The US death toll in Iraq hit 3,000 on December 31. Not a good way to end the year. That number is for three years and ten months at war.
The US death toll in the United States for gang-related homicide was 1,072 in 2003 (Figure extrapolated from data pulled from the following two websites: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/vgm03.pdf http://crime.about.com/od/stats/Crime_Statistics_Data_and_Legal_Resource....

In contrast, we lost fewer than 500 soldiers in Iraq in the ten months of 2003 that we were there.

Tell me, what are we doing about the war right here? What are we doing about the people held hostage in their homes? What are we doing about the innocent bystanders being taken out in gang-related crossfire? Why is it that I had to research for over an hour, and then extrapolate the figure 1,072 using two different sources because the data just isn’t readily available?

Let me make it more personal. In 2006, I lost two former students to gang violence. Both young women were shot because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and not because they were themselves affiliated with gangs. Two current students were shot and survived. Both are affiliated with local gangs. Neither is allowed to live at home any more, because the families are too afraid to have them there.

Right here, in a suburban community of Los Angeles, over 30 miles away from Compton and over 20 miles away from East Los Angeles.

I am a little angry.

Sociologists and anthropologists have studied the origins and behaviors of gangs. There is a pretty good consensus about why they exist. There are some interesting parallels between gangs and terrorists.

My point? The government can’t really handle this problem. The justice system can’t really handle this problem (and, in fact, the prison system actually fosters gang formation and activity).
Because I work with youth, I have come across some research that might help us to understand what we can do in our own neighborhoods to reduce the number of youths getting involved in gangs.

Resilient youth tends to stay away from risk intensive behavior. So we can reduce the number of kids getting involved with gangs if we can increase the number of resilient kids. Resilience simply refers to an individual’s ability to deal with negative impacts on his/her life and “bounce back.”

As the researchers looked at the quality of resilience, they began to ask the question revolving around the DIFFERENCE between people exhibiting resilient, healthy behaviors and those who were dysfunctional. As a result of research based on that question, we now know that young people who have certain assets built into their lives and personalities are more resilient. Then the research shifted focus to determine whether these assets can be developed. It turns out that they can. It's not even particularly difficult.

The Search Institute has done a very good job of explaining all this, so I will be quoting/cutting and pasting their work extensively.

There are eight categories of developmental assets.
The external assets include:
· Support: Young people need to be surrounded by people who love, care for appreciate, and accept them.
· Empowerment: Young people need to feel valued and valuable. This happens when youth feel safe and respected.
· Boundaries and Expectations: Young people need clear rules, consistent consequences for breaking rules, and encouragement to do their best.
· Constructive use of Time: Young people need opportunities - outside of school - to learn and develop new skills and interests with other youths and adults.
The internal assets include:
· Commitment to learning: Young people need a sense of the lasting importance of learning and a belief in their own abilities.
· Positive values: Young people need to develop strong guiding values or principles to help them make healthy life choices.
· Social Competencies: Young people need the skills to interact effectively with others, to make difficult decisions, and to cope with new situations.
· Positive Identity: Young people need to believe in their own self-worth and to feel that they have control over the things that happen to them.
Copyright © 2003 Search Institute®, Minneapolis, MN; www.search-institute.org. All Rights Reserved.
Please visit the website and download a copy of "The 40 Developmental Assets." Send or bring copies to your schools, the school board, the local government, your pastor, priest, imam, rabbi, or whomever is responsible for your spiritual health and ask them if they know of this research, and if so, what are they doing to make the development of assets a central guiding force in their education and youth programs.

Let's examine a couple of these assets and what happens when families and communities aren't providing them. The kids need them. They're going to get them somewhere.

Ask yourself the following questions about gangs:

Do they offer young people appreciation and acceptance, and even (in a twisted sort of sense) love and care?

Do they value and respect their members and help them feel safe (we know they aren't, but the whole "I got your back" mentality is powerful when you live in dangerous places)?

Do they provide rules and boundaries and consequences for breaking them?

Do they help people learn new skills (albeit ones outside the law)?

Do they foster a sense of ability?

Do they develop strong values and principles (even though they aren't positive)?

Do they provide young people with an effective (not necessarily by a standard definition) manner of dealing with people, of making decisions, and of coping with new situations?

Do they help young people believe in their self-worth and feel they have control?

Gangs do all of these things. They do them in ways that most polite society frowns upon, but they do them. Is it any wonder that so many young people growing up in dangerous places with little guidance OTHER than gangs become involved?

The war is here, not just overseas. Many of us don't have to witness it on a daily basis, but trust me - it is happening. Daily. Ask the mother of the three-year-old girl deliberately shot at point blank range as she stood on the sidewalk with her father (also shot, turned out he wasn't really in a gang - but hey, the skin color and neighborhood were right).

Some sobering statistics in case you're thinking it doesn't happen in your own back yard:
Facts at a Glance:
· 100% of cities with population greater than or equal to 250,000 reported gang activity in 2001
· 85% of cities with population between 100,000 and 229,999 reported gang activity in 2001
· 65% of cities with population between 50,000 and 99,999 reported gang activity in 2001
· 44% of cities with population between 25,000 and 49,999 reported gang activity in 2001
· 20% of cities with population between 2,500 and 24,999 reported gang activity in 2001
· 35% of suburban counties reported gang activity in 2001
· 11% of rural counties reported gang activity in 2001
· 95% of the jurisdictions reporting gang activity in 2001 had also reported gang activity in previous survey years
· 3,000 jurisdictions across the US are estimated to have had gang activity in 2001
· 56% of cities with population greater than or equal to 100,000 reported an increase or no significant change in the number of gang members in 2001
· 42% of cities with a population of at least 25,000 reported an increase in the number of gang members
· 45% of cities with a population of at least 25,000 reported an increase in the number of gangs from the previous two years
· 69% of cities with population at least 100,000 reported having gang related homicides in 2001
· 37% of cities with population between 50,000 and 99,999 reported having gang related homicides in 2001
· 59% of all homicides in 2001 in Los Angeles and 53% in Chicago were gang related, there was a total of 698 gang related homicides in there two cities combined where as 130 other cities with population of at least 100,000 with gang problems reported having a total of 637 homicides between them
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Highlights of the 2001 National Youth Gang Survey, by Arlen Egley, Jr. and Aline K. Major.

Right here. Right now. And there is something you can do. Visit the website, and get that document to as many people as you can who work with kids.