A new study shows that gang membership and activity has noticeably risen in the state of Georgia within the last six years.

According to Fox News, data from the nonprofit Georgia Gang Investigators Association (GGIA) shows that gang membership in the state has risen by 80% since 2018, amounting to approximately 127,732 gang members across 1,974 different gangs. In 2018, the total number of gang members was just 71,000 across 1,600 gangs.

The group’s survey included just 86 of the state’s 159 counties, and determined that in those counties, at least 65% of crimes overall were carried out by gang members. This trend appears to have coincided with an increase in training for law enforcement with regards to the identification, investigation, and prosecution of gang activity in particular.

Michael Ricks, the Metro Atlanta regional director for GGIA, pointed out that all but two counties in the state of Georgia participated in the 2018 survey, compared to just over half of the counties in the latest survey. With that in mind, the massive spike in membership is all the more “alarming.” He pointed to increased social media recruitment as well as the decline in the economy forcing more young men to choose gang activity.

“The fact that the economy in a lot of areas has gone down… a lot of gangs offer fast money, the perception of additional resources and things like that seem more attractive when times are hard,” said Ricks.

Phil Holloway, a former assistant district attorney who is currently serving as a criminal defense attorney, said that he  “can trust the [GGIA] if they say that gang membership is up, because it tracks with what we’re seeing on the ground.”

“We see young kids, you know, in the 9, 10, 11, 12-year-old age range now in juvenile court that, you know, have gang membership and gang affiliation,” Holloway continued. “So the membership issue and the explosion of gangs, that’s actually getting worse – that’s not getting better.”