Seminar Looks at Gangs From Two Sides of the Issue

Social scientist David Curry looks at street gangs and sees a lot of young children hanging around tougher, bigger youths because they have nowhere else to go for love and attention.

Los Angeles Police Department Det. Mike Vaughn looks at street gangs and sees a pool of hardened career criminals--guys who were probably lured into gangs when they were little, but that’s not Vaughn’s problem. His job is putting crooks in jail.

Curry, a university professor, and Vaughn, who runs the LAPD’s career criminal section, represent the left and right hand of an effort to sweep away gang violence.

At the Boys and Girls Club’s fifth annual Symposium on Gangs and Delinquency in Los Angeles on Friday, researchers such as Curry said the left hand often doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

As gangs and other subcultures grow, researchers and police who monitor the problem disagree wildly on such basics as the number of gangs and who are gang members.

The confusion was reflected, researchers said, among teachers, parents and police in Littleton, Colo. None, it seemed, knew of the potential danger posed by two schoolboys belonging to a loose-knit confederation known as the Trench Coat Mafia.

Earlier this week, the youths armed themselves with pipe bombs and guns, killing 15 people, including themselves, at Columbine High School.

Roxanne Spillett, president of the Boys and Girls Club of America, said the youths’ behavior is what the club works to reverse. She said such tragedies could be avoided if state and local officials focused more on prevention.

“Our job is to really know kids and to help,” Spillett said. “We have to recognize signs. We build open, honest and trustful relationships.”

Early intervention is the key to gang prevention, said Curry. “There’s a whole transition period of about a year before kids join. They should be helped then.”

Reaching children as young as 12 through programs such as the Boys and Girls Club--which may cost $600 per child--would save states millions of dollars later in prison and other costs.

“Law enforcement officers just don’t have the time or ability to get into psychology and cultural-type issues” with gangs, Vaughn said. “Unfortunately, we just don’t have a lot of contact with these kids in a nonenforcement-type situation.”

Vaughn said the LAPD has statistics that are just as reliable as those of researchers. Each time an officer identifies a gang member, that name goes into a police database.

Curry said social scientists believe the problem is more widespread but less dangerous than police.

James C. Howell, an adjunct researcher for the National Youth Gang Center, said gang members are softer than their projected image.

With few exceptions, Howell said, gang bravado about death threats to those who want out is nonsense. Often, gangsters just walk away when they tire of the life.

Vaughn sympathized with that point of view but threw up his hands. He doesn’t see police as counselors or researchers.

“It’s not that we’re different,” the detective said. “We are in different arenas.”