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What are the solutions to juvenile delinquency
Childrens development in influenced by external factors
Child abuse during adulthood
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Some truths are universal. A child comes into this world with needs. Infants need to be physically close to their mother and be able to receive and give affection to form an ever-lasting emotional bond. Children need to feel that they are safe, that they will never be abandoned, and that they are loved and valued. This deeply special relationship between a mother and child steers the person's relationships for rest of his or her life. If this relationship is close and secure, then the child learns to trust and love. If this relationship is emotionally distant and inconsistent, and especially if there is abuse, then the child learns not to trust or care and believes that he or she is all alone and the world becomes a very large and scary place. The importance of this profound connection between mother and child cannot be over-stated enough. Since God created us for bonding, it's part of our very essence. If we cannot bond to loving relationships, we will bond to something else that is not so loving. This is the root of the gang problem.
Gangs are successful at recruiting our youth because they offer the promise of fulfilling all these needs that are not being met.They take the form of providing a “family” for a child who feels neglected or unloved at home. Since the beginning of humanity, criminal organizations that engage in secretive and criminal behavior have been around to be a menace to society. Gangs are not a new problem in America, nor are the problems associated with them. However, they have never been as pernicious or as ubiquitous as they are today.
Let’s take a brief look backwards because you can see the future in the past. The beginning of America's gang started during the first waves of Euro...
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...n. What will emerge are children, born to parents that wanted them, that planned for them. Children whose needs are met, whose parents provide for them, whose parents cherish them. This all may sound too ideal for some, but every problem has at least one viable solution.
We can do this.
Because these children are
“Too big to fail”.
SOURCES
1. Hirschi, Travis. Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972
2. Fremon, Celeste. Father Greg & The Home Boys. New York: Putnam, 1995.
3. Siegel, L. J., & Welsh, B.C.. Juvenile Delinquency. Belmont, CA: Thomas Wadsworth, 2005
4. Simpson, Colton. Inside The Crips. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005
5. Insecure Attachment and Attachment Disorders. Helpguide.org. 8 Nov. 2008.
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/parenting_bonding_reactive_attachment_disorder.htm
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.
Gang involvement has been quite higher than past years. The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey estimates that about 32.4 percent of all cities, suburban areas, towns, and rural counties had a gang problem (Egley et al., 2010). This represented a 15 percent increase from the year 2002. The total number of gangs has also increased by 28 percent and total gang members have increased by 6 percent (Egley et al., 2010). This shows how relevant gang related activity is in today’s society. More locations are beginning to experience gang activity for the first time. Gang crime has also been on the rise in the past...
Street Gangs are becoming popular in many cities across the country. According to the Department of Justice's 2005 National Gang Threat Assessment, there are at least 21,500 gangs and more than 731,000 active gang members (Grabianowski). Gangs bring fear and violence to neighborhoods, drugs, destroy property, involve youth in crimes and drive out businesses. When you have gangs in a community, it affects everyone in the community. An alarming amount of young adults are joining gangs and becoming involved in illegal activity. Most gangs have a rule that when you join the gang you are a member of the gang for life. Gangs can be removed from our communities with more community involvement and education.
According to Miller’s theory, young boy’s who do not have a father figure growing up will turn to gangs to achieve a sense of masculinity within each other. Girls will turn to all-male gangs to have a sense of father figure as well. Because of the masculinity is missing out of children’s lives, the gang life tends to attract them because of the power and respect that comes along with being in a gang. (Delinquency In society, p.180-181)
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.
Gangs have been a point of concern for states and societies around the world for centuries. Youth gangs are not exempt from that same categorization and have operated for the same amount of time worldwide. Over the last century however, a proliferation of youth gangs has been witnessed, especially among Hispanic youths immigrating into the United States. Researchers and scholars have offered multiple theories as to why youths, and Hispanics youths in particular integrate themselves into gang organizations. Three schools of thought arise when conducting gang integration research. Rational Economics Theory1 proposes that youths, and all individuals, join gangs for financial and material benefit. Cultural Deviance Theory considers youth gang members as exposed to a lower class subculture that rationalizes and even promotes crime, delinquency and gang membership, contrasting to the “normal” set of prescribed values and culture in more civilized society. Acculturation Theory argues that youths join gangs as a means to be acculturated by ethnically or compositionally similar peers, whether as a response to ethnic marginalization by members of the host country or inability to acculturate to their new home.
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...
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.
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.
Due to this, they may be forced to run away from a depressing home life, at times they may be searching for a that one individual who can be like a father (Hess & Wrobleski, 2006). Gangs frequently create promises to provide absolute support as well be the family unit they lacked. These always promises draw a lot of desperate youth to the gang and for the young people with relatives they see no need of being in a gang.
According to Erik Erickson, in the first year of a child’s life, the main challenge is to establish trust. After birth, an infant must depend completely on others to fulfill their needs. To create a safe environment for the baby, a caregiver must provide things like food, love, and safety. Overall, if the child’s needs are met, the child should develop a positive and trusting attitude toward the world. This security will allow them to build trust with others in the future. For infants that are mistreated or neglected, the world would seem like a scary place. Sadly, they create a barrier and learn to mistrust others. Also, if the child’s needs are not completely fulfilled, the child may develop an insecure attitude (Romero).
‘Gangs are not new to American culture’ (Cyr 2003: 31) and research into gangs has been taking place since before the last century (Decker and Van Winkle 1996). Gangs emerged throughout the 19th century in the transitional neighbourhoods of large cities in the U.S such as Chicago, as well as those in the industrial Midwest and the Northeast (Huff 1996; Sante 1991). Thrasher (1927) carried out a landmark study of 1,313 Chicago gangs, making him one of the pioneering academics on gang research, and following him were other academics such as Cohen (1955), Yablonsky (1959, 1990, 1997), Klein (1971, 1995), Decker and Van Winkle (1996) and Phelan and Hunt (1998). Gangs have typically been researched through empirical studies and investigative literature reports, and throughout the 1980s and 1990s important research into gangs occurred in the United States and elsewhere (Hughes and Short 2009). However, ‘recent scholarly attention has become stagnant, lacking f...
There are various reasons behind young people joining street gangs. 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.