Video: Judy Greene discusses failure of gang enforcement tactics at a Cleveland Gang Wars Forum

Presenting at a forum on gang wars in Cleveland, Judy Greene argues that traditional gang enforcement tactics like gang databases fail to enhance public safety. New York City, which has moved away from heavy-handed gang enforcement approaches, has managed to lower crime by focusing attention on guns rather than gangs. To learn more about misconceptions about gangs, as well as the failures and success of tactics to address crime, see the video or groundbreaking Justice Strategies report, [“Gang Wars”](/publications/2007/gang-wars-failure-enforcement-tactics-and-need-effective-public-safety-strategies).

Related Publication

JS Publication July 19, 2007

Gang Wars: The Failure of Enforcement Tactics and the Need for Effective Public Safety Strategies

Youth crime in the United States remains near the lowest levels seen in the past three decades, yet public concern and media coverage of gang activity has skyrocketed since 2000. Fear has spread from neighborhoods with longstanding gang problems to communities with historically low levels of crime, and some policy makers have declared the arrival of a national gang “crisis.” Yet many questions remain unanswered. How can communities and policy makers differentiate between perceived threats and actual challenges presented by gangs? Which communities are most affected by gangs, and what is the nature of that impact? How much of the crime that plagues poor urban neighborhoods is attributable to gangs? And what approaches work to promote public safety?

This report attempts to clarify some of the persistent misconceptions about gangs and to assess the successes and failures of approaches that have been employed to respond to gangs. We undertook an extensive review of the research literature on gangs because we believe that the costs of uninformed policy making—including thousands of lives lost to violence or imprisonment—are simply too high. Read more »