Looking back at the number of homicides in the city of San Jose, CA for the year 2000 it was 20, then there was an average increase of 8 murders per year for the next 8 years. Then in 2010, despite a population increase of over one hundred thousand people, there were only 20 murders in the city of San Jose. Now in 2011, up to the month of July, there have been 26 homicides, which means based upon the current rate San Jose is on track to have more than 50 homicides in 2011, which would theoretically be over a two decade maximum. Now despite having lived in a small town, I consider San Jose as a home away from home because I go there often. I have had a job there and my dad has worked in San Jose for 28 years. In 2009 the San Jose area was rated as the seventh safest area in the country and when that happened it made me feel thankful that my family and I have lived in such a safe area. Yet nowadays it seems like I have been reading about a different murder every week, which has caused me to ask many questions about the possible causes of this rise in murders. From the research I have done, the cause seems to be a rise in gang violence and rival gang murders. In San Jose, the two rival gangs, Norteños and Sureños, have begun to be bolder with their killings as shown with the already high and rising murder rate of 2011. Solutions must be determined in conjunction with the San Jose Police Department and governmental gang task forces to establish the best course of action to stop the continuing rise in violence (Associated Press). It is surprisingly difficult to pinpoint the origin of street gangs. This may be because of the inherent nature of gangs: a group of individuals who come together for the same purpose and in the case of str... ... middle of paper ... ...olor Bind." Metroactive 31 Aug. 2005Web.http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.31.05/gangs-0535.html Rodriguez, Joe. "In San Jose, anti-gang team tries to shut down Sureño-vs.-Norteño violence." 16 Jan. 2009. Web. http://www.streetgangs.com/topics/2009/011609sanjose.html Schoville, Chuck, Brian Novotny and Andrew Eways. Bureau of Justice Assistance. "Surenos 2008 Special Gang Report." . Rocky Mountain Information Network, 2008. Web.http://info.publicintelligence.net/surenosreport.pdf Webby, Sean. "Census Shows Growing Polarization of Income in Canada." Web.http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_18310537?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com Zill de Granados, Oriana. Nuestra Familia: Our Family. Center for Investigative Reporting and Latino Public Broadcasting, Sep. 2006. Web. http://nuestrafamiliaourfamily.org/pages/film.html
The American headlines of any large city will site killings on street corners, robberies, assaults, intimidation, and drug interaction. While not all-criminal activity is associated with gangs, the 780,000 strong members do account for a large majority of the problems that are plaguing America. There is no one-way to stop gang activity in one single swipe, but through a combination of cooperation, education, and training techniques law enforcement can minimize the gang’s movements and even stop a crime before it is committed.
An academic study done on violent crime in San Antonio for the SciVerse Science Direct journal analyzes how built in environmental characteristics influence such a diverse and rapidly growing city. San Antonio’s population consists of 60% Hispanics, a poverty rate of over 18%, a teenage birth rate of 39/1000, and a homicide rate of 6.9 per 100,000 (302). The results of the study indicate that residential instability, poverty and low education rates are the biggest factors contributing to San Antonio’s crime increase (not forgetting the obvious population increase contribution). Almost 7% of San Antonio homes are “vacant” while 40% are rented, not owned (Sparks 304). The author explains that rented homes are usually what are inhabited by single mothers, military members, minorities, and lower income families that have increased chances of poverty and susceptibility to criminal involvement (Sparks 305). O’Sullivan shows how the relationship between crime and wage is very elastic, so a 10% increase in wages would lead to a 10% decrease in crime. In San Antonio’s case, the unstable nature of land use creates a lower opportunity cost for committing property crimes on vacant areas. A detailed map in the study showed how the north and northwestern areas of San Antonio with more housing turnover and housing construction consequently
Criminal activities and gangs have mostly always been an on going problem in the United States. Gangs and gang members are frequently involved with a variety of different crimes. The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey reported that there are approximately 774,000 active gang members in the United States (Egley, Howell, & Moore, 2010). The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey also states that there are about 27,900 active gangs in the United States (Egley et al., 2010). The active gangs in California have caused a major impact on the state in many ways. According to the California Department of Justice, approximately 300,000 gang members are living in California (Crawford, 2009). California also attributes more than 25 percent of all homicides to gang activity (Crawford, 2009). This is a staggering huge amount. The rise of gang involvement and gang crime has led law enforcement to issue and enforce gang injunctions. However, these gang injunctions do not completely eliminate gang crime and they have no effect after one year of being issued. Also, gang injunctions interfere with the lives of normal people in society.
Selah, Makkada B. "Black Street Gangs a Hit on Native American Reservations." The Grio. N.p., 25 Nov. 12. Web. 4 Apr. 14.
67. Politicians, responding to the nations fear of crime, have attempted to outdo each other in being “tougher of crime”. This attention toward our nations fear of crime has resulted in the addition of police officers, the building of more prisons, extending the death penalty to cover sixty federal offenses, and mandating longer sentences. The homicide rate in the United States was more than twice the homicide rate in Canada and many times that in other countries. However, the victimization rates for assault and robbery were lower for Americans than for Canadians, Australians, and Spaniards. Outbreaks of violence have occurred throughout history starting with the post-Civil War era. This was eventually followed by organized crime and an increase in the murder rate throughout the 1930’s. During the 1950’s crime rates decreased only to increase once again in the 1980’s. Today crime rates are down whether Americans choose to accept this or not. Murder rates are well below the record setting 1930’s and violent crime has decreased 33 % since 1993.
