Los Angeles Almanac Logo
Home | All Almanac Topics | Crime & Justice

Gang-Related Crime
Los Angeles County

Seized Gang Weapon

Firearm seized from suspect gang members by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. Courtesy of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.

Also see Gang Populations in Los Angeles & Los Angeles County

Gang-related crime statistics for Los Angeles County has been spotty at best and almost nothing is current. The most recent complete statistics for any jurisdiction in Los Angeles County were for 2012, and that was for only one year. As of 2017, the Los Angeles Police Department hasn't released any complete numbers since 2009 (see below). Although Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck stated in 2016 that gang-related crime had gone up 14.6 percent in 2015 and nearly 60% of homicides were gang-related, we have seen few complete numbers for Los Angeles released to the public.



Gang-related crime data had not been released for all of Los Angeles County until 2012 (but only that year). That year, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department identified gang-related crimes within its jurisdiction in the department's annual crime data release.

Reported Crimes, 2012
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Jurisdiction

Crime Crimes Reported Number of Crimes
Gang-Related		 Percent of Crimes
Gang-Related
Homicide 175 105 60.0%
Aggravated Assault 6,974 1,250 17.9%
Forcible Rape 502 8 1.6%
Robbery 4,740 728 15.4%

The largest number of gang-related homicides reported above occurred in Compton (21).

Source: L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept.


Gang-related violence accounted for approximately 43% of all homicides in Los Angeles County, per Review of Homicide Crime Statistics, Criminal Justice Center, 2005.


Prior Year Gang-Related Homicides
Los Angeles County

Note: Data below is for all jurisdictions in Los Angeles County. No new data since 2001 has been released for the county as a whole.

Year Gang-Related Homicides in County All Homicides in County Percent of County Homicides: Gang-Related
2001 587 1,070 54.9%
2000 448 1,000 44.8%
1999 349 891 39.2%
1998 399 959 41.6%
1997 452 1,176 38.4%
1996 614 1,398 43.9%
1995 807 1,682 48.0%
1994 779 1,669 46.7%
1993 724 1,944 37.2%
Year Gang-Related Homicides in County All Homicides in County Percent of County Homicides: Gang-Related
1992 803 1,919 41.8%
1991 771 1,856 41.5%
1990 690 1,768 39.0%
1989 554 1,587 34.9%
1988 452 1,320 34.2%
1987 387 1,398 27.7%
1986 328 1,408 23.3%
1985 271 1,322 20.5%

Updates to these statistics have not released since 2001

Source: L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept. & California Dept. of Justice


Gang-Related Crime - City of Los Angeles

Complete gang-related crime statistics have not been released by the LAPD since 2009. In their website, the department does state that (presumely for 2014-2016) "during the last three years, there were over 16,398 verified violent gang crimes in the City of Los Angeles. These include 491 homicides, nearly 7,047 felony assaults, approximately 5,518 robberies and just under 98 rapes." These numbers are not delineated by year. We also came across released department correspondence that reported gang-related crime numbers in the Western San Fernando Valley for the years 2014-2016.

Note: Data in the table below was the most recent released by the Los Angeles Police Department.

 
Year 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000
Homicide 157 186 228 300 260 291 259 350 347 332
Attempt Homicide1 --- --- --- --- 580 717 861 726 728 635
Aggravated Assault 2,573 2,844 3,363 3,635 2,639 2,616 3,063 3,430 3,508 2,935
Attacks on Police Officers2 110 83 89 90 75 61 83 114 138 96
Robbery3 2,092 2,570 2,596 2,570 2,021 2,08 3,274 2,808 2,754 2,490
Shots- Inhabited Dwell 152 115 165 184 192 188 219 330 366 249
Year 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000
Kidnap 38 39 51 44 53 44 67 77 64 62
Rape 36 38 42 44 33 36 37 65 59 69
Arson 6 4 8 1 6 2 4 6 4 4
Criminal Threats4 792 808 899 865 646 754 826 849 812 543
Extortion 30 38 14 38 16 20 25 6 11 10
Carjacking 101 129 170 163 147 118 211 209 143 163

1) Category not recorded after 2005
2) Includes Battery, Assault with a Deadly Weapon, and Attempted Murders on Police Officers
3) Excludes carjacking
4) Includes Witness intimidation and terrorist threats

Source: Los Angeles Police Department


Also see Alejandro A. Alonso’s www.streetgangs.com.


Gang Homicide Study - Los Angeles

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1995 by Doctors H. Range Hustson and Deirdre Anglin revealed the following facts about Los Angeles gang-related murders from 1979 through 1994:

  • One third of the victims were not associated with a violent gang.
  • The median age of the victims was 21.
  • The gang-related death rate of African American males, ages 15 to 19, tripled.
  • The gang-related death rate of Latino males, ages 15 to 19, increased by about 30%.
  • Less than 5% of gang-related deaths were related to narcotics trafficking.
  • Guns were used in 95% of gang-related killings.
  • The use of semiautomatic handguns in these killings increased by more than 40%.
  • Assault weapons were used in only 2.8% of the deaths.