Defining Street Gangs and Identifying Street Gang Members for Police Purposes
Defining what constitutes a street gang and how to identify gang members is a complex endeavour. A number of things characteristic of these groups, notably their elusive and clandestine nature, their heterogeneity, and their continually changing features, have led us to modify our conceptualizations. This article proposes a simple general definition that describes the street gang as an organized criminal group distinguished from those organized crime groups that are defined by law 467.1. Emphasis is placed on the operational nature of markers of association and the rationale behind their development. A new definition of these gangs, combined with an operationalization based on criteria observed by police organizations, offers multiple advantages over definitions developed within an academic setting. The theoretical implications and practical issues of the new definition are also addressed.