Gang Ecology Essay

The most violent areas exist on the borders surrounding Los Angeles regarding rivaling gangs as opposed to regions that are strongly dominated by a single gang is mainly because of how someone was raised and wanting control of an area that surround them. Someone raised in this atmosphere is more likely to be in a gang or has the behavior of getting what they want. So what makes individuals lean towards this lifestyle and why would this be more controlled on the border versus the central area? One of the theories I feel plays an intrinsic role is the principles of ecology. Since the early 1900s, sociologists studied the human behavior and how it relates to the city growth. Robert E. Park a known sociologist claims that cities grow naturally and found a concern with dependency that individuals hold towards one another. In most cases this

In addition, Park gives a perfect example of a how a buffalo becomes a concern because of one major decision of leaving things as is from a movie shoot. So in reality the buffalo is left to invade his surroundings and eventually takes over. This theory could also relate to how gangs see things from a territory atmosphere. So if there is more than one gang in such area than one of the rivalries would ultimately fight to keep control of the territory which causes violence. This now leads us to another theory by sociologist, Ernest W. Burgess who believed that cities grow from within to the outer zones rather than from the outside edges. Fundamentally the method is broken down into zones, in which the inner zone or city is the central area. The zones are known as radical growth, and each layer plays an essential role in the growth of a town. As the zones deepen so does the stress of what is expected of the next zone to continue the growth. Thus the border is considered one of the outer zones so hence already pressured by what is expected and then you have people making their own rules since they not