Hispanic Gangs: Not Just a California Problem Anymore

Chapter Four is entitled, “[The] Scope and Nature of the Current Gang Problem.” It focuses on recent trends in number of gangs, gang members and gang-related crimes in each city. In Inglewood, almost all the neighborhoods were claimed by at least one gang, with gang-unit officers agreeing that the city was facing a major gang problem. In Albuquerque, gangs were involved in drug trafficking and property offenses, with 7 out of 8 gang-unit officers believing the city had a major gang problem. In Las Vegas, migration from other cities was thought to be the primary cause of an increase in gang members. 50% of crime in Las Vegas is attributed to gangs, with most officers believing they had a moderate to major gang problem. In Phoenix, the gang problem is described as wave-like, with 70% of gang-unit officers thinking the city had a major gang problem. These statistics were backed up through interviews with officers and city records.

In society today, there is a major problem We live in a society where gangs are taking over our neighborhoods in numbers. It is the responsibility of the individuals to part take in getting their neighborhoods back under control. Gangs are becoming a growing problem in American society. More young people are turning to gangs to solve problems in their lives or for acceptance. When youths join gangs, they drop all their social activities with school, family, and friends. However, individuals ruin their lives, and the chances of them having a decent education, and a successful life by getting involved in gang activity.

Chicano gangs have been a prominent part of the Los Angeles community since the early 1900s. These Chicano gangs consisted of young Mexican-Americans, another name used for Chicanos, which were formed as a way for some youth to identify with something. The behavior of gang members was a way of adapting to the social and economic living situation that was upon them. There was a large migration of Chicano immigrants to the Los Angeles area that resulted in several changes directly related to the larger and present Chicano presence. The most notable being the prominent presence of Chicano specific gangs. This is likely due to the fact that many people of Chicano descent are immigrants who came to America with little to nothing. This resulted in large groups of Chicanos being located in some of the poorest areas. Such areas became known as “barrios”, a Spanish term for neighborhood that became specifically in reference to the poor neighborhoods with a high Latino population. The people living in them were often working the lowest paid and hardest jobs needed by those of a higher class in society. It is commonly found that when poverty is heavy throughout a community, many youth will feel the need to act out in some way, and band together in their mutual discontent with their surrounding environment and society. In addition, many youth were also dealing with trying to identify themselves as something and weren’t sure if to identify themselves as latino, chicano, or something

There are approximately 1.4 million active street, prison, and outlaw gang members comprising more than 33,500 gangs in the United States, according to the National Gang Intelligence Center of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Gangs are defined as a group of people who form an alliance for a common purpose and engage in violent or criminal activity. Gang violence continues to grow in California. It is inarguable that the gang problem has become more entrenched, over the past 25 years, especially here locally in Porterville.

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

Gangs have been a point of concern for states and societies around the world for centuries. Youth gangs are not exempt from that same categorization and have operated for the same amount of time worldwide. Over the last century however, a proliferation of youth gangs has been witnessed, especially among Hispanic youths immigrating into the United States. Researchers and scholars have offered multiple theories as to why youths, and Hispanics youths in particular integrate themselves into gang organizations. Three schools of thought arise when conducting gang integration research. Rational Economics Theory1 proposes that youths, and all individuals, join gangs for financial and material benefit. Cultural Deviance Theory considers youth gang

The 18th Street gang also known as Barrio 18 has become one of the largest

Due to the relative lack of research on Latino/a in the United States, we often take in information of them that is portrayed through the media, which provides negative perspectives that can easily screw a person 's view of Latina/os, especially those who are non Latina/os. Latinos are usually perceived as the drug dealer, illegal immigrant criminal, gang member, etc. Although not every Latino/a is any of the above, and like many other individuals of other races, there are some who do participate in illegal activity. Instead of trying to understand why these things occur, we often label them and tend to ignore/stay away from the issue, neglecting the problem. Therefore, one must understand why some Latino/a decide to join gangs, knowing it

“Gangs have morphed from social organizations into full-fledged criminal enterprises” (Thomas, 2009, para 5). Gangs are highly sophisticated and more dangerous then ever. The number one reason to join a gang is money; and 95 percent of gangs profit comes from drug dealing

The fact that prison gangs are not visible to the public makes them seem unknown to the public eye, however the pose the same threats to the United States as all other gangs. Prison gangs are also often written off and forgotten about by authorities due to fact that they are incarcerated. “Due to their seclusion from the public and their minimal visibility, prison gangs are difficult to target and are thus frequently overlooked as threat actors, which enables them to commit various crimes without detection while covertly impacting every level of law enforcement” (FBI 2013 National Gang Report). This oversight allows prison gangs to conduct even more criminal activity. Some of the most well-known prison gangs are the Aryan Brotherhood, Mexican Mafia and the Prison Brotherhood of Bikers (FBI 2013 National Gang Report). One of the most powerful and prevalent prison gangs is the Mexican Mafia due to their influence on local street gangs by taxing all their illegal sales and ordering Surenos type gangs to help accelerate their cause by collecting gang ordered taxes, assaults, and murders (FBI 2013 National Gang Report). Many members of the Sureno gang could be controlled by comparatively few Mexican Mafia members. In exchange for working as the Mexican Mafia’s foot soldiers, they received protection should they ever become incarcerated.

One of the most popular gangs is the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) which originated in the Los Angeles area

Throughout the 1990s the gang’s membership numbers and recruitment began to dwindle, however as of recent years has began to rapidly increase yet again (Streetgang#1, 2009). This recent rapid growth has been attributed to the fact that the gang has aligned themselves with a number of other large gangs. These gangs are known to include the

Many people recognize that gangs have been around for what seems like forever. What they don't realize is that the numbers are increasing to amazing proportions, there were 28,000 youth gangs with 780,200 members in the United States (in 2000) and 20% to 46% of those members are female (Evans). And what is even more shocking is, in Chicago alone there are 16,000 to 20,000 female gang members (Eghigian). These girls start out as ?groupies?, become members, and sometimes even leaders of all-girl gangs because of troubles in the home, a need for money, for the social scene, or just because it is all they know.

Gangs have been a part of American culture in the United States since the early 19th century when immigrant youth organized themselves into street gangs as a means of urban and economic survival. Today, gang violence has reached an almost catastrophic level in the United States. Criminal street gangs have become one of the most serious crime problems in California. Gang violence accounts for one of the largest personal threats to public safety for nearly all the cities in this state. Salinas, California is a relatively small Central Coast agricultural town with a population of just over 150,000. The City of Salinas has been dealing with gang and youth violence for over 50 years. Salinas ' gang homicide victims are among the youngest in the state. Over the past few years, youth gang involvement in Salinas has reached a critical level and gang-related homicides are at an all-time high. Youth gang violence is a social problem that not only affects the individual, but the community as a whole.

“Reports show that gangs are present in every state in the US, where in 1970 they existed in less than half of all states” (Lohmann). Teen gangs are started around the ages of 14 and 15. When teenagers get into a gang, he or she usually gets into the gang to make themselves look resilient or try to blend in, in account of problems at home or simply if one does not feel loved. Teen gangs are becoming a problem in the United States and the effects of these gangs are unnecessary youth deaths, alcohol and drug abuse, in addition to young teenage boys becoming another statistic in today’s society.