Background on gang related crime in Maryland state.
01 February 2009, 2:02 pm
Excerpted and/or paraphrased from the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention and the Maryland Gangs Homepage at the University of Maryland at http://www.gangs.umd.edu
Violence attributed to gangs is on the rise throughout the United States. Maryland alone has more than two hundred gangs and far more than a thousand gang members. Until some recent, highly publicized, murders and assaults in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, little local attention had been paid to gangs and their criminal activities.
Gangs in Maryland generally fall within three categories:
- Local, neighborhood gangs that have no links or identification with any national gang. Given the lack of good data, it is hard to determine with certainty, but these local gangs probably represent the majority of gangs in Maryland.
- Locally operated gangs with national gang affiliation. These gangs identify with national gangs in terms of name, colors, tattoos, clothing, and graffiti. However, the local sets, or crews, are independent, locally operated gangs having a minimal link with any national organization. There are three such gangs, Bloods, Crips, and MS-13 that have a presence in several jurisdictions in Maryland.
- Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMG). Unlike street gangs that attract members in their young teens into the mid-twenties, Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs require that one own a motorcycle and members are normally in their twenties and older. The main OMGs in Maryland are the Hell’s Angels and the Pagans.
Several jurisdictions assign detectives to gather gang intelligence, however, most do not track gang-related crime and, consequently, there are few reliable statistics regarding the extent of gang-related crime in Maryland.
To report gang related crime call 911 or use the following link as appropriate.
http://www.gangs.umd.edu/wfrmContact.aspx?page=report
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