Gang Populations
Los Angeles County & City

Gang arrest by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. Courtesy of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.

Also see Gang-Related Crime in Los Angeles & Los Angeles County

Despite Los Angeles County's label as the "Gang Capital of the United States, gang population estimates for anywhere in Los Angeles County and gang-related crime statistics have not been forthcoming in recent years. In fact, the last estimates of any sort for Los Angeles County were released in 2007. In 2000, a 2000 U.S. Department of Justice report stated that Los Angeles County had more than 1,300 gangs with more than 150,000 members. Within the City of Los Angeles, a 2007 City of Los Angeles report stated that there were more than 400 separate gangs and an estimated 39,000 members of these gangs. Of these, more than half were Latino. Since the time of these reports, veteran journalist and author Sam Quinnones stated in a 2015 interview with L.A. Taco that declining front-page gang activity in Los Angeles was due to gangs becoming more discreet, disillusionment and falling trust by members in gang leadership and priorities, aggressive gang injunctions and RICO prosecutions and new community policing strategies.

City of Los Angeles Gang Populations
for December by Year

(LAPD has not release these statistics since 2005)

*Usually teenagers of various races/ethnicities, who listen to metal or gothic music
Source: Los Angeles Police Department