Thesis: Children may join gang(s) due to poor parenting – self centered parents and their failure to implement love, importance affection, and how to be compassionate.
Parents that show negative role modeling towards their child may cause them to gang(s), because they can adopt the attitude that their parents showed them – can implicate dad or wrong doings instead of good deeds. Kid’s brains are not fully developed, yet most of them rely on their instincts and their parents’ guidance and actions via observation and mimicking their motion. The kid’s behavior will vary on the attitude of parents the way it was shown to them as they grow up. If the parent(s) showed them positive and good attitude, it is the kid’s instinct to repeat it because
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2). This quote indicates that, if parents are being positive role models to their kids, they are then not likely to join gangs. Parents should teach their kids to be more compassionate towards others – especially showing love, importance, and affection. Parents must show love and affection so that their kids would feel that someone is giving them an importance in the society. In other words, he or she would feel adored. However, if parents tend to be a bad example towards their kids, they will tend to mimic their actions due to the habit of “Social Learning” – social learning starts at a very early age when kids see members of a group perform a task, their brains would literally motions itself to follow their footsteps. Yablonsky also said that, with the support of both parents (mom and dad) kids tend to be more compassionate with others; if they don’t support their kids, there would be a huge impact through its’ mental or emotional state as they would grow up. In addition to Yablonsky’s statement, a doctor of sociology George Herbert Mead (G.H. Mead) claims that “parents should interact with child
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
Gangs have been in existence since the beginning of the Roman Empire. There were speeches made by Roman orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero, which references groups of men who constantly fought and disrupted Roman politics (Curry, 2013). The history of street gangs in the United States begins with their emergence on the East Coast around 1783, as the American Revolution ended. Though many believe the best available evidence suggests that the more serious street gangs likely did not emerge until the early part of the nineteenth century (Sante, 1991). Although our country has had their share of feared gangs like in the 1980’s with the turf war between the Bloods and Crips, back in the 17th and 18th century the Mohocks of Georgian, England were one of the most feared gangs. What draws juveniles to the gang lifestyle? Many people will say that most gang members are children from impoverished communities, single family homes where there was no father present, or maybe there is a more psychological/sociological answer? By appearance and presence most gangs cause fear, crime, and disillusionment in the communities they occupy. Throughout history joining a gang has been perceived as a life without any reward, yet by joining this lifestyle many juveniles are able to gain the needed stability and security in their lives.
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.
Even though gang violence is not a new phenomenon there has been a noticeable lack of Canadian based research done on this topic (Gordon, 2000; Varma-Joshi, Baker, and Tanaka, 2004). Although there is limited knowledge about gang violence, research shows that males are more likely to engage in gang activities (Gordon, 2000; Jemmott, B., Jemmott, S., Hines, and Fong, 2001). There are several factors that contribute to why many youths become involved in gangs. One of the main reasons why visible minority youth become submerged in gangs is because they are searching for a sense of identity and belonging (Gordon, 2000; Meloff and Silverman, 1992; Nodwell and Guppy, 1992; Fantino and Colak, 2001). Gordon (2000) finds that, “they want to belong to a friendly, supportive group that include their friends or close relatives and this includes a desire to be with individuals from the same cultural and ethnic group; gang members felt ethnically marginalized” (pg. 51). The reason why minorities are attracted to gangs is because they create a family setting which embraces their differences as opposed to being judged on their differences by mainstream society.
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.
Shute, J. (2013). Family Support as a Gang Reduction Measure. Children & Society, 27(1), 48-59. doi:10.1111/j.1099-0860.2011.00368.x
Female youths join street gangs on the basis of gender conflict, lack of family support and
A gang is a group of people who interact among themselves. Teen violence is contributed to these gangs. Most gangs claim neighborhoods as their territory and try to control everything inside that territory. This kind of antisocial behavior is a major problem in American Society.
With an average of one murder per hour, El Salvador, a relatively small country of about six million people, is on its way of becoming the country with highest homicide rate in the world. The violence that has become a Salvadoran social norm derives from many different factors, with the main factor being the high rate of gangs. With over 60,000 gang members actively involved in gangs, the nation has been taken under a sort of violence and mass death only caused by wars (Vice News, ‘Gangs of El Salvador’). Yet, I argue that this war does not continue on because of the high position gangs hold in Salvadoran society today, but is found in its impoverished youth. It is in the impoverished youth that violence is found, not because they partake in
Wood, Michelle, et. al. “Understanding Psychological Characteristics of Gang-Involved Youths in a System of Care: Individual, Family, and System Correlates.” Education and Treatment of Children 20 (August 1997): 281-294.
Gangs originated in the mid 1800’s in the cardinal direction using it as a method to defend themselves against outsiders.The idea of gangs became populous, powerful, and a broad influence. But like all powers, they tend to corrupt and recognizes violence as a way of getting what they want faster than other methods.They turn violence into fun, profit, and control.Creating a situation that affects youth in today’s society.
While the young people with a good family unit often feel protected, hence they desire not to link with gangs. Young people could be easily forced by the others to be members of the mob. Children and adolescents mostly face constant pressure to fit a peer group. The youth may lack the holdup they require to keep away from the power to join the rabble.
Stopping gang violence begins as early as child development in reducing children in becoming affiliated with gang problems. Gang involvement among youths continues to be a prevalent problem for parents, schools, and society. Even though there are endless possibilities on how society can reduce gang violence. I believe that effective parenting in early child development plays a huge role for children in preventing them from becoming affiliated with gang activity. In seeking then to understand the motivation for youths joining gangs, it is essential to look at good family function, which promotes healthy development, and how parents can get help if they feel if their child may be involved with a gang. Preventing youths from joining gangs in the first place is crucial in realizing on how to reduce youth gag activity.
One of the reasons young people join street gangs is because of neighborhood disadvantages. A theory that can contribute to why young people might join street gangs is Social Disorganization Theory. Social Disorganization theory assumes that “delinquency emerges in neighborhoods where neighborhood relation and social institutions have broken down and can no longer maintain effective social controls (Bell, 2007).” Social Disorganization contributes to residential instability and poverty, which affects interpersonal relationships within the community and opens opportunities for crimes to be committed. The break down of neighborhood relation and social institutions create a higher likely hood that young people will affiliate with deviant peers and get involved in gangs. When there is lack of social controls within a neighborhood the opportunity to commit deviance increases and the exposure to deviant groups such as street gangs increase. Which causes an increase in the chances of young people joining street gangs. If social controls are strong remain strong within a neighborhood and/or community the chances of young people committing crime and joining gangs decreases.