28,100 gangs in the United States with 731,000 gang members in 3,500 jurisdictions,

There are an estimated 28,100 gangs in the United States with 731,000 gang members in 3,500 jurisdictions, Justice Department officials say.

The department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention released the 2009 National Youth Gang Survey that identified three trends in the prevalence rate of gang activity: a sharp decline throughout the late 1990s, a sudden upturn beginning in 2001 and continuing until 2005, and a relative leveling off thereafter.

"Larger cities exhibited a large and stable prevalence rate of gang activity from 2005 to 2009, while the smaller populated areas reported a smaller rate with a more fluctuating pattern," justice officials say.

Since 1996, the National Gang Center has tracked the size and scope of gang activity by annually collecting data from a large, representative sample of local law enforcement agencies, officials say.

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