More than 1,000 Youth Gangs in the Netherlands

About three hundred out of the 1,200 youth street gangs in the Netherlands are violent, or there is a great risk that they will become violent. This results from new research conducted for the Ministry of Security and Justice. Nineteen percent of the gangs cause major disruption and 6% are criminal.

The violence of these gangs varies from verbal, to heavy physical violence. The most severe criminals cannot be found on the streets – they operate on a national and international level. Research shows that the violence increases with the size of the area the gangs operate in. (continue reading...)