Street gangs in the United States have a long and complex history dating to the early 1800s. The most publicized street gangs in the U.S. are African-American; black gangs were not recognized as a social problem until after the great migration of the 1910s. An exception was noted in 1853 Philadelphia..

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  • Street gangs in the United States have a long and complex history dating to the early 1800s. The most publicized street gangs in the U.S. are African-American; black gangs were not recognized as a social problem until after the great migration of the 1910s. An exception was noted in 1853 Philadelphia.. Some have argued that increasing gang activity is directly related to decreases in adult mentors, school failures, decreases in after-school programs and similar failures by the adults in the lives of children. While children from more affluent neighborhoods may turn to other less dangerous alternatives, children from poorer neighborhoods often turn to gangs both as protection and a place to find love and understanding. The history of European-American youth gangs extends as far back as the 1780s. Although lacking a definition, the gangs then were characterized by young people hanging out on street corners. It is thought these early groups formed to protect their localities from other similar groups of youths. Herbert Asbury depicted some of these groups in his history of Irish and American gangs in Manhattan. He described how gangs would fight for territory, control of criminal enterprises, and simply for the love of fighting. Asbury's book was later used by Martin Scorsese as the basis for the motion picture Gangs of New York. Gangs in the 19th Century were often multi-ethnic as neighborhoods did not display the social polarization that has segregated different ethnic groups in the postmodern city. A host of European nationalities including English, Scottish, Irish and German could be found in the same neighborhoods. This made territoriality for gangs much more important than ethnic homogeneity. There were at least 30,000 gangs and 800,000 gang members active across the USA in 2007, up from 731,500 in 2002 and 750,000 in 2004. By 1999, Hispanics accounted for 47% of all gang members, Blacks 34%, Whites 13%, and Asians 7%.
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  • April 2007
  • August 2008
  • February 2009
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  • Street gangs in the United States have a long and complex history dating to the early 1800s. The most publicized street gangs in the U.S. are African-American; black gangs were not recognized as a social problem until after the great migration of the 1910s. An exception was noted in 1853 Philadelphia..
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  • Gangs in the United States
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