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.
In the city of Nashville, Tennessee juvenile violence and gang-related crimes continues to rise, and nearly fifty percent of gang members are under the age of eighteen (Sanders & Moore, n.d.). Furthermore, in 2005 gang prevalence became immediately apparent in Nashville, and in 2011 gang-related crimes increased by approximately twenty-five percent state wide (The Tennessean, 2012). Additionally, from 2005 to 2011 the entire state of Tennessee had a one hundred and ten percent spike in gang related incidents (The Tennessean, 2012).
In the United States, prisons are held accountable for the safety of inmates regardless of their crimes. Researchers defined Security Threat Group is known as prison gangs, which corrections officers used to take away their recognition term (Security Threat Group (STG) Law and Legal Definition, 2016). The Security Threat Group are hostile inmates that caused harm to prison officials and inmates. The Security Threat Group may vary from state to state within the correctional facilities. It is determined that street gangs and prison gangs are different because prison gangs reflects with the toughness on their role in unlawful activity, higher level of organization, and age structure, while street gangs’ illicit activity is part of the group identity
Victor Rios begins chapter six by describing the way the Latino boys he studied used masculinity as a rehabilitative tool. He describes how the boys are constantly “questioning” each other’s manhood as a way of proving their own masculinity. “The boys’ social relations with one another and with community members were saturated with expressions and discourses of manhood” (pg.125). Rios continues to describe the affects criminalization and its gendered practices has influenced these young boy’s mentality of what it means to be masculine.
In Chicago, and all over the nation, the effects of gang activity have been displayed, specifically in low income and poverty torn communities. Poverty is measured depending on a family’s annual income and determining if the amount falls below the poverty threshold for the family’s size. If the annual income does fall below the threshold, then the family and every individual in it is considered to be in poverty. Gang activity is more visible in the areas specifically in major cities similar to Chicago where poverty is a commonality in communities. although gangs might add structure in order where the government fails to do so in the projects and and similar low income communities the negative effects such as the distribution of drugs, violence,
The array of neighborhoods in the center southern California holds nest to the notorious Crips and the Bloods. The documentary Crips and Bloods: Made in America starts with the generation before the blue and red covered the streets. Thorsten Sellin’s pioneering on conflict theory best describes the development of the gangs. There were two waves of cultural conflict that led up to the Bloods and Crips. The primary culture conflict derived in the 1950s, segregation defined norms that strictly separated blacks and whites. Whites created laws that extending over Blacks that created territories. Distinct boundaries were put in place that limited any migration out of these selected territories, and even activities are directed by laws. Blacks were
“Society thinks we are monsters.” Mr. Antunez said at the beginning of the article Shuttling Between Nations, Latino Gangs Confound the Law. The following paper is going to take a close look at several aspects of Latino gangs and their effects on culture. The taboos and deviant acts that are committed by both groups. Actions the dominant culture has done to enforce the rules of society and, more closely, ways that the dominant culture has been deviant. The material and nonmaterial items in both cultures, and how has one nation’s culture influenced another. What might a sociologist hypothesis be and what type of research would they use. To start off with, let’s look at the two cultures that are in conflict.
In the newspaper paper article, “No Sanctuary in Chicago’s street Gang wars,” Kass (2017) focuses on a recent murder in Chicago. Kass states that Chicago is a place of death do to the ongoing gang wars that Chicago is experiencing. Kass (2017) further points out Chicago gang crime is an “intergenerational problem, of grandfathers and fathers and sons and mothers and daughters wearing their gang colors.”
This paper draws on existing sociological research in identifying a number of theories used in explaining the formation of gangs. The theories discussed are social structure theories, social conflict theory, and social process theories all of which highlight elements of strain in different forms as they relates to gang formation.
Prison gangs have been and are a growing problem. Prison organizations throughout the United States have tried many different strategies to address the issue of prison gang members. One of the problems is that gang members are more of a threat to the staff and other inmates than regular inmates who are not in a gang. The prisons have problems begin able to house certain serious offenders that need to be kept separate because of the limited spacing. Gangs in the prison have a higher disruption and incident rate then non gang members. Prison gangs thrive on crime within the facility. If not addressed their involvement in crime will continue to grow and pose a threat to other inmates, staff, and the institution. If procedures are not put into place then gang membership will only continue and remain a safety concern. Administration must ensure their staff members are adequately trained and know how to act and deal with the gangs. Because the prison community is so private more research needs to be done to understand the workings of prison gangs and get more current, detailed, data. The community needs to be aware of the issues as well since they
Gang violence is a growing problem in this world. No parent would like to imagine their kids dealing with weapons or being threatened by them. These violence’s affects each child individually and their families as well. These gangs recruit multiple different individuals for many reasons such as bribery, family traditions, or even threatening. Although, many kids feel like they have to be a part of it but there are many resources out in this world to prevent them from believing so.
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
Gangs are believed to be a type of human conflict in sociology. Some believe that gangs are a problem because they have been around within society and therefore it is assumed to be a problem. However some think that it is manufactured paranoia that is created by people who want to assert fear and panic to profit from such as to agencies and special groups. Knowing that Gangs inflict problems in society makes society believe that gangs are the roots of all problem, therefore it is a social problem, however this is argued to be contradictory as people themselves can create the problem by pinning it on what society has already agreed to be unacceptable. To understand the nature of gangs and to know if they are a social problem, you have to break
The term gang can be attached to a legion of groups which would include outlaws from back in the nineteenth century in the west of America, a congregation of unruly prison inmates, members of the triads, the mafioso, and other organised criminal entities such as sons of anarchy a know motorcycle gang, and groups of socially displaced inner city youths. Despite its diverse definition, the term gang most of the times denotes the involvement to illegal or disreputable 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. Most gangs are made up of young males that are of a similar background and have a desire of acquiring