Criminal Gang Radicalization

Introduction
The rapid increase of criminal gangs in the United States of America has been alarming in the recent past. It had been reported that these criminal gangs have been recruiting juveniles as members of the gang (Howell, 2015). Due to this tremendous increase, there has become the need to address this issue critically and extensively. The issue of radicalization of the youth can also be addressed on this topic (Howell, 2015). Most youths have enrolled themselves in these gangs for a couple of reasons such as the need for affiliation and peer pressure, weak social; control structures among others. The thirst of power for these youngsters can also be seen as a driving factor to the enrollment to this criminal gang. The gangs have structures

The group members, as derived from the definition of a gang, are from a similar background and share a common interest (Ratcliffe, 2016). The members of these groups are arranged in hierarchies which are determined by specific factors such as the ability to fight, physical structure, the willingness to commit crimes among others. Most gangs operate informally having their leadership falling on whoever takes control. The structure depends on their primary size which in most times ranges from five to thousand (Krohn & Eassey, 2015). The structure of gangs may also depend on the mission of the gang. It may have subgroups in itself that report to the main

Gang violence is a threat to the social and economic welfare of the country. Gang violence drives away investors since they threaten investment. People who engage themselves in crimes are an economic liability to the society (Krohn & Eassey, 2015). Also, the cost of incarcerating gang members is very high and strains the public finance for the federal government. The other problem of young people engaging in crimes is that they act as a threat to security. Young people are usually very energetic, and if engaged in criminal activities they can cause high insecurity to the lives of peoples and their property. Criminal gangs dissolve the societies’ values but acting in defiance of the set rules. The meaning of the laws set by the society is lessened by the criminal activities (Krohn & Eassey, 2015). Criminal gangs tamper with the social order. They change the usual way of living and after that dismantle the already existing social structures. These gangs give teachers and the law enforcers a hard time during their