Does Georgia Have A Gang Problem?
Volkan Topalli, a criminologist at Georgia State University, said the standards for defining what a gang actually is have been changing. “The amount of data that we have that show us whether a gang problem actually exists or not, it’s very hard to say.”
David Goldman / Associated Press file
As the primary race for Georgia governor heats up, candidates are laying out their platforms for the next steps in criminal justice. One approach claims criminal gangs are on the rise.
“We have a gang problem in Georgia. In fact, as has been noted, it’s a crisis,” Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp said in Marietta Square on Tuesday.
He says Georgia’s communities are under attack by gangs, and he outlined a plan to fix that.
“As you know, I’m the father of three teenage daughters. When I open up the Athens paper and read about gang members and drive-by shootings, I fear for their lives and their safety,” Kemp said.
The trouble is, tracking the number and impact of gangs is not so easy. Kemp had to cite FBI statistics from 2011 in his speech. A newer FBI gang report, from 2015, did not contain updated totals for the number of gangs and their members.
Volkan Topalli, a criminologist at Georgia State University, said the standards for defining what a gang actually is have been changing.
“If three people get together and commit an offense, are they a gang? Do they have to have a secret handshake and tattoos?” Topalli said. “The amount of data that we have that show us whether a gang problem actually exists or not, it’s very hard to say.”
So, too, is quantifying their impact, he said.
“There are issues surrounding how do you know what proportion of the crime you’re seeing is due to gangs? How do you know if there’s an increase in crime, that that increase in crime is due to gang-related activity?” Topalli said.
Topalli said, to be sure, every state has gangs. Addressing them should depend on what kind of groups you’re talking about. Hierarchical, highly organized gangs have historically tended to operate in larger cities, like Los Angeles, Chicago or New York, according to Topalli.
“What we generally have in Georgia are gangs that are kind of provincial. They’re either based on the neighborhood you grew up in, or they may be culturally based. You may have gangs that are Jamaican, Hispanic or white, for example,” said Topalli, who added that targeted prevention efforts should always accompany law enforcement approaches.
Kemp’s “Stop and Dismantle” plan to tackle gangs included launching a public awareness campaign, funding a Criminal Street Gang Database originally created in 2015 and creating a “Gang Strike Team” to train and assist law enforcement in smaller, rural jurisdictions.
Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds endorsed both Kemp and the plan Tuesday. According to Reynolds’ chief assistant, John Melvin, in 2012, Cobb County saw more than 600 “gang-related instances.”
“In 2014, the number was about 400, and last year, it was in the high 200s,” Melvin said. His office believes aggressive prosecution could do the same for other counties in Georgia.
“Gang-related” activity, however, according to Topalli, “could be any group of people that are involved in committing crime together.”
Ultimately, Topalli said, political discussions about gang problems often have much to do with plans for allocating resources to law enforcement, which he argues is problematic if the problem isn’t well defined.
“Crime is a major voting issue. It’s something that comes up whenever people are running for election. We’ve actually had a very significant, long-term decrease in crime since the mid-1990s.”
That’s true nationally, and in Georgia. He says criminologists have only theories about why that drop has occurred, but as statistical evidence is concerned, we are not, Topalli said, experiencing a gang crisis.
Top Stories
