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Impact of media information on the society on social aspect
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A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence, by Patricia Hersch a. Respond to the scenario that prompted Hersch’s statement that “This kind of tolerance amounts to a new ethic of situational excuses, a hazy sense of right and wrong.” What are the cultural factors at play in this scenario? This book, having been written in 1998, offers an interesting perspective on how much things have changed since that time. Having had the opportunity to work with clients incarcerated in the Department of Community Justice’s Secure Treatment Facility, I have had the benefit of seeing the differences – from then to now – apparent in culturally centered criminal thinking and behavior. Although criminal thinking and behaviors witnessed in the prior decade were truly disturbing, adolescent behavior today is far more heinous and widespread than most people realize. Many would say that little had been accomplished to mitigate the rampant racism and inequality pervasive at the time when gang activity grew in the 1980’s, and today, people might say that not much more than lip service has been provided to solve this abhorrent social problem from then to this day. Having had limited instruction in this complicated issue, I’m unable to use more than supposition to describe how I view gang related behavior. I focus on gang activity because the social isolation suffered by many children has left few options for family oriented connections. I feel that the economic disparity that has grown increasingly worse over these many years plays a major role in the rise in gangs and gang-like activity. The resulting increase in poverty has produced a rise in anger and frustration that is exhibited by more than one race, cultural, or e... ... middle of paper ... ...nts from a position of power rather than as an interpreter and mentor of moral reasoning. Fortunately, in the case of Mr. Vance he was able to understand that many adolescents have an innate ability to see through the hogwash that adults often present as wisdom. Additionally, he understood that it’s far better to meet children half way in any important conversations relating to their lives. In counseling parlance, this is called Motivational Interviewing and Vance used the technique of “rolling with resistance” to engage his audience. This very effectively diffuses the adversarial relationship between the adult and the youth, thus fostering an atmosphere of mutual respect. This interaction may have shown a number of these rather cynical youth that there are ways to interact with the adult world without conflict being an expected outcome (Hersch, pp. 93–95).
Morch, S., & Andersen, H. (2012). Becoming a Gang Member: Youth Life and Gang Youth. Online Submission
In response to a growing gang problem in specific communities, the OJJDP has refined the Comprehensive Gang Model to better fit the issues related to today’s gangs. The GRP incorporates several new aspects into the pre-existing Comprehensive Gang Model. The revamped program was tested in four communities: East Los Angeles, CA; Milwaukee, W...
Gang involvement has been quite higher than past years. The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey estimates that about 32.4 percent of all cities, suburban areas, towns, and rural counties had a gang problem (Egley et al., 2010). This represented a 15 percent increase from the year 2002. The total number of gangs has also increased by 28 percent and total gang members have increased by 6 percent (Egley et al., 2010). This shows how relevant gang related activity is in today’s society. More locations are beginning to experience gang activity for the first time. Gang crime has also been on the rise in the past...
Tobin, Kimberly. Gangs: An Individual and Group Perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
First issue that I would like to address is a Gang-related issue. Gang has been an ongoing problem in the U.S since the early 1920’s. The characteristics of the modern gang today are nothing like the pasts and it is very important for our criminal justice system to know the differences and characteristics of the gangs. According to (Bartollas & Miller, 2011), Jeffrey Fagan has identified four major types and characteristics of modern gangs; “Type 1 gangs were involved in a few delinquent activities and only alcohol and marijuana use. These gangs had low involvement in drug sales and appeared to be social gangs. Type 2 gangs were heavily involved in several kinds of drug sales, primarily to support their own drug habits. They were also heavily involved in vandalism. Type 3 gangs had the highest levels of member participation, including extensive involvement in both serious and non-serious offenses. Another feature of this type was less involvement in both dr...
Gangs have been a point of concern for states and societies around the world for centuries. Youth gangs are not exempt from that same categorization and have operated for the same amount of time worldwide. Over the last century however, a proliferation of youth gangs has been witnessed, especially among Hispanic youths immigrating into the United States. Researchers and scholars have offered multiple theories as to why youths, and Hispanics youths in particular integrate themselves into gang organizations. Three schools of thought arise when conducting gang integration research. Rational Economics Theory1 proposes that youths, and all individuals, join gangs for financial and material benefit. Cultural Deviance Theory considers youth gang members as exposed to a lower class subculture that rationalizes and even promotes crime, delinquency and gang membership, contrasting to the “normal” set of prescribed values and culture in more civilized society. Acculturation Theory argues that youths join gangs as a means to be acculturated by ethnically or compositionally similar peers, whether as a response to ethnic marginalization by members of the host country or inability to acculturate to their new home.
This book review covers Policing Gangs in America by Charles Katz and Vincent Webb. Charles Katz has a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, while Vincent Webb has a Ph.D. in Sociology, making both qualified to conduct and discuss research on gangs. Research for Policing Gangs in America was gathered in four cities across the American Southwest; Inglewood, California, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona. This review will summarize and discuss the main points of each chapter, then cover the relationship between the literature and class discussions in Introduction to Policing and finally it will note the strengths and weaknesses of book.
The presence of gang violence has been a long lasting problem in Philadelphia. Since the American Revolution, gangs have been overpopulating the streets of Philadelphia (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). Most gangs in history have been of lower class members of society, and they often are immigrants into the U.S (Teen Gangs, 1996). Gangs provided lower class teens to have an opportunity to bond with other lower class teens. However over time, the original motive of being in a gang has changed. In the past, gangs used to provide an escape for teens to express themselves, let out aggression, and to socialize with their peers. It was also an opportunity for teens to control their territory and fit in (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). In the past, authorities would only focus on symptoms of gang violence and not the root. They would focus on arresting crime members instead of preventing gang violence. Gangs are beginning to expand from inner-city blo...
“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.
Gangs are a big part of today’s society. They contribute to a large part of delinquent behavior present in our youth today. Chapter 8- Peer and Delinquency: Juvenile Gang and Groups provides an overview of gangs in general. Providing details as to why they formed their different activities, language and codes. First we must highlight that adolescents are the main focus in gangs. As children grow and go through adolescence they seek peer acceptance. They form cliques. Their group of friends play an important role is social development. The choice to join a gang can be contributed to acceptance and a sense of protection (Siegel).
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
These pressures of being unable to obtain the economic means necessary to achieve a minimal standard of living have been show to lead to deviant behavior, particularly youth delinquency (Curry and Spergel, 1988). It can therefore be deduced that youth individuals are more likely to take part in these behaviors if they reside in these neighborhoods where gangs are already known to exist, as well as neighborhoods that are high in juvenile delinquency (Spergel, 1995).
Belliar, Paul E., and Thomas L. McNulty. 2009. “Gang Membership, Drug Selling, and Violence in Neighborhood Context.” JQ: Justice Quarterly 26 (4): 644-69. Web. 15 March 2014.
The paragraph suggests that although ethics is not a matter of dogmatism, it is a matter of personal preference or choice, something one cannot-or should not-ar...
Hallswort, S. And Young, T. (2004) Getting Real About Gang. Criminal Justice Matters [online]. 55. (1), pp 12-13 [Accessed 10 December 2013]