Essay On Gang Violence

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.

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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 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.

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

Alleyne, Emma & Wood, Jane L., (2011). Gang Involvement: Social and Environment Factors. Crime and Delinquency 60 (4) 547-568.

Most law-enforcement personnel agree on a couple of key points: gangs will always be around, but the negative impacts caused by gangs can be prevented or mitigated to some extent. However, media reporting has a natural tendency to cover areas experiencing escalations in gang violence, sometimes directly or inadvertently creating the illusion that the upsurge is

Throughout the years, many plausible solutions to gang violence have been presented. A commonly thought of solution to gang violence is to punish and arrest gang members. People want anyone who is in contact with gangs locked up, but that will only make gangs rebel more. By doing so, the streets would be rid of gangs, but jails would be overpopulated with them. It may seem like having gangs in jail would solve the problem, but gang leaders being in jail does not stop a gang from continuing what they’re doing. Arresting gang members teaches nothing except for children to hate the authorities. “From 1985 to 1994, the number of American youths arrested for murder increased 158%, to more than 2,200” (Teen Gangs and Crime, 1996). If a child resents the authorities, they would be more likely to join a gang that goes against authorities. Officials are aware that they cannot arrest their way out of gang violence, and they have to take positive measures (Parks & Recreation, 2009). The most important thing to remember is “To treat this not

Gang affiliation has taken a vital step into our society, flooding into streets in every corner struck by poverty. 9 out of 10 teens in detention are in some kind of gang affiliation. Statistics have proven that every city in the US that have more than 250,000 people has also gang activity in it. People in gang involvement have a high risk of low income, failure on education, even to committing crimes. This quote from the book helps support this.

“Gangs have morphed from social organizations into full-fledged criminal enterprises” (Thomas, 2009, para 5). Gangs are highly sophisticated and more dangerous then ever. The number one reason to join a gang is money; and 95 percent of gangs profit comes from drug dealing

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.

Street gangs in this country can probably be traced back to the first wave of Europeans who migrated to the colonies for a better life for themselves and their families. Many of the first gangs were formed as a means of self protection, with the thinking that there is simply strength in numbers. The missions of gangs in today’s society have grown and emerged to include many violent criminal avenues, including drug trafficking, prostitution, money laundering, and extortion but the original thinking that there is strength in numbers remains true. Criminology experts believe that the number of teens involved in gangs or gang activity may be as high as 1 in every 5 people in most urban areas. Those number jump to 1 in every 3 people in

Working with other students, taking two weeks to finish, and creating a new and inventive topic that has no simple solution. For this group project we decided to present the topic of gang violence. We then talked about gang violence in a perspective that others may have not considered. The purpose of this speech was to have all the students involved and to get the information for each bullet completed and detailed. The target audience could be anyone that ranges to teenagers and adults who have considered joining a gang or others who are even being affected without knowing and to have more knowledge on the topics.

In society most people feel safe and do not have a sense of urgency that something appalling will transpire around them. Although these people may hear about the surplus of current events going on around the world today that may be abysmal they tend to not care because they perceive that it will not arise around their home. Gang violence in youths is a prominent problem around numerous portions of the world today. Youths are forced to go along with the engagements taken place in the gang which can be cataclysmic to society and themselves. The life of a youth and their family can be altered by just one simple decision to join a gang, put many people in danger of being hurt, however there are still many workable solutions to put these