Personal Narrative: Why I Am Today

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.

The perception of gangs has changed over time, there is more violence, and the majority of juveniles are young people. Young minority males are unfairly stereotyped, leading to racial profiling of groups consisting of young males. Between 1984 and 1993, the number of homicides committed by juveniles increased by 169 percent, representing an increase in the number of gang related crime. Between 1989 and and 1995, the number of students reporting gang violence in their school increased from 15 to 28 percent.

There are many different phenomenons that could be explained by sociological theories. Sociology studies these occurrences to explain why people do the things they do. Crimes rates can be defined by symbolic interactionism, functionalist theory and conflict theory.

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. Street gangs in this country can

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.

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

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

Being a young man in a poor area of Dallas, Texas I use to get in trouble with my friends, just for fun and not care for others. My circle would vandalize poverty, cause terror, and be involved in gangs. All that change once certain friends took the addiction and violence too far. High school graduation was looming, so I took a different route. I could not see myself hurting my own kind. I felt, I needed to help and inspire my community to stand up against injustice, but I needed to redefined myself through the military and college. The military helped me established a foundation of ownership, which lead me in enrolling in my local community college where I was enlighten about activism and entered numerous organizations to be involved in service.

For those whom this might offend, I want to say in advance that, I don’t care, if you are reading this not knowing how to react, then I am truly sorry.

The strain families’ face in these communities can be seen in the youth. The National Youth Gang Survey Analysis in 2011 stated that 35% of African Americans are in gangs compared to 11.5% for whites. In 2008, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, African American youths made up 52% of violent crime, 58.5% for homicide, and 67% for robbery. Surprisingly, the population of youth was only 16%. Many juveniles are being overrepresented and given harsh sentences, sometimes in adult courts. This is largely due to the targeting of African Americans by the police. Many youth are joining gangs to survive on the streets and because it is what they are learning from friends and family. This is known as differential association. Differential association states that all criminal behavior is learned and that the learning process is influenced by the extent of the individual’s contact with persons who commit crimes.

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.

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 . Since we like in a technological era people on their daily basis have access to different type

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