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Gang Membership Up, Crime Down

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

While gang membership is rising, criminal activities by Orange County street gangs continued to decline in 1998, according to a report released Friday by the district attorney’s office.

Homicide and other violent offenses involving gang members reached a five-year low in 1998, mirroring the dramatic decline in the county’s overall crime rate.

The district attorney reported 32 gang homicides last year, an 18% drop from 1997 and less than half the 1993 total of 74. Violent crime dropped to 1,330 incidents in 1998, 254 less than the previous year, officials said.

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Despite the encouraging figures, authorities said gang crime is still a significant source of concern and that anti-gang measures will be expanded this year.

“We’ve been successful, but we still have a way to go,” said Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Rackauckas. “We shouldn’t have to tolerate the amount of [gang] crime we have here today.”

Of particular concern, officials said, is the fact that the ranks of known gang members continue to swell. There are now 19,965 in the county, an increase of 1,296, nearly 7%, from the previous year. The number of gangs rose by 14 to 400.

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In Anaheim, where there are 69 known gangs, membership rose by 9% to about 5,441, according to the report.

But the growth in gang membership does not appear to be resulting in more crime. Officials believe that may be explained by recent tactics that target gang leaders.

The measure, used in Santa Ana and other cities, focuses on imprisoning leaders responsible for directing the bulk of criminal activities. With the leaders behind bars, officials said many gangs have been weakened and new gangs have formed. They believe the measures also help break the cycle of retaliation that sometimes fuels prolonged gang wars.

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“They target the most active gang leaders, and go after them and prosecute them for whatever crimes they commit,” Rackauckas said. “This tends to be disruptive to the entire gang.”

Other anti-gang measures have resulted in hard-core members being sent to prison in increasing numbers, another reason officials believe gang-related crime is declining. Between 1994 and 1998, the number of members placed in detention jumped 60%, according to an earlier report from the district attorney’s office.

Also contributing to the success of the anti-gang effort was a high conviction rate, officials said. Prosecutors obtained guilty verdicts in 250 of 267 gang trials in 1998, a 93.6% conviction rate, according to the report.

Authorities had less success cracking murder cases: Only 10 of last year’s 32 gang-related murders had been solved by year end, the report said.

Of the gang crimes prosecuted in 1998, about 68% were committed by Latino gangs; Asian gangs were charged in 8.5% of the crimes. The proportion committed by white gangs was 2.1%, which officials described as a small but troubling figure because they mostly involved hate crimes.

Also drawing concern was an increase in the number of takeover robberies--a type of crime typically carried out by “roving,” mostly Asian gangs who invade homes or businesses and terrorize victims before stealing items.

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Because the gangs tend to strike all over the county and are not based on territories, Rackauckas said his office is planning to form a countywide, multi-agency task force to address the problem.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Drop in Gang-related Crimes

All major categories of gang-related crime, including homicides, violent offenses and property crimes, declined in 1998 to five-year lows. Gang crimes involving handguns also showed a sharpdecline from previous years.

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1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 (projected) All Incidents 3,611 3,394, 3,384 3,241 3,134 Violent 1,633 1,593 1,815 1,584 1,330 Property 495 422 237 207 198 Other 1,483 1,379 1,332 1,450 1,606 Handgun 962 936 1,046 813 666 involved

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NOTE: Violent crimes include homicide, felonious assault, car jacking, sexual assault, robbery, kidnaping, terrorism, assault and battery, witness intimidation, extortion, shooting into dwellings/vehicles. Property crimes include auto theft, burglary, vandalism and arson

Source: Orange County District Attorney’s Office

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