The Little Village Gang Reduction Program: The Implementation Of Youth Gangs And Gang Violence

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1. INTRODUCTION

Youth gangs and gang violence have been always been a problem in society, particularly in large urban cities. These problems have increased and spread in the recent decades. Youth gangs have grown not only in number but also in types of criminal activities ranging from petty thefts to mass murder. This problem of youth gang violence results from lack of family support, school socialization, lack of job-opportunities, and more. The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Program (LVGVRP) was implemented to reduce gang violence and has had successful results in doing so.
The LVGVRP is based on the idea that gang problems are defined not only by delinquents or criminal behaviors of gangs but also what the community does or does not do to prevent and take control of these problems. There are many aspects of the communities that need to work together in order to take control in preventing youth gang violence. These include family, police, schools, youth agencies, probation officers, churches or neighborhood organizations, as well as social, cultural, and economic factors.
The LVGVRP uses suppression, job opportunities, educational opportunities, social intervention, and more as ways to target youths and give them opportunities to not succumb to gang life. This program forms a structural relationship between all the community groups listed above for the purpose of integrated suppression and intervention as a team. This program focuses on youths who need to be constrained as well as supported in order to be able to function in mainstream society.
Through my research, I will be conducting an outcome evaluation in order to see changes in gang-related activity and a change in violence in youth participants. This program w...

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...anonymous.
4. CONCLUSION
The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Program is in place to target and potentially control violent youth gang offenders in the form of increased supervision by the police or probation department along with help from different members of the community. This program provides a wide range of services for targeted youth to encourage transition into legitimate behavior such as a good education, jobs, family support, counseling, recreational opportunities, and more. Through an outcome evaluation, this program will be able to see the change in gang activity through a three-year period by conducting surveys to the community and the participants and also through data collected by the police department of criminal histories of the participants. The LVGVRP hopes to deter youths from joining in gangs and to become productive members of society.

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