Gang Violence Among Teens

Teens and Gang Violence The term gang refers to “a group of people with a discernible structure, a recognized territory, and distinctive beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors” (Pearce and Pettis, 2011). Gang violence is a wide spread phenomena. Gang violence can be found in all fifty states and in most major cities. With gang violence being so common, it is no surprise that this type of violence is not only affecting are youth, but they are also becoming a main cause of this violence (Graulich, 2010). Youth gang violence has grasped the attention of the communities. Members of the community are joining forces to put a stop to this type of violence (O’Brien, Daffern, Chu, and Thomas, 2013). It is important to learn and understand the history

Researchers have long sought to understand the salience of gang involvement (Varano, Huebner and Bynum, 2011). Studies show that those involved in gang activity “begin their delinquent/criminal careers earlier, experience higher levels of violent victimizations, have accelerated levels of participation in the most serious forms of delinquency, experience great number of incarceration periods, and are generally more problematic when incarcerated” (Varano, Huebner and Bynum, 2011). Gang involvement typically leads to delinquent behavior in youth and it leads them down the wrong path of life. There is typically a higher rate of youth involved in gangs who come from broken homes, do not have jobs, are on drugs or come from families that do drugs, and school drop

Teens get involved in gangs for numerous reasons. One of the main reasons teens get involved in gangs is due to popularity and enhancing their self-esteem (Howell, 2010). One study claims that there are fie main domains that risk factors fall into: individual, family, school, peers, and community (Howell, 2010). The reasons teens join gangs are either for risk factors or entertainment, these reasons include: protection, respect, money, and especially peer pressure (Howell, 2010).. However, the majority of the time teens join gangs to feel protected or because they were peer pressured into doing so. Some teens join gangs because they are antisocial and it gives them a feeling of belonging to something or being a part of something. Another factor that influences youth to join gangs is victimization. It has been proven that more gang members were abused at some point in their life (Howell, 2010). Children who come from broken homes are also more likely to join gangs. These children typically receive less attention from their families and so they look for that attention in other