U.S. Department of Justices Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief Violence by Gang Members, 1993-2003 June 2005, NCJ 208875 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This file is text only without graphics and many of the tables. A Zip archive of the tables in this report in spreadsheet format (.csv) and the full report including tables and graphics in .pdf format are available at: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstracts/vgm03.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Erika Harrell BJS Statistician According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), victims perceived perpetrators to be gang members in about 6% of violent victimizations between 1998 and 2003. On average for each year, gang members committed about 373,000 of the 6.6 million violent victimizations. Nonfatal violent acts measured include rape/sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. Victims believed that perpetrators were not gang members in 55% of all nonfatal violent crimes between 1998 and 2003, and victims were unsure of gang affiliation in 37%. The 1998-2003 average is lower than that for the 1993-96 period, when victims in about 9% of all violent crimes believed the offenders to have been gang members. Violence by perceived gang members declined over most of the 11-year period, falling from a 1994 peak of about 1.1 million violent victimizations (5.2 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older) to 341,000 (1.4 per 1,000) in 2003. Males experienced violence attributed to gang members at higher rates than those of females. Hispanic victims of violence identified the offenders as gang members at a higher rate than non-Hispanic victims, and blacks at a higher rate than whites, for the period between 1993 and 2003. Victims believed the offenders were gang members in about 12% of all aggravated assaults that occurred between 1993 and 2003. Offenders were identified as gang members in about 4% of rapes, 10% of robberies, and 6% of simple assaults. Between 1993 and 2003 younger victims of violence were more likely than older victims to believe the perpetrator was a gang member. Offenders were perceived to be gang members in 12% of violent crimes against those age 12 -19. The offender was identified as a gang member in about 6% of violent crimes against persons age 20-49 and in about 4% of violent crimes against those age 50 or older. Urban victims were more likely than suburban or rural victims to identify offenders as gang members. Police were as likely to be notified when the victims believed the offender not to be a gang member (45% of violence reported to the police) as when they believed the offender belonged to a gang (47% reported). Of the violence that victims believed gang members committed between 1993 and 2003, a lone offender accounted for about 54% and more than one offender, 46%. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- According to the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports, each year between 1993 and 2003, from 5% to 7% of all homicides and from 8% to 10% of homicides committed with a firearm were gang related. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Except for homicides, all data presented in this report are from the NCVS. For more information see the methodology section of Criminal Victimization, 2003: . End of file pm 6/24/05