Gang Abatement Initiative
As currently designed the initiative will include an analysis of the scope and nature of Schenectady’s juvenile gang problem and a collaboratively developed series of data driven strategies – grounded in social science literature – to address juvenile gang issues. Specifically, Institute staff will gather local perspectives of the gang problem through interviews with members from various agencies including the Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office, Schenectady Police Department, Schenectady County Probation, Schenectady City School District, Schenectady County Sheriff’s Office and Jail, New York State Parole, and others. We also plan to conduct analysis that would improve the understanding of selected youth gangs including statistical and spatial analysis to describe for each selected gang:
- members and their associates;
- offenses gang members are committing;
- temporal and spatial patterns in offending;
- patterns of victimization among members and their associates; and
- how much of the overall crime problem is attributed to the gangs.
In addition, the Institute will work local stakeholders to develop a menu of intervention options. We will summarize strategic or programmatic initiatives that are suitable for Schenectady and which are identified as promising in research literature. The intervention strategies will be geared toward leverage points uncovered through analysis and will be grounded in evidence-based practices that complement resources available in the City.
