A Case Of The Present Module Essay

Chapter Four is entitled, “[The] Scope and Nature of the Current Gang Problem.” It focuses on recent trends in number of gangs, gang members and gang-related crimes in each city. In Inglewood, almost all the neighborhoods were claimed by at least one gang, with gang-unit officers agreeing that the city was facing a major gang problem. In Albuquerque, gangs were involved in drug trafficking and property offenses, with 7 out of 8 gang-unit officers believing the city had a major gang problem. In Las Vegas, migration from other cities was thought to be the primary cause of an increase in gang members. 50% of crime in Las Vegas is attributed to gangs, with most officers believing they had a moderate to major gang problem. In Phoenix, the gang problem is described as wave-like, with 70% of gang-unit officers thinking the city had a major gang problem. These statistics were backed up through interviews with officers and city records.

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.

In low income areas and large cities, gang violence is a major problem. Gang violence in Chicago is reaching alarming proportions. Day by day they are increasing rapidly. None of the solutions work effectively to eliminate gangs. However police departments and other government officials are trying their best to provide the same security as other areas in chicago. Thousands of innocent people are dying each year from these ill mannered thugs. In today’s societies gang activity is everywhere, whether it includes violence, drugs, death or any illegal activity. There are several aspects which are causing these violent activities. In past years the police department and the mayor designed different strategies to stop this violence. From my perspective better education and scholarships are the only way to reduce gangs and other illegal activities.

In society today, there is a major problem We live in a society where gangs are taking over our neighborhoods in numbers. It is the responsibility of the individuals to part take in getting their neighborhoods back under control. Gangs are becoming a growing problem in American society. More young people are turning to gangs to solve problems in their lives or for acceptance. When youths join gangs, they drop all their social activities with school, family, and friends. However, individuals ruin their lives, and the chances of them having a decent education, and a successful life by getting involved in gang activity.

Gang involvement and its associated violent crime have become a rapidly growing problem for the United States. Generally, gangs consist of young people of the same ethnic, racial, and economic background. Usually of a low socio-economic status, these gangs engage in illegal money making activities and intimidate their neighborhoods and rival gangs with violent crimes and victimization. Gang members exemplify a high value for group loyalty and sacrifice.

After realizing this method was not exactly efficient in preventing gang violence, programs were started to steer gangs in the right direction. Although these programs are new and are not fully functioning yet, they have shown significant improvements in prevention and continue to research the topic to this day. The solution to gang violence has not been discovered yet, but there are many theories regarding the issue.

"A series of recommendations from various subcommittees were brought together wednesday during a meeting of two panels working on gang violence issues, but the element of time was also a key issue discussed by those in attendance at the state capitol"(Packham). State Sen. Constace Johnson, believes that we should focus more on education programs to help prevent gang affiliation(Packham). Subcommittees suggested to train neighborhood associations on how to identify and control different gangs and their activities (Packham). Atwood feels that more funding sources are being diverted to other priority areas(Packham). There has been plenty of recommendations we should use for gang prevention that are great ideas and can work. But I feel they need to be executed better.

In recent times, public officials, community groups and activists have expressed their concern over the growth of violence perpetrated by youth gangs. On their own, local governments are often restricted not only by budgetary constraints, but operating knowledge. There is evidence that when public officials and community groups are engaged, empowered and enlightened in a collaborative effort, change happens. When both the public and private sectors willingly cooperate together, deterrence of gang violence can be achieved. This paper delves into specific government programs that studies and provides information on gang violence. This information brings forward specific limitations and recommendations that a continued collaborative effort can deter youth gang violence.

Chicago has the biggest gang problem in the country (Thomas & Bass, 2009). “There are more gang members per citizen in Chicago than anywhere else in the country” (Thomas, 2009, para 4). The average Chicago gang leader is 43, convicted of murder and lives in the suburbs. That leader on many occasions directs his gang from jail (Main, 2006) and 95 percent of inmates in the Cook County Jail are gang members (Thomas, 2009). Gangs are everywhere today just like they use to be. The high number of gangs causes violence and deaths to rise in Chicago.

This article describes a project in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood that is designed to reduce gang problems, including violence and illegal drug activity. The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project was a comprehensive, community wide program designed to reduce serious violence in Chicago’s gang-ridden Little Village neighborhood. The main goal of this project was to reduce the extremely high level of serious gang violence, first at the individual youth gang member level, and then at both the gang and community level. The project appeared to reduce arrests for violent crimes, serious violent crimes, and drug crimes, but did not have an effect on arrests for property crimes or total arrests.

In order to come to a solution, an understanding of different aspects of the problem is required. Gangs are not a recent trend. “While they have existed in some verifiable form in the United States since the 19th century, the 1950’s showed the worst juvenile delinquency statistics the world had seen (Siegel and Welsh, 2011).” Major cities such as New York enacted curfews to help curb this issue, however at the time not many studies had been performed to realize the widespread activity and cause of such delinquency rates.

The purpose of this paper is to review and verify a recent study by Scott H. Decker of the University of Missouri – St. Louis, entitled Collective and Normative Features in Gang Violence (Decker & VanWinkle, 1996). The study will attempt to address why our local increase in gang violence has reached monumental heights causing an increase in gang members appearing your court.

Gang and gang violence has always been an ongoing problem within the country. Street gangs have evolved into some of the most notorious group associated with murders and killings that law enforcement agencies have encountered. Gang violence has become one of the most serious crime problem happening in the country that involves physical assaults, drive-by shootings, homicides, robberies, prostitutions, and home-invasion along with a long list of criminal activities. It had occurred and multiplied so fast in which it reach an all-time high epidemic of young gang people killed on the streets or entering into the juvenile and prison system throughout the country. Such death occurs on a daily basis especially in the inner cities that are

Abstract: This review studies in depth research done on street gangs. Social issues have social scientists turning away from including this in their research around this time. Sociological views have been changed dramatically in the past 40 years due to gender and racial studies. Also, women have started to join gangs since America has been changed with woman equality laws passing.

With all the widespread gang activity involving many different racial ethnicities comes certain hurdles that local and state governments are going to have to monitor and trouble shoot to figure out the proper recipe for the least amount of citizens get involved in the violence. This can be a tough task at certain points throughout