We had been mulling over yesterday’s Washington Post story about an apparent increase in teens and kids even younger committing crimes like robbery and assault in groups, and then last night’s FOX 5 report on violent crime in Adams Morgan really crystallized it: we have to come up with some better words for describing this phenomenon, if it is one. About a third of the way through the FOX 5 video, reporter Roby Chavez has a member of the Guardian Angels, who have recently starting patrolling Adams Morgan, describe groups of kids who are purposefully engaged in criminal activity together as “wolf packs.” The Post similarly goes with “pack robberies,” describing how these groups of juveniles are “roaming” the city streets looking for opportunities to assault and rob unsuspecting citizens.

It’s easy to understand why you would want to avoid calling these groups “gangs,” but equating them with groups of wild, ferocious animals seems pretty outrageous, in the sense both that these kids are a) just kids, after all b) actual human beings, and not in fact animals, not to mention the fact that the general public, who are already on edge due to what certainly feels like a rise in violent crime and robberies, aren’t exactly well served by imagining something like a “roaming pack of wild youths” on the street.

So, can we just stick with words like “groups,” please?