There has been a misconception towards gangs in America. When one thinks of a gang, possible characteristics that would come to mind are that they root in poor neighborhoods, that their members are all ethnic minorities, and possibly that they are composed of all males. But in this case we have a gang that is not composed of ethnic minorities and was not born in a poor neighborhood. According to Brian William Ludeke This gang is known as the “Malibu Locals Only” or the “MLO” gang, which is a group that resides within the lovely neighborhood of Malibu, California and it is composed of Caucasian males (Ludeke). According to Ludeke writer of the article Malibu Locals Only: "Boys Will Be Boys", Or Dangerous Street Gang? the “MLO” even though they
He goes on to further explain how African Americans living in that time only formed gangs to create an atmosphere of unity amongst those who felt detached from society and/or their community. Shakur also speaks about his joining of a gang , and the actual nature of these gangs which were not territorial. Since the valuable positive organizations decreased,street gangs came back full in effect. In the late 1960s one of the most violent and unlawful African American gangs in Los Angeles were formed, the Crips. Two South Central High school students named Raymond Washington and Tookie were the original creators of the Crips.
Mona Ruiz was raised in the middle class neighborhoods of central Santa Ana in a household of two parents, and seven siblings. Although Ruiz had family members affiliated with gangs, her father despised gang members. Both of them would have talks about how proud he’d be if she furthered her education and became a police officer. He had said to her and her sisters, “gangs promise only shame and danger for a young girl.” (Ruiz 27).
MS-13 began recruiting and their numbers began increasing with young immigrants wanting to belong. Joining the gang provided these deprived, inner-city teenagers a form of identity, a powerful one with a dangerous gang. According to, Schram, & Tibbetts, (2014) based on the characteristics of social structure in the neighborhood three different types of gangs are formed; conflict gang, criminal gang and retreatist gangs. According to, Logan, &Sullivan, (2010), the youth immigrants were exposed to violence and it is the only thing they know, therefore making them vulnerable to joining MS-13 gangs. MS-13, a gang, which formerly formed for the sole purpose of self-protection, has now escalated into what social structure characteristic would describe as criminal and conflict gang.
A). Social Order pg. 192: A group’s usual and customary social arrangements, on which its member’s depend and on which they base their lives. There is multiple ways a gang communicates with its members, and it’s different with each clique.
The overall distrust of women is deep-rooted in the majority of the male gang members. Most likely caused by the abandonment issues these youth encountered at an early age when their mothers came to the U.S. seeking work. While the homeboys do not
I think the key aspect of viewing gangs and the young people they influence is keeping in mind how they are inducted into gangs and how they are contained in them. Now, I have never experienced this system personally. I've only seen into this world through media; which, as we know, can be wildly inaccurate and rarely provides the full story. But I think that's where the importance of Levitt's credibility comes into play.
These individuals have formulated small groups of individuals organized in many different locations throughout the United States. Although, the gang maintains their high status ties with their El Salvador counterparts, they continue to grow cliques in other parts of the Unites States and are known to be in operations of at least forty two states across the globe, as well as the District of Columbia estimating a membership total of over 36,000 in one area alone. Unfortunately, the members of this notorious gang are male and female who range from children as young as thirteen years of age to adults as old as forty. In addition, to the many cliques they have all over the US, and the age of these individuals, they are also, covered with tattoos all over their bodies from head to toe, and are known to wear the colors of their El Salvadoran flag, blue and white (Domash,
The idea of a biker gang in the 21st century seems insane. How are there “turf” wars? Hasn’t all of the turf in the USA been divided, divvied, and assigned? Not the case, according to the article America’s Biker Gangs published by TheWeek.com. The article, published in June of 2015, details the history, growth, and continued issues associated with the deadly gangs in the US.
Utilizing research findings and realistic experiences, Shakur, Howell, and Griffiths disprove myths about gangs, justify the reasons for young people being recruited because of their desire to be understood by others similar to them, and girls integrating themselves into the groups from their relationships with members. Howell and Griffiths managed to explain the principles behind gangs and their members' lifestyles, while Shakur provided real gangster experiences as supporting evidence for the research findings. Theories to gangs may be existent, but without proper research leading to the findings, or experiences from subjects who lived the lifestyle, beliefs about the organizations merely become empty
Gang violence is a problem in every major United States city including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Las Vegas Metro Police Department (LVMPD) has implicated many programs to fight the increasing gang issue across the valley, from bringing back the gang unit to having more police officers patrol the known gang spots. These programs were implicated to stop the criminal gangs that are looking to build their territory in Nevada. The three criminal gangs that are mainly affiliated with Nevada are the Gersons’, the Crips, and the Playboys.
During his time studying these boys, he found that most cases of conflict were resolved without the use of weapon(s), but rather with “harsh conversation”. This observation highly contradicts the typical view of gang members who are commonly stereotyped by their local community and justice system in Oakland. Rios describes how the boys “Conversations often involved references to guns as analogies for resolving conflict and demonstrating manhood”. The fact that most conflicts are dealt with in non-violent ways, highlights the negative role
(Gangs) A deviant subculture is defined as a subculture, which has values and norms that differ substantially from the majority of people in society. When a neighborhood or community favors illegal activities, a criminal subculture is likely to develop such as gangs. Walter Miller states that deviant subcultures don’t arise from the inability of a community to achieve success, but because of a lower-class subculture whose values and norms are different from the rest of society. Subcultures can be a good thing, because they can provide a sense of belonging, interaction with people who have similar interests, and gives members the freedom to express individuality.
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.
Gang Definition and Classification Classifying gangs is no simple task and to begin you must thoroughly understand the definition and requirements of being classified as a such. There are multiple definitions of a gang, according to The Modern Gang Reader but the one I will focus on is “A street gang is any durable street-oriented youth group whose involvement in illegal activity is part of its group identity.” Now that the definition has been identified it needs to be broken down further to clearly differentiate why this definition is essential.
Most gangs are made up of young males that are of a similar background and have a desire of acquiring