Gang membership has continued to increase over the past few years (Fbi.gov). With the stunting of the economic growth of this country alternative means of making money are now being explored by the depraved impoverished youths of America. With one point four million gang members in this country it would seem as if not enough was being done to counteract the influx of now gang associated youth (Fbi.gov). Almost all large cities are reporting that they have an active gang problem. It shouldn’t be a surprise with how little development is being put in to clean up the slums. That’s the culture within these places. With no way a rebellion takes place. It’s not true in all cases but it truly does begin within the home. How much supervision is there, are the kids even accounted for or are they simply able to run free? A child’s development begins at home and without it they will do whatever they need to in order to survive. It is well known that a child’s development relies heavily on the environment that parents either provide or do not provide. Trauma is the biggest factor when it comes to the exact answer as to why juveniles make the choice to join a gang. Social theory does its best to come a conclusion to understand the psychology behind this. The propensity theory describes the chicken or the egg argument as that youths who are already delinquent are going to associate with others like themselves (Craig et al. 54). Whether they get recruited or seek it out the end result is the same. They lifestyle that would be carried out in gang life existed long before becoming institutionalized into the scene. The counter argument to that would that due to the impressionability of developing adolescents the deviancy can be traced back to bein... ... middle of paper ... ...ight absence. While a parent being gone causes prolonged trauma it can be made up by a responsible single parent with some knowledge of proper child care and a willingness to supervise. Two un attentive, anti-social, neglectful parents can cause an abundance of problems that far exceed simply being without a parent. Different children also respond to trauma differently. Girls from abusive homes may turn to education as a way out from an abusive past. There are intelligent adolescents that will steer away from the violence of the street based on some internal moral rhetoric. Age also plays a huge role in trauma. If a parent leaves at age 6 or at age 16 can have a giant variance as to the damage it causes psychologically. Once again the environment of the individual seems to far more important than a lot of the other circumstances. A vital point in this argument.
Hanser and Gomila (2015) states, “For many younger juveniles, adult gang members serve as role models whose behavior is to be emulated as soon as possible to become full-pledge gang-bangers because of the prestige, respect, and sense of belonging that the gang-banger role provides them” (341). Other reasons why female juveniles join gangs was due to lack of family support and various types of violence in their lives. Hanser and Gomila (2015) noted “The involvement of juvenile females in sexual activities, substance abuse, and violence was clearly related to membership in gangs” (p. 348). Sexual abuse was among the primary reasons why female juveniles join gangs. Female juveniles living in urban ghettos are more likely to be sexually abused, and they join gangs as a way of coping and to escape the realities of poverty. Female juveniles will experience more hardships as compared to make juveniles, before they are fully received as full pledge gang members. As previously stated, sexual abuse was among the primary reasons why female juveniles join gangs; however, sexual abuse does not end there because it continues to occur throughout their gang life (Hanser & Gomila,
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
Kershaun, Kody’s younger brother, joined while Kody was serving time in prison. Although he was not the one to initiate Kershaun, it could be suggested that Kody provided an image for his brother that appealed to him. Many juveniles join gangs because they see the rewards their older siblings are receiving, because they too are in gangs (Lilly et al., 2015). Other juveniles join because their friends have joined, to fit in, or because they need some type of security and stability. A gang provides both of those things, but only for members of their set. A gang is similar to a family, the original gangsters (OG’s) such as Kody could show new members the ways of the streets. There are traditions, rules, and expectancy for each gang. Those in their set should always have one another’s back. If a Blood shot and killed one of the Eight Tray Gangsters, several members of the Eight Tray Gangsters would find that Blood, or someone important to that Blood, and get retribution for their deceased member. This creates a distorted sense of security and stability. However, it also creates a new generation of delinquents. From the gang perspective, if their new recruits were correctly taught the criminal values of the gang, they will be able to defend the streets while other members of the gang are incarcerated. The youth living in this environment, or zone in transition were much more susceptible to join gangs and engage in criminal behavior. Criminal acts and deviance is considered a social norm in this area. Kody’s mother was dumbfounded by how her children got tied up in gangs. She questioned Kody once by saying, “I wonder if that’s how I lost you and Shaun to the streets. You guys have turned from my darling little ones into savage little animals and I just don’t know what to do no more, I really don’t (Shakur, 1993, p 332).” However, Kody knew it was not her fault or their absent
Morch, S., & Andersen, H. (2012). Becoming a Gang Member: Youth Life and Gang Youth. Online Submission
The root of gang violence all begins at home and then spreads. A troubled teen may be lacking the love and attention from their parent whether it is because they work too much, or simply do not care. Then, the teen will result attending school and will begin to find that comfort in places that they can feel stability. According to Ramsey, Rust, and Sobel “girls tend to become involved in gangs for prosocial reasons […] [such as] robbery, […] shoplifting, and prostitution [while] male gang members tend to be involved in activities such as drug dealing and fighting.” Most people involved in gang activities can feed off a person’s vulnerability and use that to convince a person that it is ok to commit crimes. Finally, that teen will remain in that life style and probably involve others or can get out, but surely be affected by the past for the rest of their lives.
