbreadth. This is because gang membership involves assembly, which, if peaceful, is protected under the First Amendment.

    Criminal Gang Definition

    Federal law defines a criminal street gang as an ongoing group, club, organization, or association of five or more that has as one of its primary purposes the commission of specific criminal offenses or activities that affect interstate or foreign commerce (18 U.S.C. 521(a), 2011). Federal law defines a gang member as someone who participates in a criminal street gang with the general intent or knowledge that its members engage in a continuing series of specified crimes, or an individual who intends to promote or further the felonious activities of the criminal street gang (18 U.S.C. 521(d), 2011). One representative state statutory definition of criminal gang is a group of three or more persons who have in common a name, identifying sign, symbol, tattoo, style of dress, or use of hand signs and who have committed or attempted to commit specified crimes for the benefit of the group (Alaska Stat. § 11.81.900, 2011). Criminal gang member could be statutorily defined as any person who engages in a pattern of criminal gang activity and who meets two or more of the following criteria: (1) admits to gang membership; (2) is identified as a gang member; (3) resides in or frequents a particular gang’s area and adopts its style of dress, use of hand signs, or tattoos; (3) associates with known gang members; or (4) has been arrested more than once in the company of identified gang members for offenses consistent with gang activity (Idaho Code Ann. § 18-8502(2), 2011).

    Example of Criminal Gang Definitions

    The North Side Boys are a group of fifty-five members who have a special tattoo, wear the colors black and white daily, and pride themselves on their illegal controlled substances distribution. Mike decides he wants to be a North Side Boy. Mike participates in a special initiation process that includes selling a specified quantity of an illegal controlled substance in a certain location over a period of two weeks. After Mike completes the initiation, he gets the North Side Boys’ tattoo, wears the North Side Boys’ colors daily, and spends all his time with the North Side Boys, hanging out and also contributing to their illegal activities. The North Side Boys probably meets the criteria for a criminal gang, and Mike is most likely a criminal gang member under many modern statutes. The North Side Boys has an identifiable tattoo and style of dress and furthers a criminal activity, which is the distribution of illegal controlled substances. Mike can be identified as a gang member by other North Side Boys members, frequents the North Side Boys’ gang area, and adopts the gang’s style of dress and tattoos along with furthering its criminal enterprise. Thus, the North Side Boys and Mike fit the definition of criminal gang and gang member in many jurisdictions, and Mike may be subject to prosecution for and conviction of criminal gang activity if he commits crimes at the direction of or in furtherance of the gang.

    Criminal Gang Activity

    States generally criminalize gang participation (Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 2923.42, 2011), enhance the penalty for a crime when it is committed in furtherance of a gang (Fla. Stat. Ann. § 874.04, 2011), or both (Cal. Penal Code § 186.22). If a state enacts a gang participation statute, the criminal act element is generally described as actively participating in a criminal gang and promoting, furthering, or assisting in any felony, with the general intent or knowingly that members of the gang engage in a pattern of criminal gang activity (Del. Code Ann. tit. 11 § 616, 2011). Gang participation is generally graded as a felony (Del. Code Ann. tit. 11 § 616, 2011). Gang enhancement statutes enhance the defendant’s sentence for actually committing a misdemeanor or felony with the specific intent or purposely to benefit, promote, or further the interests of the criminal gang (Fla. Stat. Ann. § 874.04, 2011). Some jurisdictions only provide gang enhancement for the commission of a felony (Del. Code. Ann. tit. 11 § 616, 2011).

    Example of Criminal Gang Activity

    Review the example with Mike and the North Side Boys given in Section 12 “Example of Criminal Gang Definitions”. Assume that Mike resumes selling illegal controlled substances at the behest of the North Side Boys after his initiation and is arrested. If the state where Mike sells illegal controlled substances has a gang participation statute and grades the crime of sale of illegal controlled substances as a felony, Mike could be prosecuted for and convicted of this crime. He furthered and assisted in the North Side Boys’ sale of illegal controlled substances with the general intent or knowingly that members of the North Side Boys engaged in this pattern of criminal gang activity. If the state also has a gang enhancement statute, Mike could have his sentence for sale of illegal controlled substances enhanced because he committed the sale of illegal controlled substances in furtherance of the criminal gang. In either situation, Mike will be punished more severely for the sale of illegal controlled substances than an individual defendant who sells illegal controlled substances on his or her own, rather than at the direction or in furtherance of a criminal gang.

    Civil Responses to Gang Activity

    As stated previously, the problem of criminal gangs is challenging and has proven resistant to criminal remedies. Thus, many jurisdictions have also enacted civil gang control statutes, along with resorting to the remedy of civil gang injunctions to try to curb the multitude of harms that gangs inflict.

    Civil gang control statutes generally provide for damages, often enhanced, for coercion, intimidation, threats, or other harm caused by a gang or gang member (Fla. Stat. Ann. § 874.06, 2011). A common provision of civil gang control statutes is the ability of a resident or state agency to sue as a plaintiff (Fla. Stat. Ann. § 874.06, 2011).

    This page titled 11.2: CRIMINAL GANGS was last modified on Fri, 28 Aug 2026 21:21:32 GMT and is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by George Cartwright.