Gangs and criminal organizations" come in many forms - street gangs, youth gangs, organized crime gangs, drug gangs, terrorist gangs, prison gangs, etc. A gang is a static or fluid organization, network or collective, possesses identifiable leadership or a leadership structure, associates on a continuous basis. It has a main purpose or activity the facilitation or commission of a variety of offenses planned or undertaken to generate material benefits or financial gain, has the potential for violence or intimidation to facilitate its criminal activity and it consists of three or more members.
Street gangs are different from these typical organized gangs because they typically identify with a particular geographic area (territory, or turf), largely feature individuals under the age of twenty-eight, have fluid leadership structure and member participation. They may display common colors, insignia and communication patterns like hand signs, graffiti and codes. They are also less sophisticated in terms of organizational structure, rules of conduct and nature of criminal activities. .
The police will classify a person to be a gang member into a database if they meet at least two of the qualifications that they have determined would be consideration of a person associated with organized crime. They must have been directly or indirectly involved in a gang-motivated crime and be a reliable source of information attesting to gang affiliation. They must have directly observed association with other gang members, individual acknowledgement of gang association or involvement, physical evidence proving gang affiliation or previous court findings (including sworn testimony) that a person is a gang member. If they use signs or symbols of gang identification or paraphernalia, this would be turf, colors, name, tattoos, or rituals.
There are hundreds of gangs all around Canada Toronto has 1,100 gang members in 62 gangs that are made up of mostly African-Canadian decent, Brampton has 960 gang members in 30 gangs that are made up by East-Indian and Pakistani.