How Many Gangs Exist And Why Does It Exist?

Some of the reasons are abusive homes, low-income, and peer pressure. In Chicago, Illinois, Vice Lords, a gang that consist of African-Americans, use violence when they run into rival gangs. The recruitment of Vice Lord members start off young, in low income neighborhoods of Detroit and Chicago. Family problems play a key role in adolescents joining gangs. The American Journal of Community Psychology, stated, parents who provided maternal support and restrictive control to their children creates the adolescent to roam the streets. (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02512027 ) This gives teens the oppurtunity to be influced by violence, drugs, and gangs. Drugs, such as marijuana, are fairly easy to get and drive a huge profit. However, marijuana has medical benefits. Nancy Comeau, Addictive Behaviors, explains how the relations of anxiety, stress, and sensations are the motives for the use of marijuana in adolescents. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460301002386 ) Anxiety and stress are part of most teenage lives whether if its with cooping with school or family issues. Thus, explains a reason why adolescents join gangs. Adolescent teens are being charged as adults due to criminal activities. The teen mind is still developing and will become worse due to the actions of prison. Teen prisoners face depression and violence within the cell walls. This leads to suicides and long term mental breakdowns. (http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2004.056325 ) Familes are tramautized seeing their young children being sent away for many years and can also create depression for the familes, as

The Social Work Dictionary defines a social problem as “a condition among people leading to behaviors that violate some people’s values and norms and cause emotional or economic suffering”. The above definition accurately describes the social problem that gangs are, and their impact on a community. People who live in gang infested neighborhoods live daily with fears of losing their lives and the lives of loved ones. That fear, along with the fear that their family members will join the gang, or that they will be physically harmed in some way by the gang. They may exhibit many emotional, psychological and physical problems that people who don’t live in gang infested neighborhoods do not. Since before the 1940’s law enforcement and others have attempted to put a stop to gangs. These solutions usually hampered gang activity but didn’t eradicate it. Gangs evolve their practices over time to adjust to law enforcement tactics. Today gangs are involved in sex trafficking rather than drug dealing. Sex trafficking is easier to hide, more profitable and has less legal ramifications.

Gangs have direct effects on a society, such as increased levels of crime, violence and murder. Gangs also have long-term or late suggestions in that gang members are more likely to drop out of high school, struggle with unemployment, abuse drugs and alcohol or in end up in jail. These factors not only contribute to the gang members, but they also force taxpayers to pay for welfare and community-assistance programs. Common reasons for the younger generation to join gangs, include trying to find a place where they belong and sharing in mutual desires for safety from family problems or life challenges. Together, the feelings and attitudes among gang members haze them to act violently, often self-contradictory with rival gangs. This violence leads to injury and death of not only members but also of bystanders in the community. High gang activity also causes fear among community members, discourages business activity and obstructs home-value appreciation. Communities, also must pay for higher levels of law enforcement when gangs are prominent.

One of the reasons young people join street gangs is because of neighborhood disadvantages. A theory that can contribute to why young people might join street gangs is Social Disorganization Theory. Social Disorganization theory assumes that “delinquency emerges in neighborhoods where neighborhood relation and social institutions have broken down and can no longer maintain effective social controls (Bell, 2007).” Social Disorganization contributes to residential instability and poverty, which affects interpersonal relationships within the community and opens opportunities for crimes to be committed. The break down of neighborhood relation and social institutions

Parents want the best for their children. They try their best to keep them happy. However they tend to lose their children to the streets and the gangs. Why adolescences join these gangs should not be the question. There are many reasons why they join. Some reasons could be the absence of a parent, whether it is the mother or father. Lack of discipline or their parent’s could be a drug abuser. What motivates an adolescence to desire and acquire gang membership, is the key question. Counselors, jail officers, or a gang task team who have work with these youths on the field, and have gained their trust have heard the answer to this question. Kenneth Thompson a former blood gang member said that “Teenagers these days join gangs or make a team, for the purpose of safety, friendship, status, recognition, curiosity, excitement, money, out of a sense of tradition due to generational commitment (a family member was once a gang banger), peer pressure and drug abuse.” We also went on to say that “Back in his time, that it was different, we didn’t go just picking on people. If you mess with one of our members, than we’re coming for you.”

