Gang Intervention Project

In the years prior to the creation for the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) program, America’s inner cities was experiencing a substantial increase of gang membership along the youth living in impoverished communities. During the early 1990s, many viewed gang activity as a particular community’s problem, but as youth and gang violence was increasing drastically across the United States’ inner cities, the public’s perception about this social issue changed. Due to the rapid rise of gang violence and youth membership, delinquent behavior by youths began to receive a substantial amount of academic and media attention.

After many mixtapes and nearing the edge of household name status, Maryland rapper Logic drops his first album. In this album is a song titled Gang Related. This song tells the story of what environment and household he grew up in. His brother is in a gang and sells cocaine to his father in front of him. Logic's mother is in an out of mental institutions, all the while logic is growing up and trying not to get shot when he walks outside. With drugs and gangs all around him, it is quite amazing that he got out and become a famous rapper. Gang Related also has a core message of stopping the violence, which leads to a question, is this song about his story or a message about ending the violence?

Fleisher & Decker (2001), note that there are several factors that can impede a successful integration back into the community when it comes to gang members. First, gangs are comprised of a vast network type system. Within this system there are countless members who become associates, this relationship does not have to include the same crime. The criminal link can be broad and range from misdemeanor crime to severe crime. Further, this is not only a complex network, but a social system where criminal activity is accepted. Therefore, desistance is an obstacle for offenders, especially if they remain in contact with these individuals. Also, gangs do not go away just because key members go to jail or prison. There are always others there to

For my final paper I am going to talk about a program that in my eyes is a great way for our youth to receive different views and healthy choices when it comes to avoiding and confronting gangs or gang members. Gang Resistance Education and Training, abbreviated G.R.E.A.T., and provides a school-based, police officer instructed program that includes classroom instruction and various learning activities. The mission of the program is to provide a range of activities to our kids to keep them away from gangs or related activity as well as educate them on competency, usefulness, and personal empowerment which will prevent them from

The gang in Memphis, Tn migrated from Chicago and California, in which they called themselves the Crips and the Bloods subsets, Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Latin Kings, Blac P. Stones, Four Corner Hustles to name a few. These gangs are known for their juvenile memberships. However, the Gang Reduction Assistance for Saving Society's Youth (GRASSY) program has provided resources for gang members by making nearby streets more feasible. This organization has reduced gang conflicts in nearby school by 63 percent. In doing such there is an increase in school attendance and graduation of gang members. It is Ron Pope goal to ensure that school-age student will become inactive in their gang membership(Goggans, L., 2014). In the state of Tennessee,

Community mobilization would include local citizens and organizations working as a team to understand gang structures and provide social intervention and social opportunities. This would include police officers, probation officers, church groups whom would provide opportunities whenever possible on a micro level. On a micro and mezzo level, social interventions would then reach out to youths unable to connect with legitimate social institutions and provide crisis counseling, family counseling. Also providing referrals to services such as drug treatment, jobs, and educational programs. Provision of social opportunity would provide individualized services for each youth based on his or her needs. Suppression involves greater communication between agency service providers and control providers, jointly decide the outcome of a youth when trouble arises. Lastly, on a macro level, organizational change amongst local agencies and groups would all collaborate with one another providing important information for the program that the other may not be able to obtain. I believe I would of been interested in the macro aspect of the project doing outreach work because I feel as though it had the greatest impact on target youth. Outreach work is a key component of one of Chicago’s anti-gang violence program. On a macro approach the aim for this project is more societal and the model resembles that of a bureaucracy.

Shellie, I wasn't surprised that women want to leave the gang life for a better future for their child but I did find it bizarre that men more so want their children to grow up in the lifestlye of gangs. This to me was something I thought existed in the past when thinking of mobs and the mob lifestyle. I assumed that over time men would also feel the same way and want a better life for their children but when the gang lifestlye is all theyve ever lived and all they know it makes sense now to see why they think its positive and good for their future children to be invovled. I think wanting that is more of a safety factor for a parent and that they believe the best way of life is to follow in their own foot steps which is understandable after

Gangs violence and there way they treat citizens within their neighborhood has also ways been a problem. Gangs have a way of taking over like cancer and pulling in our children, by offering them a better family life, one that will protect them and love them always, no school, power, promotion, and respect based on the gang that they join, and the colors they pledge to honor and protect. Citizens are always afraid of them and at times will let them take over their neighborhood and children, because they feel helpless, powerless and that nothing can be done, but there is a way and that way is finding programs that will help save their children and give them some coping skills that will help them to make positive friends, choices, and respect the right way. One of these programs is called G.R.E.A.T.

The Gang Code Our society revolves around a “code”, code of conduct, code of ethics & honor code. This is often seen in families, companies, military, law enforcement, organized groups (includes street gangs) ideology groups and countries. Codes have been around for centuries and have been documented and undocumented. Examples of documented code are penal code, policy & procedure manuals. Undocumented codes are families (family values), street gangs & ideology groups.

In order to come to a solution, an understanding of different aspects of the problem is required. Gangs are not a recent trend. “While they have existed in some verifiable form in the United States since the 19th century, the 1950’s showed the worst juvenile delinquency statistics the world had seen (Siegel and Welsh, 2011).” Major cities such as New York enacted curfews to help curb this issue, however at the time not many studies had been performed to realize the widespread activity and cause of such delinquency rates.

Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T) is a national program that educates elementary and middle school children how to avoid becoming a gang member. The program is instructed by police officers and is part classroom instruction and other learning activities. “The goal of the GREAT program is to teach youth how to set goals for themselves, how to resist peer pressure, how to resolve conflicts, and how gangs can affect the quality of their lives.” (Ramsey, Rust, & Sobel, 2003) The program also teaches the youth personal empowerment, among other things, that prevent them from getting into any gang activity. Originally the program was based off a nine lesson middle-school curriculum.

Adolescences that become gang members are most likely to become involve in crimes than adolescences that are not gang members. Therefore, programs in the United States are created in the United States to prevent African Americans and other ethnicities from joining gangs. One of the programs that currently exist to prevent African Americans adolescences and other adolescences from other ethnicities from joining gangs is called Gang Resistance and Education Program. According to the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (2015) “Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) is an evidence-based and effective gang and violence prevention program built around school-based,

1. Research a specific Gang Prevention Program on your own. Briefly discuss: The name of the program, where it is located, the population it serves, what types of services it provide? The gang prevention program I have researched was Think Together.

Abstract: This review studies in depth research done on street gangs. Social issues have social scientists turning away from including this in their research around this time. Sociological views have been changed dramatically in the past 40 years due to gender and racial studies. Also, women have started to join gangs since America has been changed with woman equality laws passing.

For my field work I had the pleasure of working at Project Kinship a non-profit organization that strives to break the cycles of gangs and incarceration. According to their vision they create ways for their client formally incarcerated to be successful when reentering society. In addition, they strive to foster a center to give hope to children with parents who have or are involved with gangs. During my time in Project Kinship I addressed planning for the new office space that will carter to the after school program and employment center for clients that are 18 years and older, that are trying to reenter job world. We worked in a group to plan future activities for the after school program