Desistance Model

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.

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

For years, gang crime has been loathed by society, as society has perceived it to threaten the well-being of its members. In addition to the fear of gang violence, concerns have been raised of gangs polluting youth; hence, policing strategies have emerged more increasingly in an attempt to put an end to the delinquency. Nevertheless, for society the causation of gang crime has been discussed to a lesser extent; thus, the objective of this essay will be to depict a viable explanation of gang crime through the use of two criminological theories. To accomplish the task at hand; I shall, define gang crime, provide a description of social disorganization theory, illustrate how the application of social disorganization theory provides an explanation of gang crime, describe differential opportunity theory, demonstrate how differential opportunity theory can explain gang crime, and exemplify as to which theory provides a superior explanation of gang crime. In the end, it will be clear that social disorganization theory is a superior explanation of gang crime in comparison to differential opportunity theory, due to its ability to deliver a more enhanced explanation than the one that is provided by differential opportunity theory.

Qualitative descriptions suggest that, for many, gang membership represents 104 Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice / May 2005an opportunity to enhance social capital as a means to cope with a multitude of problems. Although on balance gang life appears to be neither very rewarding nor satisfying (Hagedorn, 1988), identification with the gang is solidified in response to conflict—often with other gangs—as members pursue their individual and collective interests.

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

Sex offenders have been a serious problem for our legal system at all levels, not to mention those who have been their victims. There are 43,000 inmates in prison for sexual offenses while each year in this country over 510,000 children are sexually assaulted(Oakes 99). The latter statistic, in its context, does not convey the severity of the situation. Each year 510,000 children have their childhood's destroyed, possibly on more than one occasion, and are faced with dealing with the assault for the rest of their lives. Sadly, many of those assaults are perpetrated by people who have already been through the correctional system only to victimize again. Sex offenders, as a class of criminals, are nine times more likely to repeat their

Research on disengagement from gangs has not been widely looked at, yet most research conducted has been so from within the United States (Gormally, S. 2015). The common term utilized throughout research on this topic is ‘desistance’. According to Kazemian (2009), desistance generally defines the cessation or termination of offending or other delinquent behavior. Two types of desistance occur, both primary desistance and secondary desistance. Furthermore a suggestion in upcoming research state there is a tertiary desistance that exists as well (McNeil, 2014). According to Gormally (2015) primary desistance is defined as a period of time that offending behavior has stopped or paused. Secondary desistance occurs when one’s self-identity has shifted and an individual see’s him or herself as an ex offender. Furthermore McNeil (2014) suggests tertiary desistance is believed to be the level at which social, community and judicial recognition is given; suggesting that identity is socially assembled, therefore depending on long term change that includes how one is seen by others and how an individual is able to fit into society.

In this paper I will discuss the typical profiling of sex offenders and how one cannot simply point them out in a crowd. I will discuss why sex offenders do not stand out from “normal” people. I will discuss a little bit of why these people do the things they do and what kind of cure there is for these crimes, if any. It is important to know why we cannot assume one is bad news, such as a sex offender and to find out for sure. The true meaning of “you cannot judge a book by its cover” will be revealed in this paper with many examples.

Even with threats at our nation's borders and innovation becoming stagnant in our race to be the best, one of the most feared crimes committed in the United States is sexual abuse. The 2005 Gallup poll concluded that 36 percent of the polling group revealed their concerns about terrorism in the United States. This percentage of people pales in comparison to the 66 percent, who were “very concerned” about sexual offenders (Yoder). As far back as the late 1940’s, states such as California have implemented sex offender registries. Agan describes the laws that required sex offenders to provide their place of residence and to have annual checkups (Worley and Worley 335). Later in the 1990’s, these laws were revised, the most famous law being Megan’s

Sex offenders, especially those offenders who sexually abuse children, draw more fear from the community than any other (Latessa & Smith, 2011). Violent offenders may draw the same amount of fear, but sex offenders often find themselves in danger from the public through contempt and physical assault (Latessa & Smith, 2011). Specifically, the crime of rape is the single most anxiety a community fears. Although the citizens are misinformed, many of them feel that sex offenders cannot be treated, and this leads to political decisions that directly affect treatment programs being funded (Latessa & Smith, 2011).

The sociological analysis of gang membership explores the different types of effects that arise due to criminal involvement. Because of the social conflicts that are associated with gang membership, this paper will explore the different theories of social learning and both personal and control issues that relate to the recent surge in crime across Chicago. As we open the doors of a crime ridden society, the truth begins to unfold. It isn’t just the thought of helping, it is the action that remains the barrier between living a life of crime or a life that carries hope.

Sexual offenders are subject to a particularly devastating stigma and, consequently, classified as their own particular form of criminal. The nature of the offence tends to elicit extreme emotional responses and stand out as being especially egregious due to the potential for extreme emotional and psychological suffering in victims and the harm being most often directed towards vulnerable members of the population. The portrayal of sex offenders in the media also tends to create distorted perceptions among the public, including beliefs of especially high recidivism and how there is little to no chance for rehabilitation.

Labelling society as an agitated state over the phenomenon of sex offenders and sex crime has been well documented with sex offenders inciting a vast amount of fear and anxiety amongst the general public over the decades. Due to this evoked sense of moral panic lawmakers have been passing legislative initiatives and social policies since the early 1990’s in order to protect the public from sexual victimization. Taken together from reviewed literature it is apparent that there are numerous contributors towards public outcry when sex offenders are reintegrated back into the community. This body of literature primarily addresses three major themes of the influence of the media, the influence of residency restrictions and the impact of a

Seeing that the researchers affirmed the “ enduring impact of gang membership”and “gang ties persistence regardless of motive or method” (Pyrooz and Decker, 2011) And “a growing body of literature suggests the influence of gang membership extends beyond periods