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Gangs Across America The definition of a gang is a group of people using a unique name and identifiable marks or symbols who claim a territory or turf as their own (Edgar 94). Gangs have been a part of American culture since the beginning of our nation. Starting with secret societies like the Free Masons and evolving into violent street gangs such as: the Crips or Bloods. The evolution of gangs has been fast and is rising quickly. People feared the gangs of the nineteenth century, but the gangs today pose a greater threat (Edgar 91). These types of gangs have menaced the streets of America for too long. Gang activity has been increasing more over the past few years. We have to make a strong attempt to minimize or even stop gang activity across the country by having curfews, having more kids in extra curricular activities, and having ex-gang member's talk to youths. Gangs today have destroyed our cities with crimes varying from ones as minor as graffiti all the way up to murder. They are now complex criminal organizations which deal in weapons trafficking, gambling, robbery etc (Feinstein 1). One problem leading to gang activity is there is no parental involvement in ones life. Many people who join a gang live in single-parent households, have little contact with their fathers, and seek a sense of belonging (Kelly 2). Marcus Alexander said, "I was feeling lonely and if you're by yourself you feel vulnerable. They were like family, so they had my back." When Alexander became a member of the Crips gang; he was not getting along with his mother and was not speaking with his father (Kelly 3). Only if parents would step up and take care of their children and care for them maybe this stuff wouldn't happen. Youths join gangs for different reasons around the world. They join gangs because they have a need for power, their friends are in a gang, they feel neglected, and others protect them in the gang. Physical abuse by parents may edge their kid into joining a gang, poor parenting has consequences; these consequences lead kids to become sociopathic gangsters (Egendorf 20). The camaraderie and the excitement of gang life, has been driving a recent jump in gang membership across America (Kelly 1). Many gang members have joined a gang just to get power and respect from their peers. Peer pressure is one of the most influential predicaments a youth might encounter (Egendorf 32).
Morch, S., & Andersen, H. (2012). Becoming a Gang Member: Youth Life and Gang Youth. Online Submission
Gangs are a group of boys and believe it or not girls too, that frequently get together to make all types of vandalism and actions that are not admitted by the law. Gangs have been part of the world for a very long time; they have also evolved through time. For example gangs in the 1960’s are not the same as the gangs we see today in our days. Many gangs were made before and after the 1960’s but the major gangs in this time were: The Crips, The Latin Kings, KKK, The Bloods which were enemies of The Crips, and the 18th Street Gang.
A gang is defined as a group of individuals with the same objective that are bound together by a bond of trust. The majority of gangs are young people, but not every gang member is in his prime. The people that make up a gang are usually trying to achieve something, either money, respect, freedom from the oppression of another gang or law enforcement agency, the need to belong to something greater than themselves, or a combination of any of these. The individual that joins a gang is usually after the same goal that the gang is seeking to obtain.
Issue: “The number of youths joining gangs in the inner city has doubled, while the number of gang leaders serving time in prison and being released after good conduct has increased. The crime rate for gang violence has risen 20% from last year” (American Intercontinental University, 2015).
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.
Throughout the centuries, gangs have been rapidly growing. As early as the 1730s different groups of people in Europe began forming gangs. At first they were composed of people upset with the government who started riots to rebel against the government. Decades later, gangs began to spread worldwide very quickly. Gangs made their way all the way to the United States, or the 13 colonies at the time. They were largely created by people upset with the government. There were gangs for federalists supporters, and gangs for people who supported the Anti-federalists (“Gangs” 2015). As centuries passed, people formed gangs for different reasons. Beginning in the 1940s in cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit, gangs of white
Most of the gang members that have been reported come from the lower social economical class. When these kids are out in the streets they have nothing better to do so they begin go commit delinquent behavior. Since these economically challenged kids have no money to go anywhere they tend to hang round their neighbor hood. These kinds of groups encourage each other to commit criminal activity. Since they feel that if one does it all of them can do it too.
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.
With the promise of a greater life by the gangs, the excited teens get attracted to the illegal activities of the mob (Bryman, 2008). Some of the teens are addicts of substances and they tend to believe that being in a gang will give them the freedom to continue using it. At home, the challenge can be bad since parents may not even have an idea of an addiction or ways of coping. Therefore, most teens are forced to join a mob because they have the desired freedom and access to the drugs. Some of the teens are pressured into joining a mob if their association will add to the mob’s criminal actions.
However, social disorganization theory best explains low socioeconomic status because it best demonstrates why youths from low social position on the basis of income and occupation are more likely to join gangs. Social disorganization theory posits that Poor families from different ethnic backgrounds are more likely to reside in disorganized neighborhoods with high rates of unemployment, and that the economic condition of a community plays an active role in crime involvements (Lilly et al. 2015). Studies suggest that lack of finances and inadequate welfare services influences youth to engage in illegal activities to provide for their families (Alleyne and Wood 2014; Young et al. 2014). Youth engagement in gang activity could be as a result of a family’s inability to meet economic needs in the community (Alleyne and Wood 2014). Yiu and Gottfredson (2014) found that there was an increased proportion of gang involvement among youths who were living below the 1.25 poverty level and families who were without a job. Furthermore, as a result of economic deprivation in poor communities, regulations of youths are weakened as social institutions are strained (Lilly et al. 2015). This is mainly because with youths providing funds for the family, parents as well as other conventional institutions lose the power to supervise their activities in
Gang violence is a major problem in our society today. If nothing is done soon, gang violence could take place in our neighborhoods. MW Klein, a gang researcher, says that gangs are an aggregation of youths who perceive themselves as distinct, and that are viewed as distinct by the community. Klein also states that the gangs call forth a consistently negative image of themselves through their actions (Klein). To those involved in gangs however, gang membership provided a youth means of attempting to consolidate their gender identities (Douglas). Most of the early American street gangs have historically been ethnically based. Early gangs were mainly Irish, Polish, or Italian (Klein).
Many young people join street gangs due to weak family relationships and poor social control. Social Control Theory presumes that people will naturally commit crime if there were left to their own devices (i.e. no laws in society) and people do not commit crimes because of certain controlling forces, such as social bonds that hold individuals back partaking on their anti social behavior (Bell, 2011). Examples of controlling forces are family, school, peers, and the law. Young people who are t...