The roaring 20s was known as period in American history that was known for its extravagant parties, prohibition, and illegal speakeasies. It was a period where criminals joined together to sell and transport illegal liquor. Every gang wanted a piece of the action which led to an increase in violence during this time. Little did America know that this issue of gang violence would affect present day America 100 years later. A report from the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment stated that, “There are approximately 1.4 million active street, prison, and OMG (outlaw motorcycle gangs) gang members comprising more than 33,000 gangs in the United States.” Gang violence still plagues America nearly after 100 years since the first gangs formed back in the 1920s; however, Gangs today are much different than the 1920 because of the use of updated weapons and different criminal activities that gangs have ventured into. Gang violence has not only expanded into a worldwide issue, but it has gotten worse because of the extreme measures that gang members are willing go. According to C. Wright Mills’ Social Imagination Theory is the ability of seeing the relationship from someone’s personal problem and how it affects larger society (Kendall 6). This theory is also true for people who face gang violence because is not just a problem that ghettos face; moreover, gang violence has become a worldwide social problem that is becoming unstoppable that no one

I believe whole heartedly that the punishment must always fit the crime. When it comes to gangs, they operate under a different code of ethics as we have learned over the semester so far. They Commit illegal acts and do so on a daily basis. Whether its drug distribution or even murder, gangs and gang members have no problem doing these acts because it enhances what they are trying to accomplish. I firmly believe these enhanced sentences and laws for gang members who commit crimes are necessary. When someone joins a gang they do so knowing they will have to do these illegal acts. They think ahead about the trauma they are going to cause and go through with it anyways. As pointed out by the officers in the video, gangs wreck havoc on communities. They do what they need to in order to succeed and have no ill feelings about the harm they are doing to innocent people around them. These enhanced laws are ideal because they can lock up these harmful individuals for longer periods of time. And forcing them to be tracked even after they are released makes sure they aren’t doing what they did before they got locked up.

It is important to note that the pushes and pulls of gang membership are not necessarily mutually exclusive, in that they may simultaneously impact a youth’s decision to join a gang. However, by and large, numerous studies have found that youth themselves are more likely to report being “pulled” into the gang. This is especially evident in widespread accounts of youth who report joining the gang based on the social desire to be around gang-involved friends and/or family. In comparison, youth less frequently report being coerced or actively recruited to join the gang. This finding is important to note, since the latter is commonly (though erroneously) believed to be the primary reason youth join gangs, with many states developing legislation

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.

The story takes place New York's West Side district, where two rival gang want to take over the control of the area. The tension among the Jets, a second-generation American teen gang, and the Puerto Rican emigrant youth gang, the Sharks was increasing. The daily confrontations lead to the eruption of a war between the two gangs.

A gang can be anything from a group of people donating to a good cause to killer , robber, phonies, drug attics. Literally anybody can be in a gang no matter what color you are, what race you are , it doesn't matter. People join gangs for many different reasons Protection , Attention, Popularity, Dirty Money, Peer Pressure ,and Curiosity there are many more. Bad gangs get together and rob people , sell drugs, rape girls, lace people , kill people, kill cops, break every law they can possibly break just because they want to. When I was growing up gangs were around and influenced a lot of other kids but I didn't let them influence me . Those influences actually came from school and the students attending. Belleville West has lots of gang members

Gang violence is a reality that many American citizens must deal with from day to day.

By joining a gang young people are able to obtain a sense of belonging, feel important, and seek family support.

History and DevelopmentAccording to (Siegel and Welsh 2012, p. 326). In the beginning there were groups formed, and from groups to gangs. The records shows that gangs was developed in other nations back in the 1600s. Many of these gangs had a negative effects on society, these types of gangs participated in many illegal and criminal activities. They were label as stereotyped with negative names, there were mischievous in robbing, rape, extortion, theft and vandalism. Gangs spread in the United States in the 1800s, there were 1300 youth gangs that had formed in the city of Chicago.

The definition is a crucial point and is capable of giving the explanation for both as the gang's differences but also similarities worldwide. Like said Hagedorn (2005) in his article “The Global Impact of Gangs” “The American study of gangs can no longer start and stop with local conditions but today must also be rooted in a global context.” (p.1)