Gang Task Force Advisory Board

Signs of Serious Gang Involvement

There are different levels of gang activity, ranging from “criminal street gang” activity to the delinquent behaviors of juveniles.   Juvenile delinquent behaviors, which include extorting lunch money, writing graffiti, vandalism, bullying, intimidation, stealing bicycles, shoplifting, drug use, and truancy, can lead to serious criminal street gang activity.

Signs of gang involvement include:

•  Gang graffiti on bedroom walls, books, clothing, athletic shoes, and posters

•  Gang uniforms or gang colors

•  Hand signals to communicate with other gang members

•  Photos showing gang names, slogans, insignia, hand signals, or individuals involved in gang activities

•  Gang style language

•  Gang tattoos or gang insignias

•  Disclosure of gang membership

•  Fingernails painted a certain color

•  Gang-color shoelaces in athletic shoes

•  Specific hairstyles (such as Skinheads shaving their heads bald or a group of females all wearing their hair in a ponytail)

•  Possession of weapons such as shaved-down baseball bats, sections of pipe taped at the ends, spiked wrist bands, chemical mace, knives, handguns, sawed-off shotguns, and semi-automatic firearms

Clothing color and style sometime serve to identify each gang.   For example, with African-American gangs, the color red stands for “Bloods,” blue for “Crips.”   Black and dark or dull colors tend to be favored by some Hispanic gangs and white Heavy Metal groups.  

Other favored gang colors may be brown or purple. Whether they use color or not, traditional gangs will generally adopt some article of clothing or style of dress in order to distinguish themselves as a group.