A Brief Note On The And Social Science

Initially gang activity could only be found in large metropolitan cities, but now gangs have invaded neighborhoods of all sizes across the country. Gangs introduce violence and fear to the communities they occupy, raise the level of drug activities, and destroy businesses and property which brings down the overall value of the whole area. Instead of going to school, many young people find themselves drawn in to the gang life which in most cases either leads to being locked up or death. There are various reasons why people would want to join a gang, but no matter what that reason might be one can only expect a life of violence and troubles.

In the years prior to the creation for the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) program, America’s inner cities was experiencing a substantial increase of gang membership along the youth living in impoverished communities. During the early 1990s, many viewed gang activity as a particular community’s problem, but as youth and gang violence was increasing drastically across the United States’ inner cities, the public’s perception about this social issue changed. Due to the rapid rise of gang violence and youth membership, delinquent behavior by youths began to receive a substantial amount of academic and media attention.

Gangs have been a growing issue across the United States for many decades now. Youth gang violence may have started around the ‘50s, but did not become a serious issue until the ‘80s and from there went through a downward spiral in some cities like downtown Los Angeles, which was where the notorious Bloods and Crips gangs both started. First, let’s simply define a gang as a group of people, mostly men ranging for ages 14-30, who claim territory and use it to make money for themselves and their neighborhood through illegal activities such as trafficking drugs and weapons. There are many reasons and components that are factored in when conducting research to hypothesize “why do people join gangs?” That is why it is necessary to compare and contrast all the social, biological, psychological, developmental, and substance abuse aspects and relate it to joining a gang. It is also important to touch base on the differences between males and females that join gangs, such as power differentials, social learning differences and social stratification differences.

A critical theorist would explain an increase in the juvenile gang population are from peer groups, school, and the community. First, peer groups can be delinquent peers, gang members in class, friends that use drugs, etc. The more kids who are surrounded more often by these groups are more likely to be involved in gangs, especially if these friends are their support group. Second, children who are doing poorly in school because low aspirations, no motivation, or few role models (e.g., teachers, police, and parents) may impact the child to be surrounded by negative peer groups. As a result, there are higher chances of dropouts, change of behavior, and a different lifestyle. Third, the community—where children are raised. A very poor neighborhood

Although non-gang members may also participate in risky activities like binge drinking, marijuana use, and drug selling, gang affiliation greatly increases exposure and likelihood to partake in these activities. Studies show that “early alcohol use and early marijuana use are both identified risk factors for joining a gang among adolescents” (Swahn et. al 354). Youth gang members are also exposed to hard drugs because of gang involvement in the illegal drug market. Many youth gang members in these

Gangs originated naturally during the adolescent years of a child. They started from small play groups that eventually found themselves in conflict with other small groups of youth. Due to the conflict between the two small groups of youth it became a part of a child’s mind set to come together as a gang and protect their rights and satisfy the needs that their environment and families couldn’t provide. There are about 24,500 gangs in the U.S and out of those gangs 40% of them are juveniles (Hess, Orthmann, Wright, 2013). There are numerous reason why a child would join a gang, and the

Some of the reasons are abusive homes, low-income, and peer pressure. In Chicago, Illinois, Vice Lords, a gang that consist of African-Americans, use violence when they run into rival gangs. The recruitment of Vice Lord members start off young, in low income neighborhoods of Detroit and Chicago. Family problems play a key role in adolescents joining gangs. The American Journal of Community Psychology, stated, parents who provided maternal support and restrictive control to their children creates the adolescent to roam the streets. (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02512027 ) This gives teens the oppurtunity to be influced by violence, drugs, and gangs. Drugs, such as marijuana, are fairly easy to get and drive a huge profit. However, marijuana has medical benefits. Nancy Comeau, Addictive Behaviors, explains how the relations of anxiety, stress, and sensations are the motives for the use of marijuana in adolescents. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460301002386 ) Anxiety and stress are part of most teenage lives whether if its with cooping with school or family issues. Thus, explains a reason why adolescents join gangs. Adolescent teens are being charged as adults due to criminal activities. The teen mind is still developing and will become worse due to the actions of prison. Teen prisoners face depression and violence within the cell walls. This leads to suicides and long term mental breakdowns. (http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2004.056325 ) Familes are tramautized seeing their young children being sent away for many years and can also create depression for the familes, as

