SAN FRANCISCO -- A UC Berkeley study has found that nearly half – 47 percent – of the 98 homicides in San Francisco in 2007 were gang-related and that the vast majority of the victims were men who were either African-American or Latino.

The results of the study by the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice, a research group at the UC Berkeley School of Law, were released at a recent crime summit and published by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The research gave an inside look into the violent underbelly of San Francisco. It's a world where suspect and victim often have had run-ins with police and had previously served time for violent crime.

"Today's shooter is tomorrow's victim," David Onek, the study's executive director and a member of the San Francisco Police Commission, told the paper. "A small number of individuals in a small number of places are responsible for a disproportionate share of the violence."

The study found that:

• Nearly three-fourths of the 38 suspects arrested so far in the 2007 SF homicide cases had criminal records
• The average suspect had 12 previous arrests.
• Almost 90 percent of victims in 2007 were men, and nearly 90 percent were nonwhite.
• A suspect or victim's gang membership was the suspected motive in 47 percent of the 2007 homicides.
• More than one-third of the 375 fatal and nonfatal shootings last year were in an area that covered just 2 percent of the city's 47 square miles.