CNN presents the documentary, Homicide in Hollenbeck, spotlighting gang activity in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollenbeck. This documentary explores the subculture of gangs existing within Hollenbeck from a several perspectives. The people documented include a mother who lost both of her sons to gang violence, a priest that has tried to help rehabilitate gang members, a police officer that has worked in Hollenbeck for five years in the gang unit, and a current gang member. For a conclusion, Homicide in Hollenbeck focuses on a juvenile exposed to gang life on the cusp of decided where they want their life to lead; gangs or freedom. Problems attributed to the high rate of gang activity and number of gangs in Hollenbeck are the high poverty rate, low employment rate, and broken families that make up the majority of Hollenbeck. The crime most discussed, as per the title of the documentary, is homicide The number of gang related homicides has risen even though the criminal behavior of gangs has ultimately decreased in the neighborhood. In order to fight the overwhelming gang presence, the police believe in increasing the amount of gun power on the streets and number of jailed gang members. The priest who runs Homeboy Industries stated that he feels most gang members are just young men who can’t get out of the gang life. With more funds and opportunities, he thinks the problem could be decreased. In the end, the documentary mentions that the FBI has formed a gang center where local law enforcement agencies can share information to gain more knowledge and to better fight the presence of gangs.
The first chapter of Policing Gangs in America is entitled, “Studying the Police Response to Gangs.” The primary purpose of the chapter is to establish how police agencies; Inglewood, Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Phoenix in specific, respond to gang problems in their respective areas. This chapter served as an introduction, giving a brief history of gang-related policing, how the public and media see the gang problem, research studies done regarding gangs and the recent declaration to shift away from suppression-oriented strategies as a result of overly aggressive actions toward citizens. Examples of this misconduct are given in the forms of gang units from Las Vegas, Chicago and Houston.
The streets of Philadelphia are rapidly becoming a home to violent acts and random homicides. Innocent lives are taken every day due to the strong presence of gangs, and the streets are run by unruly groups of fearless young adults. Gang violence in Philadelphia is a major issue, and the citizens will never be safe until gang prevention occurs. Gang prevention is not a simple task, but with the right resources available, it is possible. Gang violence is a problem that will contribute to the collapse of Philadelphia, and it has yet to be solved throughout many generations. With gang violence on the rise, the best solution to gang violence is to educate the youth and parents about gangs and use family support to prevent the creation of gang members from the problem’s core.
Now, from 1988 to 1998, California was considered the “Decade of death” as over 1000 people would die in Los Angeles per year. And that’s just Los Angeles never mind the entire State of California. Now it has declined from the years of 2008 to 2012 where violence, in general, has dropped by 16 percent. But even with that drop, it seems that California has a big issue in containing gang violence. A place like Compton, California is known for its gang violence and even though they have had a 30 percent drop in gang-related crimes. And the city of Los Angeles gang-related crimes has dropped by 66 percent since 2005. But if you do the math there is still about 500 gang related crimes a year which is too many. In 2002 to help fix the situation former NYC police chief William J. Bratton added 1000 more cops to patrol the city of Los Angeles.
“We're this big melting pot, but someone turned up the heat too high, and the stew started to burn. Gangs, crime, fights, [violence] and fear are now a regular part of our local stew (Neil Shusterman).” Gang violence has been going on since the 1940s and to this day, as we speak, the numbers continue to increase through-out Los Angeles California. Gang violence has doubled their crime rates that has been happening present to this day. In order to prevent and reduce gang violence is to encourage those to attend to programs where ex gang members discuss and share their problems and emotional disorders due to gang violence. Through the course of human events it seen throughout history how gang violence has influenced the lives of adults and young adults affecting our generation today and how it is our mission to end gang violence making it safer for our communities.
It argues that, due to lack of social connectedness with personal and community institution youths find the reason to join the gang activities. Rapid population movements, rapid political, economic and social changes, racism, unstable political regimes, war between countries and so on are the main cause of lack of this connectedness (Gehring & Batista. 2018). As stressed by the theory the gang formation was not abnormal. However, a normal response by normal individual to abnormal social situations. The theory was created in the year 1927 by Thrasher. He believed that after the failure of a program that catered for their need failed, boys created a society for themselves that could meet their needs. According to Gehring and Batista, the main aim of forming gangs is to satisfy their needs that the communities, schools and families fail to
Gangs originated in the mid 1800’s in the cardinal direction using it as a method to defend themselves against outsiders.The idea of gangs became populous, powerful, and a broad influence. But like all powers, they tend to corrupt and recognizes violence as a way of getting what they want faster than other methods.They turn violence into fun, profit, and control.Creating a situation that affects youth in today’s society.
Chicago has had a long history of violence, dating back to at least the 1860’s were mobs operated significantly in the city. Today rather than mobs its gangs, the 1960’s marked a shift from political organization of gangs to narcotics. The Mob Museum suggests that today at least 70,000 gang members
Valenzuela, Beatriz E. "Gangs in the Military." Victorville Daily Press. Daily Press, 28 June 2008. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. .
Murder rates have increased in and are at an all-time high in 4 major east coast cites. In the article In High Murder Rates, 4 Cities Stand Out, Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Memphis crime rates have increased to record levels like in the 1990s. Although, there’s no one area that is causing the violence officials believe some of the contributing factors are, poverty, current tensions with public, drugs and gun laws. For me, two issues stand out the most and more than likely are the top contributing factors, drugs, and poverty and police shootings.