Gang And Violence Article Summary

In todays United States we have a huge problem affecting society, gangs and the violence that follows them wherever they go. These days’ gangs aren’t just compiled of grown adults, they often lure in young teens to do dirty work and to add numbers to their turf. Despite laws aimed straight at these gangs they still defy the law and wreak havoc upon the territory that they claim. The members in the gang have a gang first mentality and will do everything possible to provide for and protect their fellow members. They will very rarely snitch on their own to help put a stop to some of the meaningless crimes committed by these savages.

            Youth violence is a problem among young teens because it causes a division, which unfortunately result into gangs. Moreover in the past, gang violence results into youth crimes such as robbery, and drug sales. In this new generation, the youth resort in selling marijuana and heroin, even more than crack cocaine now, this means where the drugs are is where the gangs are, also the weapons to protect to their territory. While writing his article Michael Blanding quotes a young man of 16 years of old named Sharodeny Finch, who said, “People get tired of wearing the same damn jeans”. This young man was referring to the fact that he gets tired of the gangs, and tries to do the right thing by finding an actual job. But when he got turned down his response was, “ You try to do the right thing, find a job to earn money, and you can't. You got a block right here, you know what I'm saying?” Basically Finch is explaining that, sometimes young people will try to escape the gang life, but when they try and do not get what they intended for, they go back to the gangs. This overall shows in order for the youth not to resort back to the gangs, they have to be dealt with in the proper format. Gang violence does not have broaders, however in the urban areas of Boston it tends to receive the most attention. This problem causes emotional stress, group tensions in communities, and many other troubles. This issue tends to thrive in communities that already have drug addictions, and low property rates.Moreover, gang violence influences these other issues to worsen over time. Therefore, youth violence should be a priority to resolve for it causes and affects many other issues in Boston.

SMASH!! Goes a kids head into a locker, why did this happen? It could have been caused by anything from a fight with a family member, a fight over social media, or even a result of gang violence. Over the years times have changed in many ways. The span of the years has brought a rise in violence in schools. This has benefited us and has also been negative to society. Sadly, one thing that is contributed to the rise in violence is school. Kids going to school together cause many conflicts among their peers and sometimes even teachers. Also the things kids do on their alone time can cause a lot of the violence as well. Over the years there has been a significant rise in school violence.

The article that I am summarizing is about programs that address over-incarceration by diverting low-level drug offenders from imprisonment to treatment-oriented alternatives. The article refers to social workers being an integral part of criminal justice system and being stakeholders in the reform initiative in how drug –relates offenses are processed. This initiative involves the 145,000 members in the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) who believes that clinical intervention can be tool for reducing drug offender’s rate of incarceration in the United States.

Historically, substance abuse issues were thought of as a male problem (Bride 2011). Treatment center programs, methods and models are constructed around the male psychological needs rather than mix-gender needs. Literature shows that 12-step programs, therapy, individual counseling, group therapy and many other models provide to the increase in success stories however there is a lack in research focusing on the needs of the gender individual (Marsh, Cao, & Shin 2009). Substance abuse treatment facilities have utilized very similar models of treatment throughout history with very little change in the programs. Throughout the years, many more facilities have implemented different gender specific treatment programs but very little research has been conducted on these programs.

As shown in Laura Schroff’s “An Invisible Thread”, Events caused by gang violence have proven to be a way of tearing apart families and harming people far past those of the gang victims through increasing crime rates, reducing the education of teens, and increasing the impact of problems such as drugs abuse.As long as gangs exist in the United States the crime rates will continue to climb as more and more people rush to join this violence.Existing gangs in the united states continue to “Threaten The public safety”, especially in urban areas where there is a surplus of teenage aged children ready to join. (National Gang Center)Constantly, gang members, such as Maurice's father in “An Invisible Thread” can further cause problems is public safety and community tranquility.Many times these acts of violence can lead to the disturbance of innocent peoples lives further victimizing them.Urbanized areas such as Maurices hometown of New York remain to be “The largest Concentration” of gang crime. (National Gang Center).These large amounts of gang memberships in these cities can have a negative effect on the lives of children and teenagers in these areas, who can fall victim to these crimes.These concentrations of gang membership can have the biggest effects on kids such as Maurice who can often find themselves the most exposed to these crimes.In the city of New York alone multiple gangs have been suspected for “several high-profile killings”. (MICHAEL BALSAMO - Associated Press)Crimes such as these can most often have the biggest effect on the homeless such as Maurice from “An Invisible Thread”.Killings like these, especially in highly populated cities can continues to lead to gang involvement in teenagers; further increasing the sizes of these violent gang activities.As violence continues In the streets of these cities it will further increase crime rates as more people rush to join these events.One of the many other effects that these gangs have had on society in many of these cities is that on Education as they target the youth as their new members.One of the many problems that can lead to these educational problems is the influence of “poor parenting” (Gangs- Lewis Yablonsky).The Influence of parents in education

