1900s

The early 1900s brought new technological advances and the striking level of gangs grew bigger. Gangs had so much control and power in every block of every neighborhood that police had to move through the streets in groups of six men or more to avoid attacks from gang members. Policemen who commonly entered in forbidden areas of the neighborhood were stabbed or beaten.

Drug misuse was a common problem in many large cities. To cut drug abuse among the people, the Harrison Narcotic Act was signed in March of 1915. This was the government's first approach to regulate narcotics. Within five years, the Volstead Act announced that production or consumption of alcoholic beverages was prohibited. Several gangs decided to go into producing and selling liquor.

The twenties brought some of the most outrageous and notorious crime syndicates and gangs. This period in time was the Golden Era of Gangs. Gangs like Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd’s, John Dillinger’s, and Alphonse "Scar Face" Capone’s were the most notorious. Italian crime controlled the criminal world and Chicago was the country’s new home of gang problems. However, the Italians controlled most crime groups which emerged into one big organization known as the mafia. The members of this organization called themselves "La Cosa Nostra" or this thing of ours. Even though the country focused so much on these particular crime groups, youth gangs were continuing to have a great impact in large cities because of so much illegal production and dispersion of liquor.

Throughout the 1930s, police began classifying and collecting crime reports all over the nation. As a result, social workers started to put effort into identifying the main problem of youth living off the streets. Their goal was to create a new film called The Dead End. They wanted to demonstrate to young people the hardships of life on the streets. The success or failure of the film was never stated, but with the dawning of World War II years later, gang affiliations diminished. 

During the war, discrimination and racism increased and was widespread. Emulating the Irish, Italian and Jewish groups, Mexican gangs began to form. As Mexican gangs began to increase in size over the years, they called themselves Pachucos. When the war ended in 1945, many soldiers returned home, and women were displaced from their jobs which caused an increase in unemployment and poverty in inner city areas. By the 1950s, black men established social organizations in several cities, and rivalries manifested among many groups. Though several of the groups initiated for social and racial growth, violent commotions soon proceeded and these groups became the nation's most notorious gangs. In this same decade, prison gangs formed and drug use dramatically increased across the country. Years later, gangs continued to focus in putting all their efforts to manufacture and distribute drugs and liquor all over the world.

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