Gangs are violent. Hence, the degree of violence any area has is a function of how many people are in gangs and what their attitudes are toward violence.

Take-aways

• Street gang participation rates in Chicago are at least 80 times that of London
• As in the United States, about half or more of gun homicides are gang-related in London

Participation Rates and Culture

We have noted in other places that street gang participation rates in the United States are astronomically high compared to any other location around the world.

Since the United States gets compared to the United Kingdom too often in regard to guns and violence, looking at just those cases in isolation gives some perspective. The problem is that the United States is huge and culturally varied and thus a bit of a tough comparison. Comparing London, which has meaningful reporting on their gang participation rates, with a well-known U.S. city makes for an interesting contrast.

For now, we’re going to focus on the number of people who are in gangs and table the discussion of culture—though culture is important. In the United States street gangs have a kill-first mentality and will commit murders over the most trivial of offenses. It’s different in the UK where some street gangs consider shooting somebody to be a sign of dishonor. ¹ They have guns in gangs in the UK, but even the small number of gang members often choose not to use them, except perhaps for intimidation.

The Differences

The first thing that you notice is that London has a population more than three times that of Chicago. Most of the time the larger the city, the larger the gang presence. But as we can see in this first chart, for both an older set of estimates and a newer set, London has a much bigger population but only a fraction of the number of street gang members as Chicago.

Whereas London has three times the number of human beings living there, Chicago has fifty times the number of street gang members.

But in terms of street gang participation rates, London appears to be trying to catch up.

Between the two different estimate years, 2009 against 2018, or nearly a decade apart, the difference in gang participation rates has closed a bit. Gang participation rates in London are about double where they were before, but London is still a piker compared to Chicago. In 2009 the gang participation rate in Chicago was 143 times that of London (not 143%, 143 times). By 2018 that gap had closed to a mere 80 times the rate.

But that’s still 80X. Chicago appears to be manufacturing street gang members in bulk.

Access and Carry

All this noted, understand that gang participation rates so ridiculously out of line with another are likely the primary drivers for the difference in homicide rates. We also have to note that street gang members in London do have access to guns but not as often, and they don’t treat them as a daily accessory.

Per one study ² which is a little old, gang members in the UK in general, though more frequently in London, have access to a gun at rate between 25% and 50%. (In other words, at most only half the gang members have access to guns, despite there reportedly being upward of four million unregistered and illegally possessed guns throughout the UK.)

We suspect that this number is very low because of the radical changes in international trade and logistics since 2004, when this study was published. The availability of guns has been going up ³ and there are more than a few reports coming out of the UK of a cottage industry in converting starter pistols to functioning weapons. ⁴

What is very interesting, though, is that these sundry studies have concluded that gangs account for nearly half of all offences where a lethal gun is fired. Among academic research using American police reports, the high end of their estimates (which are low due to astonishingly low homicide clearance rates) is about 50% for gangs. In other words, London gangs that have guns commit about the same percentage of gun homicides as their American counterparts.

Thinning the Herd

It’s been clearly established, from every angle and from every data source, that in the United States gangs are the principal, if not overwhelming, source of gun violence. Using a different methodology, we at Gun Facts concluded that as much as 85% of gun homicides might be street gang-related or nexus.

Reducing street gang participation rates, whether in the United States or in the UK, would lower gun homicides. Why this solution isn’t a priority in major metro areas in the United States is sadly comical.