Negative Effects Of Gang Violence

Gang violence is an increasing problem in Urban Minority Communities. Young people are dropping out of schools in record numbers, and higher percentages of the population are withdrawing from the labor force. The more people that drop out can turn their heads to joining a gang. Those that don’t find work can find themselves joining a gang and doing crime to fill their time. The number of young people joining gangs are increasing and more crime will happen as a result.

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

Weak family ties, single parent households, multiple transitions within a family, and poverty/financial stress are all potential influences for youths to join a gang (Howell & Egley, 2005). Family risk factors can also include parents refusing to give their children the proper education or lack of discipline at home (Howell & Egley, 2005). Family members that are in gangs can also influence their children to join a gang themselves (Herrenkohl et al. 2010; Lahey et al. 1999). Risk Factors Related to School. Thornberry et al.

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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. Teenagers have different reasons to join gangs depending on their life situation. Everyone in the “Greasers” in The Outsiders had different reasons to be part of the gang. “We were used to seeing Johnny banged up-

There is a number of reasons that range from simple to complex on why teenagers join gangs, and one solution is finding an answer to their specific problem before the

Due to this great number of individuals the effects from gang activity in society can be very vast. Local business and communities also suffer from the activity of the gangs. For example, in a community where there is a gang there are things that com with that gang being in that particular

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.

These gangs have also incurred a significant impact upon the

If you keep them out the streets they will stay out of trouble. The teenagers can work with cleaning up the city, work with elderly people or work Green Jobs that help them with their future for them to get jobs. Another reason gang violence could come to an end is to change the drug laws. Id say if marijuana was to be legalized, the violence over marijuana could be eliminated.

It is quite apparent that youth getting roped into gangs is a huge problem and can only lead to two things, jail or death. Many youth feel like gangs want them and will take care of them. When in all reality the gangs could care less about them, they just use youths to do their dirty work and they are deposable. The only way to stop this problem and get youth the help they need is to create and upkeep programs that actually care about the kids and get them out of gangs or get them before they are in gangs.