How well Wes Moore describes the culture of the streets, and particularly disenfranchised adolescents that resort to violence, is extraordinary considering the unbiased perspective Moore gives. Amid Moore’s book one primary theme is street culture. Particularly Moore describes the street culture in two cities, which are Baltimore and the Bronx. In Baltimore city the climate and atmosphere, of high dropout rates, high unemployment and poor public infrastructure creates a perfect trifecta for gang violence to occur. Due to what was stated above, lower income adolescent residents in Baltimore are forced to resort to crime and drugs as a scapegoat of their missed opportunities.
They drove fast and often killed people. However, according to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, “ In recent years, fewer teens are carrying weapons, teen murder arrests have dropped by almost 60%, and the arrest rate for violent crimes is down 36% from its peak in 1994”. Youth violence and violence in general are at an all time low in the United States, and are still declining. Bradbury’s prediction of a violent youth is, thankfully, not looking too relevant nowadays.
With gang violence continually getting worse in the United States, prisons and their staff need to make sure they are ready to take on dealing with them. This includes having the right amount of staff so chaos doesn 't break out. It is important for everyone to be aware in these situations so in the long run the government systems do not actually make it worse (Trulson, Marquart, and Kawucha). Correctional officers and guards are an important reason to why prison gangs exist and are thriving. Officers use to be able to know the names of all the inmates, thus the inmates tended to behave better for they knew if they violated a code they would get in trouble.
The fourth time period the author looked was gangs in times of mass incarceration. During the incarceration times street gangs have been more assimilated into prison gangs. Many of the youth do not want the older men controlling them so they rebel. As the street gang's youths went to prison they had to join with the prison gangs or risked of being attacked. The street gangs and prison gangs unify which means that the collective association is close and have more resources. .
Also, from my observation of the author’s interaction with the gang members, he acted in a way, that was out of respect, and in no way condemning of the gang members or their culture. He befriended them and truly showed great interest in their personal lives. He also knew that he couldn’t’ approach these gang members in a hostile manner, as he learned this from a gang member, who stated that “You can’t just walk into the neighborhood and act like a tough guy, you get beat up.” Moreover, I also observed that the author seemed mild mannered, and certainly did not come across as this know it all, arrogant researcher. I can only imagine how scary this entire experience may have been for him, but nonetheless, he allowed himself to “hang around” the gang members as they drove him around their dangerous neighborhood.
Greg Boyle once said “You can’t reason with gang violence: you can’t talk to it, sit it at a table, and negotiate with it.” A big problem with the US educational system is that they don’t do anything to stop gangs in school. The gangs inside the school and outside the school are constantly influencing the students making them more violent and aggressive against each other and teachers. In the memoir, Holler If You Can Hear Me By Gregory Michie, Michie and his students face gang problems inside and outside the school.
Gangs. What do you think of gangs? Have you ever stopped and wondered why there are young teenagers who join gangs and commit crimes? From a juvenile delinquent’s perspective, their violent actions may not seem immoral. Joining a gang could provide a sense of belonging.
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.
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.
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
Have Gangs Changed for the Better or Worse Over the Past One Hundred Years? Chicago gangs in the 1920s were notorious for prostitution, committing robberies, drug usage, and for selling alcohol during prohibition. However, they never had as much violence as the gangs in Chicago now. Al Capone was the top crime lord of the 1920s; he was never convicted for any of the crimes he did, and ended up going to jail for tax fraud. Even though Capone and other gangs did still kill, it was only rival gang members and was not nearly as often.
In order to be able to understand the reason why violence is highly used in prison gangs we most know the history behind their organization. For example, the NF originated in Soledad prison in California in the mid 1960s. They were formed because they were tired of being the victim of abuse from the EME so they branched off and made their own organization. The NF members that started the prison gang were once Mexican Mafia members. The EME would prey upon those who weren't part of them.
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
Violence is an issue in all schools. School fights have decreased by 51 percent and drug use has decreased by 69 percent (“School Uniforms”). Gangs are one of the leading causes of violence in schools. Gangs can be formed by clothing, like students wearing a certain color or symbol on their shirts. If all students wore school uniforms, there would not be a way for gangs to be formed.
Juvenile Delinquency is a phenomenon that affects communities worldwide according to media reports, both print and electronic, where worrying images of youths involved in behavior outside societal norm has been highlighted. This issue has been studied by researchers locally, regionally and internationally where results has shown that delinquency has been influenced by a number of factors such as age, gender, race, family circle, environment, socioeconomic status et cetera. This research paper attempts to examine Juvenile delinquency and the effects of social structure on form (III) three students attending secondary schools in Trinidad. A structural functionalist perspective will be used based on factors that influence delinquency such as Poverty, Ideology of hegemony, and discrimination.
