First Nations and Organized Crime

Research and Evaluation

Executive Summary

Aboriginal gangs are prevalent in Manitoba, both in urban areas as well as in First Nation communities. While they are involved in numerous illegal activities, they are not as organized as Outlaw Motorcycle gangs; rather, these gangs tend to be engage in numerous social, as opposed to criminal, activities. However, they do engage in criminal activities, and their actions are a reason for concern for both law enforcement authorities and residents of communities.

While understanding adult gangs is important for gaining a comprehensive picture of Aboriginal gangs in Manitoba, much of this project ended up focusing upon youths. This is largely due to the fact that community residents themselves indicated that this was a central problem with the longevity and continuation of gangs in their communities – they wanted to have prevention and intervention programs for youths prior to them becoming asked to join a gang, or where they are marginal members of gangs, how to best intervene in their lives to end their association with gangs. This is because (1) there is a significant influence of gangs upon the level of serious crime and especially violent crime in communities. Second, this influence of gang membership on crime, in particular violent crime, has a long lasting impact. Third, gang membership has a significant negative impact upon the developmental growth of youths, thereby negatively influencing the community. And finally, there is a high degree of overlap between gang membership and serious, violent and chronic offending.

Future work in this area should study the nature of all aspects of these Aboriginal gangs, particularly as they operate in First Nations communities and how they are connected to gangs in urban areas. A social network analysis of their operations could lead to a greater understanding of their operations and the key players involved, which could lead to more successful crime reduction programs.

To obtain an electronic copy of the complete report (PDF), please send a request by e-mail to the Research and Evaluation Section (Community, Contract and Aboriginal Policing Services) of the RCMP