Top Ten Poverty Locations and Gangs
Alex Alonso
Streetgangs.Com
June 20, 2004
updated: February 9, 2007
There has been so much research on the relationship between crime and poverty and how that may effect gang involvement. Most social problems within the community are caused by a variety of circumstances, i.e. education, family structure, income and housing, but there has never been a comprehensive study that looked at the factors that are most prevalent where street gangs are most active and determined whether other factors may play a bigger role or how multiple factors work together within these communities where gangs and violence are most concentrated.
| Rank | Gang | Official Poverty | Poverty
150% |
City |
Race |
| 1 | Grape Street Crips | 83.6 | 91.6 | Los Angeles – Watts | Black |
| 2 | Brick Blocc Mafia | 58.4 | 88.2 | Long Beach | Black |
| 3 | Primera Flats | 57.6 | 77.5 | Los Angeles – Boyle Heights | Hispanic |
| 4 | 52 Pueblos | 52.3 | 76.1 | Los Angeles- South | Black |
| 5 | Crazy Riders | 47.6 | 75.1 | Los Angeles – Pico Union | Hispanic |
| 6 | PJ Watts Crips | 59.2 | 74.3 | Los Angeles – Watts | Black |
| 7 | Big Hazard | 53.7 | 74.0 | Los Angeles – Boyle Heights | Hispanic |
| 8 | Bounty Hunters | 62.0 | 73.9 | Los Angeles – Watts | Black |
| 9 | Florencia 13 | 48.1 | 73.1 | Los Angeles – South | Hispanic |
| 10 | 83 Hoovers | 45.4 | 70.3 | Los Angeles – South | Black |
The table above represents the top ten locations within Los Angeles where poverty is most extreme. The third column represents the percentage of residents living at or below the official poverty level as defined by the US government in the census tract that coincides with that gang. Because some believe that the federal definition may be a bit conservative, others use 150% of the poverty figure to get a better sense of poverty levels, so both those numbers have been included.
There were other places on the map where poverty levels were high, such as the small area in Westwood near UCLA and the north area of USC where the students live, but those were clearly taken out of the list because they don’t represent everyday living and “real” poverty. Because college students have little to no income and their neighborhoods show up on a poverty map too.
The types of communities where gangs have formed in high poverty areas were those that had public housing . Seven of the top ten poverty stricken gangs were within a public housing community with the exception of 1) Crazy Riders, 2) Florencia 13, and 3) 83 Hoovers. The Pico Union neighborhood had the highest poverty level for an area without any public housing present. And within the entire County of LA, only one area was not in the City of Los Angeles, that being the Brick Blocc Mafia Crips in North Long Beach, where there is a small housing project located.
Related posts:
Low Poverty areas and its Geographic Relationship to gangs in Los Angeles County
Ganging up against violence. (US criminal street gangs) (The Problems of Poverty)
Gang-style graffiti found in several locations in Willows
Poverty Figures May Be Wrong
Discovery Channel’s ‘Gang Wars: Oakland’ Series Spreads All the Wrong Messages About Poverty and Minorities
Lawndale, California | Hispanic gangs
Hacienda Heights, California – Hispanic gangs
Crip Gangs in Willowbrook, Unincorporated Los Angeles County
L.A. targets two gangs with restraining orders
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