Prior to the 1995 National Youth Gang Survey, the estimates of gangs ranged from 8,600 to 9,000 with 375,000 to 400,000 gang members (Curry, Ball, and Decker, 1996a; 1996b; 1996c; Klein, 1995). However, the samples used in previous surveys were limited in size and scope.

The sample of jurisdictions reporting gangs in the 1995 National Youth Gang Survey included counties and was much larger (2,007) than any used in previous studies of gang activity. Results of the survey indicated that approximately 23,000 gangs and 665,000 gang members were active in the United States in 1995 (Moore, 1997; National Youth Gang Center, 1997). These figures were based on actual reports or estimates by city and county law enforcement agencies. The data were not extrapolated to account for agencies not included in the survey, because the sample was not representative.

As noted in the introduction, the 1996 National Youth Gang Survey was designed to be representative of the Nation as a whole. Therefore, inferences can be made about gang problems in cities and counties not included in the survey. After extrapolations were conducted for the random samples and nonrespondents for large cities and suburban counties, it was estimated that 30,818 gangs and 846,428 gang members were active in the United States in 1996 (see table 9).

The average number of gangs and gang members per jurisdiction generally varied by population size. As table 10 illustrates, the average number of both gangs and gang members increased, drastically in some cases, as population size increased. This trend was also present when both population size and area type were observed together (see Appendix I). Unfortunately, the low number of observations makes the data difficult to interpret for small cities and rural counties. Nevertheless, certain trends were evident for large cities and suburban counties. In jurisdictions with populations ranging from 25,000 to 249,999, suburban counties appeared to have a higher average number of gangs and gang members than large cities. Conversely, in jurisdictions with populations exceeding 250,000, large cities, on average, had more gangs and gang members per jurisdiction than suburban counties.

Although gang activity was widespread in 1996, a large number of the gangs and gang members reported by survey respondents were concentrated in Chicago, IL, and Los Angeles (City and County), CA. These three localities have a long history of gang problems, and together they accounted for almost 4 percent of all gangs estimated to be active in 1996 and almost 27 percent of all gang members. Without these 3 localities, the average numbers of gangs and gang members in populations of 250,000 or more were reduced to 69 and 2,638, respectively.