The tenets of community policing can be helpful in formulating comprehensive approaches for responding to gangs. These tenets are consistent with strategies that seek to balance prevention and intervention along with focused use of traditional enforcement approaches, while at the same time partnering with residents. Partnerships among law enforcement, schools, parents, youth, community and faith-based groups, and other government agencies, are critical to reducing the influence of gangs in diverse communities across the United States.

Resources

COPS Toolkits/Publications for Addressing Specific Gang Problems

• Solutions to Addressing Gang Crime CD-ROM, Version 2.1 (2009)
• Strategies to Address Gang Crime: A Guidebook for Local Law Enforcement (2008)
• Gun Violence Among Serious Young Offenders (A Problem-Oriented Policing Guide)(2007)
• Drive-By Shootings (A Problem-Oriented Policing Guide) (2007)
• Disorderly Youth in Public Places (A Problem-Oriented Policing Guide)(2006)
• Bullying in Schools (2009)
• Graffiti (2009)
• The Stop Snitching Phenomenon: Breaking the Code of Silence (2009)

Comprehensive Approaches to Gangs, Drugs, Guns, and Urban Violence

• Best Practices to Address Community Gang Problems- OJJDP's Comprehensive Gang Model(2009)
• Reducing Gun Violence: The Boston Gun Project's Operation Ceasefire: Developing and Implementing Operation Ceasefire (2001)
• Reducing Gun Violence: Operation Ceasefire in Los Angeles (2005)
• Evaluation of CeaseFire-Chicago (2008)
• The High Point Drug Market Intervention Strategy (2009)
• Mobilizing Communities to Address Gang Problems (2009)
• Project Safe Neighborhoods: A National Program to Reduce Gun Crime (Final Project Report)OJJDP(2009)
• Pulling Levers: Getting Deterrence Right (1998)

Statistics and Research on Gangs

• Highlights of the 2007 National Youth Gang Survey
• National Gang Crime Research Center website
• Dreams, Gangs and Guns: The Interplay Between Adolescent Violence and Immigration (2002)

Preventive Information for General or At-Risk Populations

• A Review of Minneapolis's Youth Violence Prevention Initiative (2010)
• Evaluating G.R.E.A.T.: A School-Based Gang Prevention Program (2004)
• Gang Resistance and Education Training Program (G.R.E.A.T) website
• Gang Reference Card for Parents (English)
• Gang Reference Card for Parents (Spanish)
• Gang Reference Card for Parents (Vietnamese)
• Gang Reference Card for Parents (Hmong)

Enforcement Programs and Strategies

• The Gang Prosecution Manual (2009)
• Civil Gang Injunctions: A Guide for Prosecutors(2009)
• Guidelines for Establishing and Operating Gang Intelligence Units and Task Forces (2008)
• Street Gangs and Interventions: Innovative Problem Solving with Network Analysis (2010)