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
Mihailoff, Laura. "Youth Gangs." Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood: In History and Society. Ed. Paula S. Fass. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 916-917. Student Resources in Context. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
In general, the news media call much attention to the rising female delinquent as an increasingly autonomous being who commits criminal acts without the help of males. The Boston Phoenix reports, “Now, many fear, more young women are adopting the rituals of gang life,” while an article in the Christian Science Monitor claims that female gang involvement is now a “documented problem.” The article in...
...t of Young Members." Journal of Criminal Justice 28.6 (200): 473-82. ScienceDirect. Elsevier. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. Geilhufe, N. L. (1979) Chicanos and the Police: A Study of the Politics of Ethnicity in San Jose, California. Washington: Society for Applied Anthropology. Print. Miller, H. V., Barnes, J. C., & Hartley, R. D. (2011). “Reconsidering Hispanic Gang Membership and Acculturation in a Multivariate Context”. Crime & Delinquency, 57(3), 331-355 Walker‐Barnes, C. J., & Mason, C. A. (2001). “Ethnic differences in the effect of parenting on gang involvement and gang delinquency: A longitudinal, hierarchical linear modeling perspective”. Child Development, 72(6), 1814-1831. Wallace, A.F.C. and Fogelson, R. (1965). “The Identity Struggle”. Intensive Family Therapy: Theoretical and Practical Aspects (I. Boszomeniji- Nagy and J. L. Framo, eds). New York: Harper and Row.
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...
These issues are of utmost importance, gang membership does not only present an issue on an individual level, but on a societal level as well. Gangs are well-known for their proclivity for violence, even to those who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Youth gang crime is no longer limited to big cities; these problems have now spread beyond those boundaries into suburbs, small cities, and even rural areas (Spergel & Grossman, 1997). These organizations put us all at risk, and are a threat to public safety. Furthermore, these groups put our youth at risk and threaten to destroy their
Juvenile criminal gangs have long been a significant issue with the criminal justice establishment. Youths coming together to commit criminal acts normally attributed to adult and more vicious criminal organizations are now being routinely committed by juveniles. The reasons for these youths in committing the activities have somewhat baffled author tries as well as scholars and researchers. It must be noted however, that juvenile delinquency is not new; laws in the past have sought to control the criminal and deviant tendencies of children, and prescribing changes from rehabilitative to retribution against criminal acts committed by juveniles. Many of the common assumptions-from being accepted and venting violent behavior- have long been considered as the more traditional reasons accepted as the reasons why youths join gangs. However, research studies have shown that youths are joining gangs for different reasons than just material gain and acceptance. The paper seeks to use the theories espoused by Agnew as well as other supporting postulates proffered by Akers and Sellers, Guillon, and Merton in analyzing the issues as well as the possible solutions in lowering the propensity for youths to join these gangs.
According to Miller’s theory, young boy’s who do not have a father figure growing up will turn to gangs to achieve a sense of masculinity within each other. Girls will turn to all-male gangs to have a sense of father figure as well. Because of the masculinity is missing out of children’s lives, the gang life tends to attract them because of the power and respect that comes along with being in a gang. (Delinquency In society, p.180-181)
From stressful environments to influences and abuse will lead a child to gang life in their youth and adult years. Some children are motivated to become part of a gang for the sense of connection or perhaps to define a sense of who they are. Others are motivated by peer pressure, feeling the need to seek protection for themselves and/or their family, because a family member is also a gang member, or to make money. There are many other risk factors that may contribute to youth’s involvement in gangs: growing up in an area of heavy gang activity, gang involvement within the family, history of violence in the home, to little adult supervision, unstructured free time, and lack of positive role models. A life of gangs means death or the possibility of a prison sentence.
There are several factors that play into youths joining gangs. These factors are a big deal and can easily be fixed to lower the youth gang rate. For my research paper I will be writing about youth gangs and how factors in a childs life pertains to why they join gangs. I will research why youths get involved with gangs and how it affects the communities. I will explain what types of gangs are out there and what kids get involved in what gang. I will also explain what a gang is and how to know if someone is gang affiliated. I will also research in ways we can come together to put a stop to youth gangs. I will compare the lifestyles of these children who end up in gangs compared to the children who don’t end up being in gangs as youths. I will
“Teen Gangs”. (2009, Apr. 9). Issues & Controversies On File. Retrieved Mar. 29, 2014, from Issues & Controversies database.
Female youths join street gangs on the basis of gender conflict, lack of family support and
The importance female gangs is that often times females joins gangs because of poor home life, a search for an identity, and a search for social interaction and belonging. Women who are in a gang early-life experiences presented a depressing picture of abuse, parental crime, and fatherless homes (Fleisher, 1995, 1998; Miller, 2001). When females joined a gang, they joined a network of friends. Depending on the intersecting gang networks and the age, propensity to violence, crime involvement, young girl on the street would experience different steps of male influence
In the world, approximately 32,000 teenage girls and 360,00 boys are apart of gangs. Whereas 48,000 adult women and 560,000 men are apart of some gang. These statistics prove that the media is incorrect about constantly exploiting these teenage boys and girls as these horrible gang members whereas adult men and women are more involved in gangs and gang related activities.
The criminal justice/social justice issue that I plan on studying is “Youth Gang Activity and Violence”. The reasons why I wanted to study this topic was because there has been issues on the youth generation today. The resent story was a group of gang affiliated went around cutting people and then a few days late the girl gang affiliated started cutting only girls for appreciation. Also knock out, where a group of three to four teens go around neighborhoods and punch people in a way that they fall and take their belonging.