I was surprised by the unbelievable size of street gangs in America.like hell angels and those crips and bloods. Their membership should be figured with tens of thousands.
In japan the largest yakuza has about 15000 full time members. in China large gangs only exist in hangkong.its really amazing that US has such big syndicates around the country
What's your opinion

My opinion is that most US street gangs are extremely disorganized(i.e. the crips and other gangs started out as one unified group and broke down into squabbling, individual sets and groups) Because of the lack of leadership and organization, the government doesn't consider them an extremely serious threat. If they were unified and organized the US government would consider them a larger threat. The organization, rules and structure is a large part of what made the Italian-American mafia so dangerous (and in the last couple decades the government has managed to break down the organization/structure of the mafia - making them less dangerous as a group).

When it comes to the Bloods and Crips, the definition of the Justice Department puts it best -

"The Bloods/Crips are an association of structured and unstructured gangs that have adopted a single gang culture."

In other words, the Bloods and Crips may have thousands of members but there is often no connection between the different sets. Neither gang is a monolithic organization, nor are the majority of the sets even loosely connected.

That said, there are gangs with even more members than the Bloods or Crips. And more organized too.

Check out the links below:

Street Gangs
http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ocgs/gangs/street.html

Prison Gangs
http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ocgs/gangs/prison.html

Motorcycle Gangs
http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ocgs/gangs/motorcycle.html


In Japan, recent reports have said that Yakuza membership has fallen to an all time low. According to the National Police Agency, the combined membership of the 21 largest Yakuza groups is now 58,600 - 25,600 identified as full members of recognized groups and 33,000 classified as "associate members." This is down from approximately 80,000 in recent years and a high of 184,000 back in the 1960's. Back in March, the Yamaguchi Gumi (well known as the largest Yakuza group) was said to have nearly 24,000 men. But it seems to me that both members and the Yakuza-equivalent of associates are included in these numbers. If that's the case, these figures aren't necessarily any bigger than those of other major international crime groups around the world.

The only threat they pose is to our welfare system. 99.9% of gang members are broke and on welfare. They are involved in unsophisticated and violent crime.

There on welfare because they know how to work the system that doesn't mean their broke. They just don't report their income because more then likely everything is "illegal". Capesh!

The vast majority of them are broke. Thats why they end up robbing gas stations. They live with their grannies an don't own anything other than clothes, air jordans and a cheap gun.

I know crips and bloods are disorganized.but i think the drug cartels and traids, yakuza is more organized.
I regard yakuza as the largest crime organization in East Asia,even bigger than traids in hongkong because they are much more organized as a cooperation.but i dont know the meaning of associates in yakuza, they dont made any one and to get a yakuza member qualification is much easier. Are their associates means new members?

the vast majority of mafia soldiers and associates are broke

the vast majority of people in this country are broke

The Triads work for the Tongs.

The layout of gangs in America are due to many factors but the most common are : Poverty , Social Issues like segregation, Illicit Trade. What a lot of people seems to be putting aside is that our country been gangland since the mid 1800s to present. Difference backed then between Prohibition & now was that many remained local. The rise of retail market in the Drug Trade in the 60s cause many to branch out and network. Therefore you have memberships jumping to the multi thousands.

Crips & Bloods are technically umbrella gangs ( including Nortenos & Surenos).Therefore you see large numbers from various gangs. Therefore you have to look at the individual gangs within both associations to see an accurate estimate. Most reports will put the Crips umbrella around 30-35,000 members but a single set like the Rolling 60s of L.A have 1,000 members. When it come down to umbrellas it's can be similar to a census of people living in different counties. You also have to subtract those members who are just offshoots with no connection nor network with them.

Now when you look at individual gangs membership with the majority in America it's Chicago gangs, 18 st, Ms-13, then sets/cliques of Crips, Bloods, Hoovers, Pirus, UBN , Surenos, and Nortenos. But it all comes back to local gangs that makes up the half of the millions of gang members in America. And yes some are a considerable threat, after all FBI created a task force targeting MS-13.

For the most part their loose knit entreupreneur groups while the rest are serious structured crime groups that earned multi millions annually. Their are the trail mix of America's underworld.

People who don't throughly investigate gang history as much as they do mob history should be the least vocal on a topic in which their ignorance outshines their wits.

If every one of the 1 million street gang members would be a top gangster, the country would be in ruins. A lot of the members will be kids that join a gang for "the name only" in the first place. Nevertheless each and everyone of the major street gangs has some serious career criminals in its ranks. Reading indictments on gangs like Crips, Bloods, Gangster Disciples, MS-13, Latin Kings, Netas, Barrio Azteca, 18th Street Gang, UBN, USO Family, Tiny Rascal, Satanas, Zoe Pound,...makes it clear that a considerable portion of guys that claim allegiance to one of those gangs are connected, dare I say powerful gangsters. On par with any other so-called organized crime group. It might be a seemingly small portion of those 1 million gang members, but it's still enough to count several of those gangs as a force to be reckoned with.

That's not true. An in depth study of the mob shows that either extreme - most Mafia members are filthy rich or most are broke - isn't true. Most Mafia members here in the U.S. appear to be more or less middle class, with a minority falling on both ends of the spectrum - some broke, others quite wealthy.

The word crip means " child out of wedlock".

I agree with that

In the some regards it can be said about gang members. Not all members live in the slums , you have a modest amount in the suburbs and middle class/upper class as well. Something most people don't know is that Bloods started in 1970s Compton , a middle class surburb of L.A. The International Posse of Miami consist of middle class members and of course you have gang members in Colleges/Universities.

I do NOT like those MS brats... especially the SHORT skinny ones... 'can I get that... can I hit that ... can you pencil me innnnn.... ewww!!!!! You WISH shorty!!

I remember back in the day neighborhoods would have vigilante groups to keep the garbage out and it worked. You come to an italian neighborhood and rob some woman or elderly person and you get found the next day in a dumpster.