Catching Them Early
Richmond, California, is a predominately low-income city across the bay from San Francisco. In some of its hard-pressed neighborhoods, children are at high risk of gang involvement, drug abuse, and violence and teen pregnancy. But instead of relying only on law enforcement agencies to keep children safe, the people of Richmond have taken matters into their own hands. Community agencies and schools are working together to break the cycle of poverty and violence.
"Catching Them Early" profiles the extraordinary efforts of Richmond's Lincoln Elementary School to ensure a bright future for its children. Ninety-nine percent of the kids attending Lincoln qualify for federal meal subsidies; many have family members in a gang. So the school makes special efforts, including the hiring of outreach workers, to provide the kind of support kids need to stay in class and do well.
Teenagers in Richmond find support at Families Unites, an unusual community health organization that has made crime prevention part of its mission. Families Unites and its caseworkers like outreach worker Gonzalo Rucobo, who was himself once a gang member, help kids stay out of gangs and avoid conflicts that can lead to violence.
"Catching Them Early" observes one teenager's struggle to remove himself from gang violence without alienating his old friends. "Two of my friends," he says, "have got shot down, [and] they were not banging' anymore. I'm just trying to stay out of trouble. I don't say I'm lucky until probably ten years from now. You never know who's going to come up behind you."
"Catching Them Early" also explores how Richmond is responding to the growing tendency of teenage girls to become involved in violence and crime. Richmond targets teen mothers, providing them with training in child rearing and help in anticipating the difficulties they will encounter, and makes a special effort through programs like Head Start to make sure that young children get the support they need to become successful students.
"Richmond is inspiring," says series writer/producer Roger Grief, "because it's a community under pressure that is challenging its youth crime problem without relying solely on cops, courts, and corrections.
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 City of Richmond has a history in regards to race relations and segregation that is anything but pretty. The current state of poverty and disorganization in Richmond and other cities like it did not happen by chance. Not only was it was very specific and intentional, it had the federal government’s signature all over it. How did Richmond end up with these neighborhoods that appear to be doomed with crime, unemployment of a sense of hopelessness and helplessness? To understand the current state of poverty and crime in Richmond Virginia, we must go back in time to see where it all started.
Neglected communities with high crime and a lack of resources force young females to turn to
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...
Del Barco, m. (2008, march 10). South L.A. gang violence claims young victims. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88045529
Parents must be cooperative with their child as well into a specific resource center that dealt with indecisive mothers of raising their child(s) to help them suppress their child from joining gangs at an early age. Many parents are not aware of resource centers in their local area where they could seek an assistance and advice from someone expert (Social Worker or Psychologist) especially if their neighborhood is prone demographics of drugs, crimes, and some illegal substance. There are many kids that joined gangs because they are in a neighborhood prone to drugs and crimes where they could be influenced by it instantly by a flick of a finger. An article “What Schools Do to Help Prevent Gang – Joining” by Gary D. Gottfredson shows a statistics of students in certain cities percentage in joining gangs and not doing well at school. “Baltimore City 41%, Philadelphia 61%, and Albuquerque 49%.” Despite their value in reducing the general risk for problem behavior, school-based programs aid strategies are unlikely to reach youths who might be at greatest risk of joining gangs: those who have dropped out of school. Kids that are a drop out of schools are not getting much attention because some programs only focus or covered only those who are not yet involved in such case. It is mortifying to see that government has no action upon the situation. Gangs have a huge negative
“On average, the crime rate increases from the minimum age of criminal responsibility to reach a peak in the teenage years” (Farrington). This short story is exceptionally relevant to today’s society. Through the story, we are able to see and experience the difficulties of dealing with the emotional and physical pains of high school relationships, a pregnancy during freshman year of college, and the confusion of what to do afterwards.
Young teens are a popular commodity within the streets where gangs are dominant. Often times these gangs recruit young teens to establish a numbers game to try to out numbers rival gangs in case of a mass gang war. Other reasons the youth are targeted is to do the gangs dirty work whether it requires a young member to execute a hit, rob a rival member, or ste...
Currently there are about 600,000 people who live in the South Bronx and about 434,000 who live in Washington Heights and Harlem. This area makes up one of the most racially segregated areas of poor people in the United States. In this book we focus on racially segregated areas of poor people in the United States. In this book we focus on Mott Haven, a place where 48,0000 of the poorest people in the South Bronx live. Two thirds of the people are Hispanic, one-third is black and thirty-five percent are children. There are nearly four thousand heroin users, and one-fourth of the women who are tested are positive for HIV. All of this, and much more in one little area of the South Bronx. In the middle of all this chaos and confusion are children. Children who have daily drills on what to do if gunshots are heard, children who know someone who has died of AIDS, children who have seen someone been shot right in front of their face wondering if its their father, children who long to be sanitation workers, and children who die everyday. The lives of these children almost seem lost with depression, drugs, and death all around them.
Holder, Eric H. Jr., Robinson, Laurie O., Rose, Kristina. (2009). The Code of the Street and African-American Adolescent Violence. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/223509.pdf
This book also has the perspective of the police, which show the gang violence as a more black and white or good versus evil issue, and their militant approach to gang reformation. Jorja Leap holds a view that to stop gang violence, the same members that were once gangbanging need to divert the youth away from the same lifestyle.
“Teen Gangs and Crime”. (1996, Feb. 9). Issues & Controversies On File. Retrieved Mar. 29, 2014, from Issues & Controversies database.
Gang violence is a growing problem in this world. No parent would like to imagine their kids dealing with weapons or being threatened by them. These violence’s affects each child individually and their families as well. These gangs recruit multiple different individuals for many reasons such as bribery, family traditions, or even threatening. Although, many kids feel like they have to be a part of it but there are many resources out in this world to prevent them from believing so. Gang violence has been a problem in society for several of years and is a growing problem each and every day.
Many young people join street gangs due to weak family relationships and poor social control. Social Control Theory presumes that people will naturally commit crime if there were left to their own devices (i.e. no laws in society) and people do not commit crimes because of certain controlling forces, such as social bonds that hold individuals back partaking on their anti social behavior (Bell, 2011). Examples of controlling forces are family, school, peers, and the law. Young people who are t...
With excitements, many teens get hurry out to disobey authority or involvement in crimes. The young may be engrossed to the mob’s way of living as it stays out of the law and takes place in illegal behaviors. Others prefer to be in the mob because of the many problems they encounter at homes. With the promise of a greater life by the gangs then the excited teens get attracted to the illegal activities of the mob (Bryman, 2008).