Main Causes Of Gang Violence

Throughout the years, communities have been warned and targeted constantly against gangs and their formations. Gangs have expanded in quantity and their influence has expanded in different cities all throughout California. According to the Escondido Police Department, "Gangs can be organized around race or ethnic groups, money-making activities, or territory. Most gang members are male; they range in ages from 8 to 22 years. Young people give various reasons for joining gangs. Among the most common reasons are: to belong to a group, protection, earn money, excitement, to be with friends, and it's even a family tradition"(Escondido Police Department). Amongst the various reasons that lead youth

The definition of a gang as most of us know it, is an organization or group of criminals. A violent group that comes in many different types’, race, age, and geographic background. However, most gangs reside in urban areas and in poor community. The most recognizable gangs that the American media, culture, and justice system look at frequently is African American gangs. Those are the at-risk gangs or thugs that is frequently said to African American gangs. In the 1990s, gang violence was on the rise, where it was dominantly founded in youths. Anderson, Dyson, and Lee (1996) argued that when a group of African American youths join together and commits delinquent acts and crime, they already categorized as gangs to the American public. This affect and many other affects is what creates an increase in gang violence. Those other factors are socioeconomic status, history, race, gendered, and geographic background. They play a huge role on the creation and formation of gangs. Theses factor will help understand the cause of gang’s geographical livings, and the strains that instilled in African American gangs. Overall, an awareness that will help stop the violence in black youth in dominate urban areas.

There are several risk factors on why a person will join a gang. Risk factors and motivations that encourage gang involvement are peer pressure, family conditions, desire for protection, and need for money (National Crime Prevention Council, p.1). For example, being peer pressured is when an individual faces constant pressure to fit in. Having poor family conditions leads a person towards joining a gang as well. If someone feels that they do not receive enough support or attending at home they try to escape the negative home live by joining a gang a making it a family figure (1). When a person grows up with a family that has a gang history they are also more likely to join a gang since it is deeply rooted in the family traditions and values. Individuals also join gangs when they have the necessity to have money. In the article Gang joining in Denmark: prevalence and correlates of street gang membership the author explains how people often join gangs so that they can use their affiliation to make a profit through illegal activities, such as selling drugs and auto theft (Pedersen, 2014, p.56). Pedersen also provides a chart of potential risk factors on why people join gangs. The table 1 demonstrated above shows how street gang members report weak family bonds, and poor parental monitoring (Pedersen, 2014, p.61). The graph shows how weak parental monitoring increases the percentage of street gang members. When someone is not being monitored the lack of love then

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.

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

The gang is a way to obtain the goals they could not obtain by legal means such as work due to the outsourcing of jobs. Gangs show violence and a criminal subculture that attracts youth. The communities surrounding youth are unstable. Families are often single parent creating a strain between parents or the child and a parent. Schools are underfunded due to the lack of funding from the government due to segregation and crime. 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

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

You brought up a great point when wondering what did these youth think of the rest of society and I think it would make an interesting ethnography. As you stated these youth joined a gang to feel accepted and gain the support they were lacking.

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 are negative groups of people to associate with. They are composed of very dangerous people. Gangs and gang violence should be eliminated so that the amount of people that get harmed because of these can be decreased. Gang violence should be stopped because it negatively affects businesses, schools, and communities.

The effect of joining a gang will ruin your life for ever. There is six ways joining a gang will mess up your whole life its drugs,droping out of school, tattoo of the gang, killing , jail time and lossing family. Its bad enough that you have to get jumped in or have sexual relation (this go for the famel) but once you are in drugs become apart of your life. You go from being a sweet little kid to slaging dope on the corner for durty ice. lets a say you riding with big durty ice and some of the boys and yall have 20 pounds of the “white girl” in the trunk of your car police pull you over that’s 20 plus year right there alone. Second is dropping out of school why stay in school you don’t need will be the mindset you have. When you get

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