Evolution Of Gangs: A Social Movement

“Gangs are groups of children, adolescents and young adults who share a common identity and

Social movements emerge for a number of different reasons, specifically for gangs it is injustice and inequality: police brutality, racial discrimination, colorism, and poverty, due to a lack of education and school funding because of corrupt politicians. Gangs of America were born out of police brutality and low income areas, which tend to be segregated from other communities of wealth. Not only are their interactions with law enforcement negative, but they have a “dog eat dog” mentality with each other because of such high poverty rates.

I argue that the police ultimately led Rodriguez and many others to join a gang. The racism faced by Mexicans from the police drove people to be involved in gangs and promoted the idea that racism towards Mexicans was acceptable. I also argue that education provided Rodriguez with a path to a new life away from gangs. I argue the prospect of power and protection made gangs appealing to those feeling like they had no other way to survive the barrios and gang activity that surrounded them.

According to the reading material, street gangs have been around since the early eighteenth century, they have their roots on the eastern seaboard. As the Revolutionary war ended our newly formed nation was flooded by immigrants seeking freedom and a life free of oppression. Our book explains that these Immigrants felt isolated and therefore began forming social groups of their peers. These groups were formed not only to get a sense of belonging but also for protection from other groups of migrants. What began on the east coast slowly moved across our nation, from what I got from the reading gangs and gang activity seemed to follow the money so to speak. It seems as soon as a community began to have a business boom then population grows. The

. In the text book on page 172, ‘Islands In the Street: Urban Gangs in the United States” , it says that the functions that gangs fulfill or motives for joining gangs is to possible to escape to broken home, but as you know the individuals that join these gangs still keep in touch with their families. 1. Functionalism:

As the sun begins to set on my hometown of Oakland, the many men wearing baggy pants that are cuffed inside at the bottom or dragging on the ground and white oversized T-shirts creased in the middle come out and walk the corners of 50th Avenue and International Boulevard. According to Inside Prison, Oakland has an overall crime rate of 9,634 per 100,000 residents. This is one of the most dangerous regions in the United States. This means that your chances of becoming a victim of any type of crime in Oakland is 1 in 10 if you reside there for a year. Street gangs are posted on street corners while others hang by the bus stop or in their “owned” area. Growing up, I have witnessed many incidents in which my home was shot up or experienced losing a family member or friend due to gang violence. Society knows that gangs exist, but few try to understand or question how they came into existence.

Gang members may feel that gangs are merely a family and other see them as violent people with no direction that need to be locked away. Gangs cause fear to those that live around them, but to children that have no support system gangs appear to be a surrogate family. Gangs are not all about friends committing crime, but to a gang member a way of life. Gangs that are a threat to society is a problem, but one that can be changed by silencing the influence of the media, parenting your children, and changing the nature of the gang.

A little short of a century ago, gangs begin to form. Gangs are essentially an organized group of people. Not all gangs are bad, but the majority and those, in which I will speak on, participate in activities such as murder crimes, theft, drugs, money laundering, etc. These groups of people do not have a certain age or gender acceptance. Usually, the males are the higher members in the gang, but the women also commit crimes. There is millions of gang members all across the United States. Gangs are believed to have a percentage of members in almost every prison and/or institution. With that being said the demographics of gang life change on a daily basis, because there is no known source of knowing when people are initiated in.

Many different definitions for a gang exist, but according to DoSomething.org in their article, “11 Facts About Gangs,” a gang is defined as, “A group of people who claim a territory and use it to make money through illegal activities.” However, this is a modern definition of gangs, and it does not necessarily define gangs that existed in early history. Yet, some characteristics of gangs today are similar to characteristics of past gangs. For example, members of a gang

Suddenly, in La there are more than 450 active gangs and mainly of those gangs is Hispanics. In LA most of the gang are mostly Hispanics in the site of the LAPD.(Lapdonline.org) In the LAPD website I have found that the gangs have a combined membership of over 45,000 individuals. This issue is relevant to the world because most of our society are affected by gangs. My claim is relevant to my readers because they need to feel or put themselves into Luis shoes. About 1.4 million active street gangs and about 33,000 gangs are criminally within all 50 Us states. This issue is relevant to the world because there are many gangs that are criminally active. My claim is relevant to my readers is that LA has a lot of gangs that are active. In LA there

Gangs as I’ve stated previously were created to combat oppressive higher powers, in modern society while the methods have changed the reasoning has not. Repeatedly placed in systems geared toward reformation as a result of continuous deviant behavior, once inside prisoners have found a new purpose while locked away. No longer are they paying attention to reformation methods they now are able to congregate with those of a similar mindset, and form new effective methods to combat the evolving higher powers. Turning the system true purpose into a self or group serving opportunity, and the power which was once oppressive becomes empowering.

Like the gemeinschafts and mechanical solidarities of old, gangs are close knit communities with in group-out group mentalities and are what Gans

In everyday life there is about “30,000 gangs in the world” (Criminal Justice Degrees Guide). People go in gangs to make friends so they don’t get picked on, but is gangs there is a cruel gang that picks on the other gang that is careful. They care for other people unlike the ones that don’t care. When people organize into groups, one group is always the instigator, and picks on other groups. S.E. Hilton is the lady that wrote the outsiders. She was writing this book based on what she saw going on around her house. She knew that the greasers were the sweet and caring, they cared about people’s feelings unlike the Socs. The Socs were the gang that did not have feelings, and did not care about anything they were doing they hurt people and things. The greasers weren’t attempting to hurt anyone, but they did do mean stuff to people’s property. The Socs went around hurting the greasers and did not care. The Socs were being a disgrace to the people and made the society bad because people were afraid of the Socs. When you go around hurting people they aren’t going to like you they are going to run from you.

Criminal activities have always been a problem within society and has been becoming a bigger problem as time goes by. Over the years crimes have been getting more violent and more common. Gangs have always been involved in some type of criminal activity since being created, has gotten worse over time and has hurt society in one way or another. All gangs have a history of crime behind them. Hispanic Gangs turned dangerous gang fights to ruthless gang wars, White gangs have become racist groups that hold on to what society has moved on from, and African-American Gangs have went from committing unorganized crimes to huge organized groups like the Crips and the Bloods. All of these groups have had a violent past that led to them getting the point of aggression that they are at today and their effect on society. It cannot be argued that gangs have not started off to doing some type of criminal activity.

Nowadays, gangs are appearing everywhere from urban to rural area, and they will be gradually out of number. They can be easily recognized through their hairstyle, clothes, and especially their communication. Gangs work under the form of an organization or a group. A member of a gang rarely works alone. A gang can be criminal or non-criminal, but all levels of gangs always involves violence. Gangs and gangsters are the most major concern for citizens, polices and the neighbor’s government. Gangs’ activities have negative effects.