Gang Violence In Urban Minority Communities

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.

Introduction 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.

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

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.

But there can also be a forced alliance as many can be compelled to join or work for a gang under threat so they don’t have a choice and have to follow orders for the sake of their own lives. 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.

Community gangs can affect a person on gangs, alcohol and drug use. The communities can join together to end the gang violence in their communities. According to gang prevention, “In 2010 4,828 young people aged 10 to 24 were victims of homicide an average of 13 each day in 2010”

Youth violence in school continues to be a significant issue in the United States and research has repeatedly acknowledged being in a gang as one of the main causes of the violence in youths (Egley, Howell, & Harris, 2014; Huizinga & Lovegrove, 2009; Miller, 2001; Snyder & Sickmund, 2006). Youth violence can range from bullying, pushing/shoving, or emotional harm to gang violence or assault, with or without a weapon (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Research shows that in recent years, gang activity has been steadily growing—outward from larger cities (Egley, Howell, & Harris, 2014)—and about 8 percent of the youths, who surveyed for the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, had belonged to a gang at some point between the

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.

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.

Gangs activities are frequently portray in the media , the exposure of gang violence have an negative impact on the minds of our youth in our communities . Gangs are described as groups that are involved in gang related crimes and other crimes , such as assaults , rape , and robberies . Gangs are mostly conform of people from the same race or ethnicity , the majority are males and are most likely to be young . The majority of the people that join this groups come from places where they suffer from economic disadvantage and dysfunctional families . One of the issue that is problematic in our society nowadays is the media coverage of gang activities .

In today’s society juvenile crime is an increasing issue in the United States. When speaking on juvenile violence there are many different types of violence like youth violence, school violence, dating violence, gang violence, cyber bullying, and juveniles that kill.

The more crime there is, the less funding they receive. Children receive a lesser education compared to a predominantly white school. Many drop out and obtain criminal educations instead. Having a broken home, no money, no education, the criminal world of gangs becomes more inviting to youth who are the streets looking for a family who will support them and their needs. Social inequalities foster crimes in adults, but can really influence the

The National Gang Center Bulletin was written in order to give us information on the presence of gangs in the schools. The percentage of students in both middle and high school really shocks and saddens me; I did not realize that this number was so high. There should not be thirty-five and forty-five percent of students in any grade level affiliated to gangs. This article also reveals that not only are male students joining, female students are becoming members as well. Everyone knows that gang life follows you no matter where you go, so by these kids still being in school, they bring the trouble around other students and if affects and jeopardizes their safety. I feel as though private schools have little to no crime because over half of the students in these communities cannot afford the yearly tuition.

On November 5, 2015 we had the privilege of having Dr. Charles Katz come into our class to speak about his work with gangs, specifically Gang Truce as a Form of Violence Intervention. For this paper, I will be sharing what I learned about gang truce and its relation to public health by answering several questions involving violence and how it can be used to effect public health. These questions include why gang violence is considered a public health issue; how a gang truce and its mechanics address the public health issue of gang violence; and what are the problems surrounding the gang truce model as a means of addressing gang violence.

United States: Greenhaven Publishing. The book provides various opposing viewpoints regarding the cause of juvenile crime and how the criminal justice system should treat juvenile offenders. Each argument highlights the main risk factors for juvenile crime. For example, gang plays a large part of juvenile violence.