1. Marion County Prosecutor’s Office
Terry Curry
Marion County Prosecutor

14. Problem of Juveniles Choosing Gangs
Statistics on children in Marion County
(Full stats available at:
Highlights:
Of the 272,720 children in Marion County in 2015, 31% lived in poverty.
The national average in 2015 was 20.7% and the average in Indiana was 20.4%
2,666 child delinquency cases were filed in 2015 and 72 juveniles were committed to the DOC

15. Factors which increase chances of youth gang membership
Most youth who become affiliated with gangs lack positive supports from parents, schools, peers, and community. Research also indicates a close link between gang involvement and delinquent activity such as substance use. Findings indicate that youth who engage in delinquent activities, specifically illicit alcohol and drug use, are more likely to join gangs and that, as a result of gang involvement, youth are more likely to use illicit drugs and alcohol.
Risk factors that significantly affect a youth’s chance for gang-involvement include the following:
Aggressiveness,
Early initiation of violent behavior,
Parental criminality,
Child maltreatment,
Low levels of parental involvement,
Parent-child separation,
Academic failure,
Lack of school connectedness,
Truancy and school dropout,
Frequent school transitions,
Delinquent siblings and peers,
Peer gang membership,
Poverty,
Substance use (e.g. illicit drugs and alcohol),
Community disorganization,
Availability of drugs and firearms, and
Exposure to violence and racial prejudice
“Research suggests that the greater the number of risk factors that a youth experiences, the more likely he or she is to join a gang. It also shows that a youth’s risk for gang involvement significantly increases as he or she accrues more than two risk factors. Therefore, prevention programs that target risk factors can help mitigate youth gang involvement. Additionally, efforts to minimize youth gang involvement can be addressed through promoting protective factors. Research suggests that as youth accumulate more protective factors it lowers the risk of gang involvement.”

16. Factors which decrease chances of youth gang membership
Parental involvement and monitoring
Family support
Coping skills (interpersonal skills)
Positive social connections
Peer support
Academic achievement
Reducing delinquency, alcohol, and drug use

17. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Comprehensive Gang Model
A leading study in the area of youth gang activity and violence identified four “key findings” that needed to be addressed by any model purporting to curb youth gang activity:
Gang-impacted youth face numerous factors (lack of safety, mental health, education, job readiness, and employment) that need to be addressed.
Gang-impacted youth have limited access to mainstream opportunities
Youth report earning money as a top reason for joining a gang
Research shows a significant drop in youth violence among employed youth. In order for them to be successful, they need soft skills and other workforce readiness training.

18. Financial Costs of Juvenile Crime/Incarceration vs
Financial Costs of Juvenile Crime/Incarceration vs. Positive Youth Opportunities
Cost of Juvenile Incarceration in Indiana (2015 Fiscal Year)
Total Operating Cost between all Juvenile Department of Corrections locations
$38,468,415
This works out to $105,393 per day and $ per juvenile per day.
Nationally, “the average annual cost of incarceration for a single juvenile is over $100,000—far more costly than the sticker price of tuition at the most expensive college in the country or a year of intensive mentoring. This suggests that government expenditures on crime could be redirected toward higher-return investments that generate larger benefits for the wider economy.”

19. Annual Cost of Juvenile Incarceration vs. Other Youth Investments

20. Percentage spent on education vs incarceration in Indiana
The study concluded stating, “Reducing incarceration rates and redirecting some of the funds currently spent on corrections in order to make investments in education that we know work—including significantly increasing teacher salaries for great teachers willing to work in hard-to-staff schools, increasing access to high-quality preschool, providing greater educational opportunity for students seeking a higher education, and for those individuals who are incarcerated, providing access to high-quality correctional education—could provide a more positive and potentially more effective approach to both reducing crime and increasing opportunity among at-risk youth, particularly if in the PK-12 context the redirected funds are focused on high-poverty schools.”

27. Connect with us @MCProsecutors
Marion County Prosecutor’s Office
251 E. Ohio Street
Indianapolis, Indiana
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