A community or social issue in the town that I currentlylive in, would be the gang violence. Almost every other day I hear news of crime, death, violence, or burgarly in my neighborhood. Sometimes, I'm afraid to go outside, or stay home alone. One of the approache my community could use to addressing this problem would be to us consciousness raising, we should come together and raise consciousness to our community. We need to build realtionships with another, and bring the community together, and not against each other. We need to try to have converstions, with our youth,, and try to see why are they acting so violent.

Gang Defined: There is no universally agreed-upon definition of "gang" in the United States. Youth gangs and street gangs are terms widely and often interchangeably used in mainstream reporting. Reference to gangs often implies youth gangs. In some circumstances, youth gangs are distinguished differently from adult gang;youth gangs are distinctive and their identity may vary. The official definitions for gangs are defined on two levels of federal and state. The federal level, which includes; The Department of Justice, The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the state level.

Youth gang is an organization formed by a group of youngster between the age of 15 to 30 sharing a common ideology which is to control the streets in the city in which they reside by involving in unlawful activity such as drug trade, robbery, graffiti, gun violence, prostitution. This group can be identified with a name, symbol, dress code, color and body tattoos. In the United States of America youth gang has brought about more violence into the streets and the most cities a dangerous place to raise a family. This research paper will show why young individuals join gangs, how do the youth get involved with gang activities, what the youth benefit from becoming gang members, problems related to youth gang and lastly how can the country combat

Crowe and Sydney (2000) believe that if “youth are able to enter recovery and maintain self-discipline through treatment they are less likely to cycle through the system multiple times. Identifying youth who needs treatment and obtaining it for they may save money in distorted correctional programs. Similarly, Lashey (1994) anticipated that drug testing, particularly for use in appraisal, is valuable because adolescent are more likely to overcome denial and to discuss their substance use problems.

This figure is based on the criminal offender population. For those who struggle with substance abuse should treatment, which has become an imperative element. The treatment should be used to help substance abuse users to alleviate them from having future relapse as well. There are so many perpetrators who are equipped to get treatment that may be suitable for them regardless of how much research was done in reference to drug abuse and it’s treatment to overcome it, and its extraordinary limited facilities to provide the services needed. Implementing treatment centers or programs to help the substance user’s population has many hurdles to jump over. Health care facilities and prisons are encouraged to come together to implement a treatment center that will enhance the judicial system in the most effective way. This implementation will give offenders an opportunity to choose to go to prison or a treatment center. Nevertheless by choosing the treatment center will give the offenders a positive change of environment as oppose to incarceration (Curran,

Historically, substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation programs have developed with the primary focus on men. Counselors focused primarily on the addiction and paid little attention to other issues. However, the individual and specialized needs of women and girls have been all but ignored over the years. Recently though, some facilities have begun to develop gender specific treatment programs so women and men can focus on their recovery without interference and distractions from the opposite sex.

The treatment modality for substance abuse used to be a one size fits all treatment that was geared toward the male population. Dr. Tammy Anderson

I dwell in the north part of Memphis, TN, and over the years I observe the community deteriorate. Even, I had to overcome the convincing peer pressure of drugs and alcohol. Gang violence also remains a factor in the vicinity of my neighborhood, children as young as seven can obtain access to drugs and weapons relatively easily in my community. Moreover, with the community in such disarray, all the businesses that offer jobs have redeployed. Therefore, the cause and effect of drugs, violent crime and unconcern citizens can devastate a community.

Gang violence and organized crime have become a serious problem for El Salvador and Central America for the past decade. Gang violence is an enormous problem in El Salvador especially among young people with an estimate of 60,000 minors belonging to gangs. According to government organization Instituto de Medicina Legal, the country has the highest murder rate in Latin America and the Caribbean with 103 murders per 100,000 person. High rates of violence are contributed by competition between rival gangs and police brutality towards suspected gang members. The institute also reports that on average there was one homicide per hour in the first three months of 2016.