Essay On Gang Violence

As the semester has gone on and I have started to learn more about gang culture this question has become harder to answer. If you would of asked me this 4 weeks ago, I would of told you that without a doubt joining a gang is 100% by choice. That no one forces you to do something besides you. But as I have gotten to see overtime, other factors of life go into this decision. And that sometimes you might be swayed towards the gang life because life has dealt you a hand that has made it feel impossible not to. With that said majority of myself still feels that yes joining a gang is in fact by choice. In chapter 2 of our assigned reading, J.T. had his life on the straight and narrow. He graduated college and took a job that didn’t pay much but was

Most gangs have a rite of passage before a person can be considered part of the gang family. So why do people want to affiliate themselves with a gang? Monotony, poverty, lack of schooling, these are some of the issues that children and adults face daily in the city of Chicago. A child that comes from a shattered home (parents are divorced, one parent maybe in jail) faces certain socioeconomic struggles early on in life. Gangs offer a family structure, and lead them to believe that if affiliated, they will always have a family they can be contingent on.

Samantha Wallace English101 Will Gangs Ever End Throughout the world, dangerous street gangs have emerged as a major threat to community safety and now represent one of the most challenging criminal justice issues we face today. The United States government is much to blame for the popularity and escalating numbers of gangs in the United States. Gangs influence youth negatively and lead them into lives of crime. The government helps people in many situations but why not people who are associated with gangs in our neighborhood? If the government would help young youth with not affiliating with gang memberships crime and death rates would decrees tremendously in neighborhoods where people are forced to live with fear every time they walk outside their doors

The streets of Philadelphia are rapidly becoming a home to violent acts and random homicides. Innocent lives are taken every day due to the strong presence of gangs, and the streets are run by unruly groups of fearless young adults. Gang violence in Philadelphia is a major issue, and the citizens will never be safe until gang prevention occurs. Gang prevention is not a simple task, but with the right resources available, it is possible. Gang violence is a problem that will contribute to the collapse of Philadelphia, and it has yet to be solved throughout many generations. With gang violence on the rise, the best solution to gang violence is to educate the youth and parents about gangs and use family support to prevent the creation of gang

What ever happened to kids wanting saying they wanted to be a police officer, fireman, doctor or teacher when they grow up? Does anyone ever say, when I grow up I want to be in a gang? According to the National Gang Threat Assessment there are over one million gang members in California and over forty percent are under the age of eighteen. Just in Fresno alone there are over twelve thousand gang members and over 500 gangs (Overend). Gang violence is a growing problem and if we don’t try to control it now it will be a bigger problem in the future.

Blood was running down Christian’s body as he got stabbed 40 times by local gang members. Christian, an 18 year old boy trying to run away from a gang, was afraid for his life because he was a police informant, and they were in search of killing him. Cristian was pulled into the woods by a young lady who promised him sex if he came into the woods, but little did he know it was all a plan, Three gang members came out of the bushes, held him down and stabbed him repeatedly 40 times to make sure he was completely dead. This is an unfortunate Salvadorian story told by the elders to scare off younger boys from joining nearby gangs. As El Salvador stood one of the most dangerous and violent countries back in the 90’s. Loyalty to any gang is very strong, the sense of family they have for each other is

The United States of America is commonly called a “melting pot,” due to its diversity in races, cultures, and religions all mixing together as one. Yet, as great as all that diversification sounds, there is a dark side to it as well. The USA is plagued by gang violence due to racism and segregation. The diverseness that makes the USA so great, is also the cause for one of its biggest social stigmas.

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.

but you may also see strange writing below it. They say to other gangs that

A majority of criminal activities in the U.S are related to gang violence. A common reason for these crimes is due to poverty, low employment, and no education. On another note, a gang is defined as being an age-graded peer group exhibiting some permanence and establishing a sense of boundaries through the gang-identified territory, style, and such oppositional practices as fighting and criminal activity (source.). A lot of big cities like Chicago or Philadelphia are considered as one of the most dangerous cities in America due to a lot of gang violence. In order to prevent these offenses and to make cities in the U.S safer again, a solution has to be found in order to reduce the gang-related crime rate and more importantly the prevention of

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.

When was the last time you were able to turn on the news and not hear about some sort of violent act? Crime is a growing concern amongst most cities, and street gangs are behind a lot of the trouble. Street gangs have plagued the streets for centuries and there is no stopping the urge to commit such hideous crimes. Gangs grow from recruiting young kids but what makes a kid decide to join a crime filled lifestyle.

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

Many times individuals turn to a gang to escape a life of poverty or financial uncertainty. A sense of hopelessness and desperation can result from being unable to provide the basic necessities. “Young people living in poverty may find it difficult to meet basic physical and psychological needs, which can lead to a lack of self-worth and pride” (Lee, Dean, and Parker 1). Individuals who are faced with a lack of money many times turn to crime if they cannot earn enough at a legitimate job to support themselves or their families. “This partly explains why gangs exist in poor, rundown areas of cities” (Grabianowski 1).

There are several positive and successful programs that are put in place in which involves the help and deterrence of youth from engaging into gangs. Such task of helping out the youth and future generations takes time and commitment. Possible solutions of getting involved in helping the youth that are in the gangs to get them off the streets are implementing the same gang model that they already know in which involves the commitment of one to another as members of a close-knitted family but without the drugs and violence. With the ideas and belief that they have already known would be easier to implement and develop programs that they are familiar to. Such programs should instill the same love, respect, and belonging as one would receive when joined a gang; therefore, it gives them another option of committing themselves in a positive way as a model citizen. It gives them