Los Angeles leads the nation in the number of gang homicides for two reasons. The popultion (#2 in the nation) and how law enforcement defines what a "gang murder" is. Los Angeles' definition of "gang murder" inflates this statistic in comparison to other cities.

Since Los Angeles is a county with 88 separate municipalities, the fragmentation can make it extremely difficult when trying to determine how many murders occurred in Los Angeles. Most of the time the number of gang killings are an overcount, because in Los Angeles, innocent bystanders of gang shootings are part of the statistics along with killings by gang members that are not motivated by the gang affiliation. For example, if a gang member kills his/her parent over a disaggreement, in Los Angeles that is considered a gang related murder.

*Changes & corrections were made to this table on January 9, 1998.
*A correction and an addition was made to this page on January 19, 1998.
*An addition on 1997 was made on March 23, 1998.
*Two additions were made on April 6, 1998.
*Two additions were made on April 8, 1998.
*Two corrections were made for 1972 and 1973 and one addition in 1974 was made on August 11, 1998.
*An addition was made on 1998 on February 1, 1999.

See chart on Gang Murders from 1985-1997 that I used for a paper entitle Gang Regions in Los Angeles.

Source: LA Gang Murders provided by LAPD SAS Division; LA Sheriff(county) gang murders & County Wide Murders (gang) & County Wide Murders (total) provided by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department- OSS Division; LA City Wide Murders are from the LAPD Annual Statistical Digest, Also See: Walter Miller, Violence By Youth Gangs and Youth Groups as a Crime in Major American Cities, 1975.

Gangs in Los Angeles County