Most police forces found that fewer than one in 10 of those arrested over the August riots were gang members and gangs "generally did not play a pivotal role" in the disturbances, figures have shown.
Even in London, where gang membership among those arrested was highest at 19%, most of those held were not in gangs, the Home Office figures reveal.
"In terms of the role gangs played in the disorder, most forces perceived that where gang members were involved, they generally did not play a pivotal role," officials said.
But more than a third of young people aged 10 to 17 who were involved in the riots had been excluded from school during 2009/10, other figures released by the Ministry of Justice showed. This compared with just 6% of all Year 11 pupils.
Two-thirds of young people in the riots also had special educational needs, compared with a fifth of all pupils. And two-fifths were in receipt of free school meals, compared with less than a fifth of secondary school pupils, the figures showed.
The figures, which were based on matching Ministry of Justice records with those from the national pupil database held by the Department for Education, showed 36% of young people - some 139 10-17-year-olds - appearing before the courts over the violence and looting had received one or more fixed-term exclusions in 2009/10, compared with just 5.6% of all pupils aged 15.
The findings appear to contradict Iain Duncan Smith's claim earlier this month that gangs played a "significant part" in August's riots. The Work and Pensions Secretary said tackling Britain's "violent gang culture" was vital, and restoring the economy went "hand in hand with restoring society".
The latest figures showed most of those involved in the riots were aged under 20, with 26% aged 10 to 17 and 27% aged 18 to 20.
Of the adults involved, 35% were claiming an out-of-work benefit at the time, compared with 12% of the general working age population in England and 45% of all offenders sentenced for an indictable offence last year. Three-quarters of all those who appeared in court had a previous conviction or caution.
Meanwhile, thugs from 44 foreign countries were jailed over the riots, according to prison figures. At least 13% of those locked up were born abroad, coming from as far afield as Afghanistan, Congo, Cuba and Samoa.