adolescent gang involvement

Gangs bring violence and criminal activity throughout our nation, which make it a major issue of concern. There were an estimated 29,900 active gangs in 2011 across 3300 jurisdictions (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2013). Commonly, gangs are defined as a group of three or more persons who participate in criminal activity and distinguish themselves with a well-established distinguished name, sign, and/or color. Some examples of the criminal activity include but are not limited to: dealing drugs, graffiti, assault, and robberies. In the present paper, the role community structural interventions play in assisting low-income families with adolescent gang involvement is investigated. It is hypothesized that adolescent of low income families are likely to join a gang in order to gain a sense of belonging due to the decline of parental monitoring, lack of family communication and involvement and possible family violence. I chose to review crime prevention with adolescent gang involvement because most of the crimes that I am hearing about or seeing in the surrounding communities and around the United States are being committed by the juveniles. I have worked in Corrections as a Behavior Modification Officer and most of the juveniles that I spoke with committed crimes to prove that they are “hard”, become a member of a gang, or for financial gain. The majority stated that they did not have a strong parent in the household who cared enough to redirect them back to the right path when they were heading the wrong way or hanging with the wrong people. I have always believed that until the main root of the problem is dissected and replanted, our issues with adolescents committing crimes and their gang involvement will continue.

In this research article by McNeil, Herschberger, and Nedela (2013), there are four specific questions I will be