Contemporary Gang Changes

Why do you think that gang problems are somewhat stubborn in large cities but not in small cities, towns, villages, or rural counties? Why may gang activity vanish in smaller jurisdictions? Why may gang troubles become progressively serious in some cities but not in others? Gang problems in larger cities are tenacious because of the economic conditions of the residents in larger cities. Very few small cities or and rural areas have the necessary population base and extremely deprived community circumstances to support gangs. Any disorder that an existing gang feels, such as member arrests or drop outs is likely to strike at the foundations of its structure. Gangs in smaller areas are more likely to be started for social reasons in opposition

This paper gives will give depth information on gang activity in the U.S. and explore the causes of gang memberships and it will also mention several policies that have been studied to prevent youths from joining them. As of today, gangs continue to be a huge problem in the U.S. gang members are violent and are also responsible for committing crimes from assaults to murder using firearms and other weapons to intimidate rivals, law enforcement, and the general public. The purpose of my paper is to address why many youths join gangs. My paper will also address a few policies and programs that can prevent youths from joining a gang and prevent those who are already part of it from committing crimes. Street gangs in this country can

In the United States, every year there are around 2,000 gang-related homicides and in the realistic fiction novel, The Outsiders, by S.E Hinton, it explores the issues of gang violence, and teenagers in gangs. Around 40% of all members in gangs are teenagers, who are getting involved in some dangerous things very early in life. In the novel The Outsiders, the “Greasers” which is a gang of all teenagers, fight other gangs and commit serious crimes such as murder. We as a society need to pinpoint why teenagers join gangs and stop them beforehand. We also need to help people get out of gangs if they are already in one. There is a number of reasons that range from simple to complex, on why teenagers join gangs, and we can help by finding solutions to their specific problem before they choose to join one. To help someone get out of a gang, we as a society need to show there’s more out there in the world that they could do that will make a positive impact.

Much of whether gangs are seen as a social problem comes from perspective. Society is more prone to seeing gangs in a negative point of view because the social reality is not reaching the ideals and standards of people’s conception of a perfect world. Many external factors such as the media and personal opinions encourage a bad outlook on gangs. The media inflicts fear and depicts gangs to be a threat, which the community looks at in a negative view. The media’s depiction of gangs or any other example will either serve the purpose of the government’s viewpoint, public’s opinion or the genuine

In the newspaper article Youth Gangs Leading Cause of Delinquencies written by Gene Sherman for the Los Angeles Times, Sherman hits many hard facts regarding the relationship between the youth of the time and the local gangs.

Gang violence has been a problem in society for several of years and is a growing problem each and every day. The youth that is involved in gang violence will have numerous effects upon them that will come soon or later when associated with a group of thugs. Children and teenagers if they still go to school when accompanying a gang, they face the heightened risk of dropping out of school; teen parenthood; be victimized by another gang ; abuse drugs and alcohol; commit petty and violent

Gangs desire to be seen as the most powerful and dangerous gang in the territory. To gain such a status prompts gang members to pamper violence for the sake of violence resulting in the murder of innocent people or assaulting a threatening person to the gang or their member (U.S. Department of Justice, 1999). The U.S. Department of Justice (1999), reported that even if such a killing is a result of mistaken identity, the perpetrators, across all gangs, are accorded the status of being powerful or dangerous and the members automatically rise in the gang’s

There’s a hierarchy to gangs. There is the top dog, or the one who is above everyone and got there by his own means. This could mean he killed the original top dog, or he created the gang himself. The second would be the OG’s of the gang; they make sure everyone is on task. Then there are the members who know their place and know their jobs. Now everyone at this level has their own jobs to do; they recruit, or smuggle/ sell drugs, collect money, or kill. Of course everyone does a little of everything. Then the new recruits, they are still learning everything about the gang, and are watched closely. Chester and his friend were members, but they messed up when they talked about their gang’s inner workings. They were set up by their gang by placing a guy for them to kill and get arrested. This is how MS-13 keeps its order, by creating examples out of people. Even though Chester and his friend were not killed, he still faced punishment for his act of betrayal. The other type of control would be to jump in their members. This shows the new recruits violence isn’t optional, and if you step out of line you will deal with the consequences. Specifically, the guys who are in jail because they betrayed the gang and want protection know if they step out of the building they are dead. There is a code for gangs, it is 187, this means murder. When a member starts to see this pop up, they know the gang

In the article “Gang Membership and Drug Involvement“ by Beth Bjerregaard, when we hear about gangs we think of murders and drug dealers but are gangs involved in more stuff than we think. Gangs are more likely to sell drugs than non gang members. Gang relationships are very complicated and many members have violent behaviors .

It is very rare for someone who had taken a firsthand experience in gang life to come up in the open and narrate these experiences to the public as well as the dangers which they go through. This is irrespective of the fact that the realism of gang life can be seen in news, movies or in the actual streets, reading about it and visualizing the scenes in one’s mind is like taking a firsthand experience in these

In “A Multisite Examination of Youth Gang Membership: Does Gender Matter?”, Ebensen and Deschenes set out to establish the differences between the attitudes of gang-membership between males and females. In order to measure the attitudes, Ebensen and Deschenes surveyed eighth-grade students across 11 U.S. cities using a cross-sectional research design (Esbensen and Deschenes 804). What they found was that males and females join gangs for different reasons. Females tend to join gangs when they feel socially isolated and have low self-esteem, where males tend join gangs under opposite circumstances such as a limited opportunity to thrive and a higher attachment to their mothers (Esbensen and Deschenes 812,-16). What these general findings show is that there are a variety of reasons that people join gangs.

struggling with their self-worth and identity, the acceptance and respect from their peers are extremely important. This sense of belonging that the gang provides is what the gang members are missing within their own families who mostly have troubled family history. In many cases, these peer groups draw their solidarity on the shared characteristics of being disadvantaged or discriminated against on factors such as race or social class. Being an active member of a group with common interests allows individuals to feel a sense of status and importance that they do not otherwise feel in the larger community (Thornberry and Krohn, 2001, p. 289). Involvement in gangs also leads to experimenting with high-risk behavior such as drug and alcohol abuse

Gang activities have been increasing over the years from crimes ranging from robberies to homicides. In California, estimates were made by the Justice Department that approximately 175000 to 200000 persons were members of gangs. In the county of Los Angeles gang activities for over a period of five years accounted for over 23000 of the crimes that occurred.(Friedrichs. M. 1999). Gangs have become not only a problem for those communities where the gang's ar located but has become a problem for everyone. These gangs have also incurred a significant impact upon the

Gangs has their own culture and characteristics that includes their dress codes, identifying symbols, language, graffiti, drugs use &trafficking, use of other narcotics, and involvement in other illegal activities. However the nature and characteristics of gangs differ from community to community. Gangs however are found to be more prevalent in high crime areas and are also responsible for the majority of crimes committed.

Throughout the 17th-century gangs have been causing havoc in people's life and destroying the society. The National Institute of Justice (2011) has defined a gang as "A group of collective members which create an atmosphere of intimidation among citizens." Many of these gangs are well organized, using different forms of violence to control neighbourhoods and to conduct their illegal activities. The National Gang Threat Assessment (2011) reports that “Gangs are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions.” Street Gangs have caused incidences of violence that is confined in the inner city of many countries. Most gangs are made up of young males that are of a similar background and have a desire of acquiring