The criminological theories, that could best explain the occurrence rate of this type of crime is the attachment theory, and social process theory. The attachment theory is a component of psychological theories. According to John Bowlby, the components of the attachment theory beginning with a bond between people through childhood experiences (Bowlby, 1990). If a child is denied any emotional need such as a strong, natural, emotional bond the child may eventual find the emotional bond elsewhere such as gangs and possibly becoming juvenile delinquents (Schmalleger, 2012). The second theory is the social process theory which governs

According to a study shown in Seattle, upheld by the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention, gang members (15 percent of the sample) self-revealed conferring 58 percent of general delinquent acts in the entire sample, 51 percent of minor assaults, 54 percent of lawful offense burglaries, 53 percent of minor robberies, 62 percent of

Gangs can be classified as a group of adolescents who are perceived to be a threat to society, are mostly recognized by their name and territorial power, and have been involved in numerous acts that violate criminal law procedures in North America. (Esbensen, Winfree, He and Taylor, 2001). The first theme that was present in the pieces of literature collected was the lack of opportunities. As previously stated before, becoming involved in a gang starts at a young age. An article titled “Youth Gangs and Definitional Issues: ‘When is a Gang a Gang, and Why Does It Matter?’” explicates what exactly constitutes a gang, starting with young adolescents. Using a survey conducted in the United States, Finn-Aage Esbensen, L. Thomas Winfree, Jr., Ni

“Violent crimes committed by juveniles are not diminishing, as other crimes, as reported by the Justice Department statistics, are (Siegel and Welsh, 2011).” We see that juveniles have more access, and more use of the weapons of violence, including gang affiliation. So why do young people join gangs? First of all, the gang

Hollis expresses his intention to explore the philosophy of social science of which he categorises into four modes. He attempted to seek for the acceptable compromises between all and each mode to define a better way of understanding the social world. Hollis clearly states that the key task of this book is to reflect on the underlying philosophy of social science through the critical examination of the theory and methodology in each approach. Some of the key questions are; whether the study of social science can use the same method as in natural science, does structure determine an action or does action determines structure in the process of social changes, and is there such a thing as the universal strategy to help social scientists in understanding the way of the world. The main theme focuses on Explanation and Understanding with the minor theme of Holism and Individualism. The book initially gives the impression that each social study approach has its strength and weakness that the combination of approaches would be beneficial and worth pursuing.

A juvenile gang is a group of youth that causes intimidation and commit criminal acts to gain power to be in control. According to a study done by David Pyrooz, a professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville Texas, more than one million juveniles in the United States of America is in a gang. The study found 40% of juvenile gangs are non-Hispanic white and the rest is Black and Latino. The study also found, 30% of those gang members were females. Most youth who joins gangs do so around ages 12 or 13, but the peak age for gang membership is 14 and 15years old. Although gang membership is portrayed as a lifelong commitment, the average gang member joins at age 14 and only stays in for about two years. Only 40% of all gangs will allow females to join, and there are approximately 32,000 female gang members.

Let’s look at gangs and delinquency from a different perspective. What is the meaning of delinquency: crimes or other morally wrong acts: illegal or immoral behavior especially by young people. Therefore delinquent gang’s would be a group of youths that in a group commits crime. I thought that I knew everything there is about gangs and delinquency, but chapter nine was extremely informative.

The term youth gangs refers to a group of three or more members, who are between the age of 12 and 24; they share an identity through the use of names or symbols; they see themselves as gang and are recognized by others as a gang; there is some amount of permanence and degree of organization; and the group is involved in an elevated amount of criminal activity (National Gang Center Staff, n.d.). Risk factors for gang involvement are based on factors such as individual, family, school, community. School risk factors include poor school performance, poor connectedness to schools, low degree of commitment to and involvement in school, and weak attachment to teachers (Howell, 2010). Community risk factors includes such things as greater level of criminal activity, neighborhood youth are involved in illegal behaviors, widespread access to and the use of firearms and drugs, and low level of neighborhood attachment (Howell, 2010). Additional factors that lead to gang involvement include learning disabilities and emotional disorders, school failure and truancy, no positive involvement outside of school, friends and peers are delinquent, low income, and early involvement in petty crimes and behavioral disorders in grade school (Hernandez, 2015). Reasons given for joining a gang as reported by youths includes for protection, for fun, for respect, for money, family members are part of the gang (and because a friend was in the gang (Howell, 2010).