The effects of gangs What is a gang? According to Steven Sachs, a probation officer since 1978, it is "a structured, cohesive group of individuals, usually between the ages of eleven and twenty-five, who generally operate under some form of leadership while laying claim to a territory or territory" (Sachs XV). Distinctive clothing, use of street names, language, special symbols and signs, and the commission of organized and spontaneous criminal acts describe some of the characteristics of a gang. Gang members can be male or female, but in most cases they are male. Jeffery Fagan and Joan Moore, researchers using primarily self-reports and field observations, estimate that female gang participation may be as high as 33 percent. In Walter Miller's first national survey in 1975, he estimated that 48 percent of gang members in the six largest U.S. cities were black, 36 percent were Hispanic, 9 percent were white, and 7 percent were Asian. A few years later, in a larger survey conducted in nine of the largest cities, Miller found that 44 percent of all gang members were Hispanic, 43 percent black, 9 percent white, 4 percent Asian. Based on these statistics, he hypothesized that illegal Hispanic immigrants may have contributed to the growing number of gangs in California (Kinnear 76). Gangs often have their roots in the historical experience of discrimination and economic struggle. White gangs exist primarily to promote and act on racist beliefs, such as the Ku Klux Klan and Skinheads. The black gangs, Blood and CRIP, were formed primarily to protect themselves from other gangs. Hispanic gangs such as Latin Kings and Sureno are typically concerned with self-respect and the integrity of their neighborhood. Asian gangs, including Chinese and Korean gangs, are perhaps more organized than Hispanic or black gangs and have been associated with gambling, prostitution, and drug trafficking at a more sophisticated and profitable level than other types of gangs. They are also more mobile (Landre, Miller, Porter 4). As a result of gangs, increased drug use and dealing, a person's sense of belonging to a gang, and gang-related crimes have had negative effects on society. Many of the images of gangs, based primarily on media reports, include alcohol and drug use. People tend to believe that gangs sell drugs to earn extra money or even that many of them are structured as mini-corporations and are heavily involved in drug trafficking.