Sponsors

Panel Detail:

Tuesday, April 24, 2007
3:35 PM - 4:50 PM

Finding Solutions to L.A.'s Gang Problem

Moderator:

David Fleming, Counsel, Environment, Land and Resources Department, Latham & Watkins

Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo explains efforts by his office to fight gang violence in the city. Gary Slutkin of the University of Illinois is in background at right.

While the panelists acknowledged the serious challenge posed by reducing gang violence in Los Angeles, they expressed a uniform optimism that a "comprehensive wrap-around strategy" could transform the city's most dangerous neighborhoods. Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo outlined the wrap-around strategy as a three-pronged approach.

The first prong, he said, is prevention. "Gang members have a shelf life," he explained. "If we can stop the kids right now from joining gangs, we won′t have a problem with gang violence in ten years." He stressed the importance of working with parents and schools to provide children with viable alternatives to joining a gang.

The second prong is suppression. "We can′t arrest our way out of this problem," said the city attorney. "However, we need the pressure to make the prevention programs and the intervention programs work." Delgadillo said that his use of gang injunctions has reduced Los Angeles′s gang population from 57,000 to 38,000.

The third prong is eradication. Delgadillo advocated removing the gangs' monetary power by filing civil suits against them for damages they cause to neighborhoods and then using the settlement money to improve those neighborhoods. He said he currently has a bill pending that would allow him to file civil suits against gangs.

Constance Rice, Co-Director of the Advancement Project, noted that Los Angeles spends over a billion dollars a year in salaries for city employees involved in youth development. She recommended bringing these workers together and holding them accountable for reducing gang violence. This could be done, she said, by bringing a combination of agencies -- from the LAPD to Child and Protective Services and the Department of Parks and Recreation -- into each neighborhood that suffers from gang violence and developing a community action plan with neighborhood leaders.

Rice said that only 5 percent to 8 percent of gang members are perpetually violent, and that the problem is mostly a result of teenagers seeking validation. "The kids identify and validate themselves by finding power in joining the clique," she said, "but it′s a 'Clockwork Orange' clique. If you don't give kids a way to affirm their adolescence, they'll find this 'Clockwork Orange' way of doing it."

Rice challenged the audience to become involved as well, adding that the lack of public oversight and political will has not pushed the relevant agencies to perform and has kept the necessary resources from the reaching the problem.

In addition to being a professor of epidemiology, Slutkin serves as co-director of a highly successful Chicago gang-violence reduction program called CeaseFire. He spoke about gang violence as a public health problem and his development of solutions within the public health framework. Slutkin's program has successfully changed norms and behaviors in neighborhoods with high levels of gang violence by using former gang members to influence their peers still involved in gangs.

"Humans respond to messengers most credible to them," he said. "The most credible people to offenders are ex-offenders whom they know and believe and trust very well." Slutkin has combined this mentoring program with larger communitywide efforts designed to stigmatize violence to dramatic effect -- having reduced violence by 60 percent in the targeted neighborhoods.

Tweet