You are a police investigator assigned to the new gang unit. Your job is to gather intelligence regarding gangs and gang types. Your first assignment is to identify Asian street gang members

Question

Discuss exactly what you will be looking for to identify this grou

Answer 1

Turf/Territoriality: For the most part, there is no designated turf that is protected. Turf is only viewed in terms of locations of neighborhoods and businesses where illegal activities are conducted. While the gangs may victimize persons within areas assumed to be their territory, they will outwardly "claim" it as do Latino gangs. In addition, many Asian gangs operate in a variety of territories while carrying out their illegal financial activities; Gang Loyalty: There is no loyalty to a specific gang.
Gang membership tends to shift, and a gang member may belong to several different gangs depending on which ones provide the greatest financial opportunities; Dress: Asian gang members dress in two styles, depending on the occasion. They wear normal dress when engaging in nongang activities such as going to work or school. They wear gang attire, or "play clothes," when they are with the gang. This style of dress includes colored head rags or bandanas, baseball caps, Dickie-style pants, colored T-shirts, and football or other athletic jerseys; Tattoos: A triangular pattern of three dots on the hand between the thumb and forefinger, signifying "My Crazy Life," is a common Asian gang tattoo. Also common is the five dots or 5 Ts tattoo created by ink or cigarette burn marks (to show toughness), signifying Love, Money, Prison, Crime/Sin, and Revenge; Leadership: There may be strong leadership in the form of a centralized leader called a Dai Lo. These individuals usually have ties to international organized crime and have prior military experience in an Asian country; Organization: The gang structure is similar to that of the cliques of the Latino gang, and commonly has four distinct levels of membership organization: Associates (friends and girlfriends), Junior (pee-wees or wannabes about to be jumped in), Regulars (making up the bulk of jumped-in gang members), and Hard-cores (less than 5 percent of members, who carry out the majority of the gang's criminal activities); Crimes: Usually target residences and businesses of other Asians. Commercial robbery, business extortion, identity theft, and home invasion robbery are common; Organized trafficking of drugs and stolen goods are also carried out by larger, more sophisticated gangs; Names/Signs: Asian gangs usually name themselves for the area or territory from which they originate, for example, "The Centerville Boyz." They use hand signs as a means of gang identification and communication; Rivals/Enemies: As a rule, Asian gangs get along with each other and are respectful of each other's turf and illegal enterprises. Violence is used only when it is necessary to defend the gang's economic interests; Graffiti: Rarely, if ever, is graffiti used. Asian gangs prefer to remain "beneath the radar" and not have their identities or activities known by other gangs—and especially not by law enforcement; Females: Although females did form their own separate Asian gangs, this is no longer a trend. Most female gangs are branches of male gangs with which they are affiliated. They adopt their names from the male gang—for example, females associated with "The Centerville Boyz" would name themselves "The Centerville Girlz;" Other Asian Gangs: Filipino gangs are generally not as financially motivated as other Asian gangs. They tend to focus on violence merely to defend their gang's name and reputation. Their membership consists largely of brothers, cousins, and other blood relatives. Filipino gangs usually fight with other gangs of the same ethnicity as well as Latino gangs. Samoan gangs are another prevalent Asian gang. Most often these gang members behave in a manner similar to that of African-American gangs and can align themselves with either Crips or Bloods.