Deviance Research Report - Gang Membership Youth gangs are groups of three or more individuals aged between 12-24 years whose members collectively identify themselves by adopting a group identity, which they use to create fear and intimidation within society. Gangs may be identifiable through a slogan, identifying symbol, tattoo, style of clothing, hand sign or graffiti. Gangs may be known through their deviant behaviours such as property theft, drug selling and street fighting which are used to gain social status and street reputation. It is not known when gangs first appeared. The earliest recorded appearance of gangs may have been as early as 1783 in Boston as the American Revolution ended. Researchers currently estimate that there are 750,000 active gang members in 25,000 gangs in the United States alone. …show more content…
The public education of society’s rules is conducted by the media in reporting on deviant behaviour and the consequences. In gang membership, the deviant behaviour of the gangs is broadcasted through the media and becomes a headline such as viral videos of the 2016 Moomba Brawl. The community becomes aware of the deviant behaviour.
Unification of others:
People with different opinions and beliefs are united by deviancy when they share the same common norms and values. In times of distress, society comes together to unite against the deviant behaviour. This can be seen when people begin to fear the gang so unite to want to put a strop to gangs and gang violence.
Encouraging social change:
The diverse range of deviancies allow competition between norms promoting social change and innovation. Deviance can encourage society to consider alternative norms and values. Society unites and encourages social change such as encouraging the
Consequently, the survey revealed consistent rate of gang activity from 2009 to 2010, but in metropolitan cities the gang-related homicide increased by thirteen percent from 2009 to 2010 (Egley & Howell, 2012). Subsequently, from my experience as a police officer, I can reaffirm juvenile gang members are prevalent in Nashville. In fact, majority of the gang members we encounter are typically sixteen to twenty years old. Due to the rising number of gang-related incidents, our Gangs Unit has developed a checklist for patrol officers to identify gang members. Also, when performing a local criminal records check, their criminal profile will reveal if the person is a confirmed gang member.
Criminal and conflict gang whose primarily intent of crimes for tangible gains. Social structure theorists consider that the main components to illegal behavior are the ascendancy of social and economic influences that are distinguished in rundown communities where the population is predominantly lower-class citizens (Siegel, 2010). This following theory goes into helping us comprehend ways the human behavior, is the result of physical
A). Social Order pg. 192: A group’s usual and customary social arrangements, on which its member’s depend and on which they base their lives. There is multiple ways a gang communicates with its members, and it’s different with each clique.
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 . Gang memberships and their drug use. Many gangs sold drugs likes heroin, cocaine and marijuana.
This study suggests that gang members account for a disproportionate share of the violent and serious crimes
However, in cities where this is not the social scene, violence is active and occurring. Once violence is a part of someone’s daily life respect and family reputation become important (Matsuda, Melde, Taylor, Freng, & Esbensen, 2013). Gangs become a sense of security and a mindset of toughness and revenge become normal. In the social realm of gangs and violence, a community would create their own “Code” like Anderson talks about. They create their own rules, morals and expectations that are reinforced by gang group members (Matsuda et al. 2013).
Utilizing research findings and realistic experiences, Shakur, Howell, and Griffiths disprove myths about gangs, justify the reasons for young people being recruited because of their desire to be understood by others similar to them, and girls integrating themselves into the groups from their relationships with members. Howell and Griffiths managed to explain the principles behind gangs and their members' lifestyles, while Shakur provided real gangster experiences as supporting evidence for the research findings. Theories to gangs may be existent, but without proper research leading to the findings, or experiences from subjects who lived the lifestyle, beliefs about the organizations merely become empty
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.
Block and Niederhoffer theorized that joining a gang was part of the male adolescents’ need to grow up into adulthood, so the gang provided the substitute for formalized puberty rights found in other societies (Bartolls & Miller, 2017). Cloward and Ohlin used the notion that lower-class boys interact with and gain support from other alienated individuals and they pursue illegitimate means to achieve the success that they cannot obtain through legitimate means. Cohen believed that gang delinquency represented the subcultural solution to the problems that the lower-class boys have when they are compared to middle-class values and the schools and Miller held that there is a definite lower-class culture and gang behavior is an expression of that culture (Bartollas and Miller pg. 284, 2017). Yablonsky believed that violent delinquent gangs arise out of certain conditions which are usually found in the urban slums and that encourages the development of sociopaths who later become leaders of the gangs.
Such actions vary in intensity depending on the degree of nonconformity, ranging from a week of exclusion to a lifetime of incarceration. Measures to prevent deviation from social norms create both an incentive for social harmony as well as an effective means to silence well-established viewpoints. Thus, resistance against social deviance is a method to ensure the continuity of social norms, and such retaliation adapts to the social context in order to convey disapproval from the masses. Within this essay, the aspects of what causes social deviance, how social deviance is identified, and how social harmony is restored and the effects of such actions will be
(Gangs) A deviant subculture is defined as a subculture, which has values and norms that differ substantially from the majority of people in society. When a neighborhood or community favors illegal activities, a criminal subculture is likely to develop such as gangs. Walter Miller states that deviant subcultures don’t arise from the inability of a community to achieve success, but because of a lower-class subculture whose values and norms are different from the rest of society. Subcultures can be a good thing, because they can provide a sense of belonging, interaction with people who have similar interests, and gives members the freedom to express individuality.
Most gangs include mainly male people who can range up to the ages of 12 to 25 years old. Gangs are commonly found in large cities, which either include a white dominant race or a black dominant race. They follow a consistent pattern of either being truants and come from unsupportive families. They can also be people who are unemployed and struggling to make means and therefore they result to gang activities. They are seen to be associated with criminal activity and violent behavior as well as prostitution and drug laundering including many other criminal offenses.
Gang effects on the community: 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. However to understand the function of gangs within the community we have to delve once more into the definition which is characterized as an identifiable group of people who: are generally perceived as a distinct aggregation by others recognize themselves as an street identifiable group (almost invariably with a group name) have been involved in a sufficient number of delinquent incidents to call forth a consistent negative response from neighborhood residents and/or law enforcement agencies.
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.
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.