CJAC Gang-Related Research

Criminal Justice Analysis Center

Gang Publications  

The Criminal Justice Analysis Center (CJAC) has conducted research and analysis of criminal gang activity in North Carolina since 1997. The first comprehensive statewide assessment of gang activity was published in 2000 with multiple reports since that time. Over the past 20 years, the Governor's Crime Commission has administered numerous local and statewide grants to combat the presence of criminal gangs by targeting prevention, intervention and suppression, as well as law enforcement and community gang awareness and training initiatives. The N.C. General Assembly allocated funding to the GCC to bolster these efforts in fiscal years 2008 and 2009. Further, Session Law 2008 – 187 Section 7 provided  the GCC submit an annual update to the General Assembly detailing the statewide level of gangs and gang members as validated in NC GangNET.  This page provides a complete listing of gang-related research conducted by the analysis center to date.

The earlier CJAC studies on criminal gang activities relied on surveys of law enforcement agencies utilizing non-standardized gang definitions and had modest response rates.  In 2008, CJAC started using aggregate data from the NC GangNET database because it offered standardized criteria for validation of gang members, insured that members are purged from the system after five years of inactivity, and the system was being utilized by many of North Carolina's law enforcement agencies.  The two diverse methods of data collected make it difficult to compare data from earlier years to recent information on gang members and gang activities. Surveys tended to provide larger numbers of juvenile and youthful gang membership numbers because there was no requirement of law enforcement to offer anything other than numbers of gang members by age.  The NC GangNET system is a law enforcement intelligence sharing database that has some strict governance of what can be entered and how the information can be used by the certified users of the system.  While there are no rules prohibiting the entry of juveniles in the NC GangNET system with the exception not allowing photographic image of juvenile faces, many agencies choose to not actively enter juveniles. 

Gang Publications 

March 2013

Gangs In North Carolina 2013 (analysis of 2012 data) a report to the General Assembly 

March 2012

Gangs in North Carolina: An Analysis of GangNET Data (analysis of 2011 data)  

March 2011

Gangs in North Carolina: An Analysis of GangNET Data (analysis of 2010 data) 

March 2010

Gangs in North Carolina: The 2010 Report to the General Assembly (analysis of 2009 data)  

March 2009

Gangs in North Carolina: A 2009 Report to the General Assembly (analysis of 2008 data) 

March 2008

Report to the North Carolina General Assembly on criminal gangs and gang crime in North Carolina.  In 2007, the General Assembly requested a comprehensive statewide gang assessment and directed the Commission to study selected policy issues and report its findings and salient recommendations back to the legislature by March 15, 2008.  

Summer 2008

Gangs in North Carolina: A Summary of the Law Enforcement Survey  

Spring 2005

Gangs in North Carolina - A Comparative Analysis Between 1999 and 2004

September 2005

The Nature and Scope of Hispanic/Latino Gangs in North Carolina 

Summer 2000
Youth Gangs in North Carolina's Communities  

Spring 2000

Youth Gangs and Youth Crime in North Carolina's Schools  

April 2000

Perceptions of Youth Crime and Youth Gangs: A Statewide Systemic Investigation
Published in April 2000 on data gathered in 1999

The North Carolina Criminal Justice Analysis Center of the Governor's Crime Commission completed this statewide survey into the presence of youth gangs in our state's communities.  The authors of this publication were awarded the 2000 Fredrick Milton Thrasher Award for outstanding research by the National Gang Crime Research Center.

The files are in PDF format requiring Adobe Reader and are broken into three sections: 

Executive Summary and Table of Contents (section 1 of 3)

Literature Review and Study Findings (section 2 of 3)

Gangs in North Carolina Counties, county by county information (section 3of 3)

Criminal Justice Analysis Center Gang Related Journal Publications 

Hayes, R. A., & Yearwood, D. (2000). Overcoming problems associated with gang research: A standardized and systemic methodology. The Journal of Gang Research, 7(4), 1-8.

Hayes, R. A., & Yearwood, D. (2001). a statewide assessment of gangs in public schools: Origins, membership and criminal activities. The Journal of Gang Research, 8(4), 1-12.

Rhyne , A., & Yearwood, D. (2006). An assessment of hispanic/latino gangs in north carolina: Findings from a general law enforcement survey. The Journal of Gang Research, 13(4), 1-14.

Rhyne , A., & Yearwood, D. (2007). Hispanic/latino gangs: A comparative analysis of nationally affiliated and local gangs. The Journal of Gang Research, 14(2), 1-18.

Lafond, B., Mehta, S., & Hayes, R. A. (2012). The gang officer's perception: Measuring intervention propensity among gang investigators. The Journal of Gang Research, 19(4), 37-51.