The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: Evaluation of the Mesa Gang Intervention Program (MGIP) Author(s): Irving A. Spergel; Kwai Ming Wa; Rolando V. Sosa Document No.: 209187 Date Received: May 2005 Award Number: 97-MU-FX-K014 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Evaluation of the Mesa Gang Intervention Program (MGIP) Irving A. Spergel, Kwai Ming Wa, Rolando Villarreal Sosa with Candice Kane, Elisa Barrios and Annot M. Spergel School of Social Service Administration University of Chicago 969 East 60th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 October, 2002 © School of Social Service Administration, The University of Chicago This evaluation was supported by a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (97-MU-FX-K014-S-4). Points of view are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the United States Department of Justice. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Acknowledgments (Mesa) Many thanks to all who helped with the National Evaluation of the Comprehensive, Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program in Mesa, Arizona. The Evaluation could not have been completed without the extensive efforts and cooperation of the Mesa Police Department, the lead agency, the City Manager’s Office, the City Council, the United Way, Mesa Public Schools, and the Juvenile and Adult divisions of the Maricopa County Probation Department. The burden of collaborating with the National Evaluation team was added to the challenge of developing a comprehensive program to address the youth gang problem. Project- related agency staff, Mesa public and non-profit agencies, grassroots organizations and city government leaders went to extra lengths, not only to support the Project, but to make possible the elaboration of existing agency data systems useful to the Evaluation. Project and related agency staff directly contributed to the success of the Evaluation. The local evaluator went to great lengths to develop and collect data from a comparison youth sample, as well as from program youth. Based on their collective work, we now know better what needs to be done to reduce the youth gang problem, and have documented how it was done. We must extend special thanks to the commitment and talents of the Project leaders: Dan Zorich, Project Case Management Coordinator and Supervisor, Adult Probation Department, Superior Court of Arizona, Maricopa County; Captain Lin Adams, Project Director, Commander, Mesa Police Department; as well as the very able Project Team of outreach youth workers, probation, police and other workers; T. Farrel Jensen, Vice-Mayor of Mesa; Lieutenant Steve Toland, Commander of Gang Crimes and Project Director (succeeding Captain Lin Adams), Cheryl K. Townsend, Chief Juvenile Probation Officer, Superior Court of Arizona, Maricopa County; Dr. Ray Rafford, Assistant Superintendent, and Dr. Lou Ann Dickson, Research and Evaluation, Mesa Public Schools; Jan Strauss, Chief of the Mesa Police Department; Dr. Guy Spiesman, Senior Vice-President, Mesa United Way; and last, but certainly not least, our highly resourceful local Evaluators, Professor Charles M. Katz and Vincent J. Webb of the College of Human Services, Administration of Justice Program, Arizona State University, who provided much valuable insight into the Mesa gang problem. These people were an extraordinary crew, highly committed to the success of the Project and the National Evaluation. Irving A. Spergel and Staff, National Evaluation This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Abstract The Mesa Gang Intervention Project, based on the OJJDP Comprehensive, Community- Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention and Suppression Model was successful in reducing the youth gang problem at the individual and Project-area levels. The Mesa Police Department – the lead agency – collaborated in the development of the program with the Maricopa Juvenile and Adult Probation Departments, the Mesa School District and United Way social agencies, and received strong support from the Mesa City Council. In the course of the five-year Project, the MGIP utilized a case-management approach involving a team of gang police, probation officers, case managers and outreach youth workers. The program emphasized the provision of social-intervention services, as well as controls, for 258 youth, mainly male Latinos between the ages of 12 and 20. Most were gang members on probation, but were not violent offenders. In a multivariate, statistically-controlled comparison of these youth with 96 comparison youth (who received no program services) from three comparison gang-problem areas, the program youth reduced their level of arrests 18% more than did the comparison youth, over a four-year program period compared to an equivalent four- year pre-program period. The program area also experienced a 10.4% greater reduction in selected youth-typical crime incidents relative to an average of such crime incidents over the three comparison areas. The factors of gang identification – gang membership, gang association, or no gang connection – were not significant in accounting for changes in arrest patterns. Category of prior total arrests, program effects and community/institutional collaboration were the most significant factors accounting for the considerable measure of success. i This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Executive Summary The Mesa Gang Intervention Project was generally successful in reducing the delinquency-related gang problem at both individual and area levels. Its success in adapting the OJJDP Comprehensive, Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention and Suppression Model was based largely on the collaboration of the lead agency – the Mesa Police Department – with the Maricopa County Juvenile and Adult Probation Departments, the Mesa School District, United Way social agencies, and the City Council. The Project utilized a case management team approach, involving the Project Director, a Case Management Coordinator, gang detectives, probation officers, outreach youth workers, and a Youth Intervention Specialist – all housed together in a central location in the program area. OJJDP funded the Project for five years, with additional funding from local agency sources, especially from the police and probation departments. The gang problem in its delinquent character was just emerging in Mesa, although gangs were known to have existed there for generations. Gangs as a criminal-justice problem were identified only in the early 1990s. The key program objective was to provide social-intervention services, as well as control activities, to gang-involved and at-risk youth, most of whom were on probation but were not serious offenders (at least not for violence offenses). Two-hundred-and-fifty-eight (258) program youth were provided with a wide variety of social-intervention and control services, including individual and family counseling, group discussions, referrals to a variety of community agencies, and surveillance, supervision, monitoring and arrest. Some neighborhood-development services were provided to residents of ii This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. the program area. A sample of 96 comparison youth was matched with program youth on age, gender and program-exposure time. The comparison youth were from an area similar to the program area but did not receive Project services. Older-youth probationers with arrest records predominated in the program during its first two years of operations; somewhat younger, less- serious offenders and non-offenders predominated in the second two years. Approximately 82% of youth in the program were males; 85% were Latino (mainly of Mexican or Mexican-American origin); at program entry, ages ranged from 12 to 20 years, with 15 to 17-year-olds comprising the major age group. The majority of youth at program entry (or its equivalent for comparison youth) were either self-declared gang members, or were so identified by Project workers. An additional 17% were gang associates, but more than 20% were non-gang youth. Based on arrest records, gang- identified youth were more often delinquent than gang associates and non-gang youth; more than a third of program youth had no arrest history prior to program entry. For both program and comparison youth, between two-thirds and three-quarters of pre-program and program-period arrests were for property offenses and minor offenses (such as driving without a license, disorderly conduct, possession of alcohol, and curfew violations). Serious violence comprised 3.8% of all arrests; total violence (including felony and misdemeanor violence) comprised 14.5%; and drug arrests about 8.0% of all arrests.