Reports on the number of people involved in criminal

gangs A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectivel ...

, by locale. Marasalvatrucha13arrest

United States

There were at least 30,000 gangs and 800,000 gang members active across the US in 2007, and an estimated 1.4 million in 33,000 gangs in 2011. About 900,000 gang members lived "within local communities across the country", and about 147,000 were in U.S. prisons or jails in 2009. By 1999,

Hispanics The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties former ...

accounted for 47% of all gang members,

Blacks Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in ...

31%,

Whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...

13%, and

Asians Asian people (or Asians, sometimes referred to as Asiatic people)United States National Library of Medicine. Medical Subject Headings. 2004. November 17, 200Nlm.nih.gov: ''Asian Continental Ancestry Group'' is also used for categorical purpos ...

6%. The Latin Kings have organized chapters in over 41 US states, most notably Illinois, and several Latin American and European countries, including: Mexico, Spain, Dominican Republic, Canada, Italy, Ecuador, Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal, Brazil, United Kingdom and others.

Chicago

The Chicago Crime Commission publication "The Gang Book 1012" gave the statistic that Chicago has more gang members than any other city in the world with a reported population of 150,000. The city had 532 murders in 2012, however, it saw a decrease to 403 murders in 2013, but up to 762 in 2016. Not all murders are gang-related, but the Chicago Police Department states that 80% of all shootings and murders in the city are gang-related.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles has held the nickname "gang capital America" since 1930 because approximately 120,000 gang members reside in the city, and tens of thousands more in surrounding Los Angeles County.

Latin America

There are between 25,000 and 50,000 gang members in Central America's

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. The Mexican

drug cartel A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the ...

s have as many as 100,000 foot soldiers, many of them in the Los Angeles area. Gangs controlled approximately 40% of Haiti's

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

in 2022.

Asia

The

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ...

are among the largest organized crime organizations in the world. In

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, as of 2005, there are some 86,300 known members.

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

's Triads include up to 160,000 members in the 21st century. It was estimated that in the 1950s, there were 300,000 Triad members in

. The

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

government claims that police have eliminated 1,221 triad-style gangs across China since a crackdown was launched in 2006. More than 87,300 suspects have been arrested.

Europe

The

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

estimates the size of the four

Italian organized crime Organized crime in Italy and its criminal organizations have been prevalent in Italy, especially Southern Italy, for centuries and have affected the social and economic life of many Italian regions since at least the 19th century. There are six ...

groups to be approximately 25,000 members and 250,000 affiliates worldwide.

Oceania

Australia

In 2013, the Australian Crime Commission listed 4,483 outlaw motorcycle (OMC) gang members in 179 chapters of 44 OMC gangs. An assessment by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission in September 2020 identified over 4,700 patched gang members and 1,000 prospects in 38 OMCGs.

New Zealand

In June 2021 there were 8,061 gang members, across 25 gangs, according to information obtained from the New Zealand Gang Intelligence Centre, which holds the National Gang List. This is figure is almost double the 4,420 gang members, of 24 gangs, on the list in 2016. NZ Police attribute some of the increase to better methodology and recording processes but also noted that those who cease to be involved in a gang might not be removed from the list. On February 25, 2021, the NZ Police commissioner, Andrew Coster, advised the Justice Select Committee that he considered gang membership numbers derived from the gang list were inaccurate because it was easy for someone to be added to the list but difficult for them to be removed, short of death.

References

* http://www.insideprison.com/prison_gang_profile_TRINITARIOS.asp * https://web.archive.org/web/20090212165246/http://gangrelated.net/resources/articles-mainmenu-92/124-trinitarios-overview-an-emerging-threat-on-the-east-coast.html * http://www.nypost.com/seven/01142008/news/regionalnews/schools_gang_scourge_128917.htm