Did you know that there are approximately 27,900 gangs across the United States? Many people have dropped out of school for the fact that they have joined a gang. Think about it there is about 774,000 people in all these different gangs imagine how many of those kids and teens have dropped out of school. Many people that have been in gangs and are now trying to put their lives back on track, haven’t been even been able to get a job because of their bad background. This affects many people especially the ones trying to clean up their act. They try to go back to school to try and succeed in life. Kids or teens usually start joining gangs at the age of 11 or 10 because of the neighborhood they live in.
Gangs have been around forever and there are two types of gangs which are, street gangs and prison gangs. They have the same structures that are divided as leadership and soldiers. The main difference between a street gang and prison gang is that a prison gangs are more disciplined than a street gang. Incarcerated members cannot escape their environment and therefore, are forced to comply with the facilities and gangs regulation. Gangs are always involved with criminal activity and it's difficult to control negative behavior and to lower recidivism rates for gang members.
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.
As a kid I could remember walking to school every day. While on the way to school there was always a group of kids sanding outside of the school walking away. These kids dressed differently and they all whore the same type of clothes. It wasn’t until years later that I was told to stay away from them because they were gangsters. They were gangsters that caused problems to the community. These gangsters would go up to kids and try and jump them into their gang. For them the more members they had the more “territory they had.” One problem that major cities around the world have is gangs. Most of these gangs are made up of many juvenile delinquents looking for trouble. These gangs tend to hang out in certain places and claim it as their territory. Many of the gang members are drawn together by similar interests, and are brought up in similar neighborhoods.
A problem many communities are faced with is delinquency and gangs. Delinquency and gangs begin to pull in the similarities and focus more on the meaning connected to youth violence from the past to the present. Based on this context, individuals have an understanding the different ways delinquent juveniles are affected by certain policies. Delinquent youth come in many different age groups, sex, ethic group, and race, while society may look at delinquency as starting out as soon as children enter grade school delinquency starts when a child can fully comprehend there wrong doing.
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...
Gang members are being recruited at all ages and most join for different reasons. Many youth are drawn to gangs not by the need for protection, but by the supposed glamour of a lifestyle that is celebrated in many areas of modern culture (Burell). Children are influenced by what they see on TV and in movies, and many movies portray gang life as a very fast paced and interesting life drawing kids in to experience this life for themselves. Movies such as Boyz N’da Hood, Juice, Scarface, and Menace II Society portray the good, the bad, and the ugly of gang life, but they do not show it as just bad. They Hollywood gang life up and make children think that gangs are easy and fun with a lot of shooting, instead of dangerous and unhealthy. This could account for why “more than a quarter of public middle and high schools have both gangs and drugs present on their campuses” and why “4% of teens report gangs at public schools, compared with just 29% of teens at private and religious schools”(Geiger). This is why gangs need to be stopped at the source. If stricter laws are placed on the gang leaders, keeping them in jail, then they cannot recruit our youth, which would decrease the spread of gangs. Let the leaders serve as an example to the other members and show what happens when you commit gang crimes. Until members see the seriousness of their offences and the consequences they are not going to change. Also there need to be stricter punishments for children found involved in gang activity. The cause for gang involvement needs to be found within our youth and when gang crimes are committed they need to be punished to the full extent. Youth leaders need to be found and punished as well once you weed out the leaders the others will fall. Most youth commit gang crimes due to the lack
Across the United States and Europe, suburban gangs are growing as never before, estimations that in a typical inner city American community of 50,000 or more, there are 200 to 500 gang members. Some even larger organization called super gangs, which have more than 1,000 members spread over several states, have been known to operate in small town America. You cant say that any community is insulated from this activity," There's no restriction on where gang members can live. Gang members living in the suburbs share traits with recruits in the cities, and many of those factors have been exacerbated by tough economic times, The list of factors include divorce, separation, physical abuse, sexual abuse and having a parent with
With the promise of a greater life by the gangs, the excited teens get attracted to the illegal activities of the mob (Bryman, 2008). Some of the teens are addicts of substances and they tend to believe that being in a gang will give them the freedom to continue using it. At home, the challenge can be bad since parents may not even have an idea of an addiction or ways of coping. Therefore, most teens are forced to join a mob because they have the desired freedom and access to the drugs. Some of the teens are pressured into joining a mob if their association will add to the mob’s criminal actions.
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...