Mara Salvatrucha Research Paper

The first article I analyzed to explore the Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13 is entitled “Mara Salvatrucha: The Most Dangerous Street Gang in the Americas?” The title is posed as a question that the researcher attempted to answer throughout the entirety of the writing. Primary and secondary sources from firsthand interviews and questionnaires administered to gang members in adult and juvenile detention centers (6) to official and survey data to construct a more accurate image of the gang than what has been seen in the past (4) were analyzed to form solid conclusions. The researchers used empirical proof that was drawn from both the United States and Central American countries where the presence of the gang is most heavily felt (4). The problems the researchers ran into while researching by means of these methods were that it was difficult to access a sizable cohort of gang members to administer in depth studies to (5) and that the sample size or technique could undercut the representativeness of

The gang Mara Salvatrucha was formed in the 1980’s by immigrant Salvadoran youth (4). Since the early 1800’s, street gangs have been prevalent in the United States. Gangs originated fairly exclusively in low-income neighborhoods which were home to ethnic minorities (mostly Asian and Hispanic) where people were barred from both educational opportunities and gainful employment. Gangs only continued to gain traction when those same ethnic minorities had increasingly difficult times assimilating into the culture and ways of life of the United States. Currently, the growing concern of most people is that the group has, over time, become more sophisticated and cohesive. A more sophisticated and cohesive gang would mean that there would be more involvement in “drug trafficking, rape, murder, extortion, auto theft, human smuggling, and robbery while also having ties to international