Police Gang Suppression Analysis

Chapter five, “Form, Function and Management of the Police Gang Unit,” analyzes the police response to gangs by examining the structure, functions and management of

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.

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.

As the years pass, the rate of gang affiliated crimes in the Unites States has progressed extensively, accumulating more inmates into our major prisons doubling the maximum occupancy that the jails can hold. In the U.S there are currently 33,000 active violent street, motorcycle, and prison gangs with a recorded 1.4 million members combined. The registered number of police officers is a mere 683,396; which is not even half of our countries gang population. Incredibly enough, even with their small numbers these officers do the impossible to control, learn, and manipulate the ways of the inmates; taking all of the precautions necessary to stop and protect the normal citizens on the streets and the

With the leading number of gangs in the country, Los Angeles is thought of as the gang capital of the world. Employing gang suppression strategies that take distinct forms, from anti-gang injunctions to high rate of incarcerations, the City of Angels has failed to live up to its angelic name. Known instead for its demonic gang activity and police suppression efforts, Los Angeles has taken over media headlines as one of the most dangerous places to subsist. Representing a worrisome issue for residents, visitors, city government officials, as well as urban planners, gang violence has rapidly become a threat to public safety. Although current-day gang culture has eased off on the violence, it continues to be one of the greatest planning challenges

“Prisons began to bulge with gang members when states enacted tougher laws for gang-related crime in the mid to late 1980s.”(Martinez) On one hand the laws enacted helped get gang members off the street, but in another way it backfired by not stopping the gangs’ activity. “In many ways their number and power grew even more in prison.”(Martinez) The problem of gangs and violence has been addressed many times throughout the years by the United States Correctional Board but the board has yet to take the problem seriously.

This paper deals with gang violence in the city of Chicago since the beginning of time. It takes a deep look into the history of Chicago gangs and how they interact today. Also the past problems the City of Chicago made when dealing with gangs and the problems that gangs today have and how Chicago has the worst gang problem in the country. Also how gangs have turned themselves into big, and lucrative enterprises most known for money. Also stated are possible solutions to stop or reduce violence of the gangs that all start off with teaching the young kids about gangs and gang prevention.

The mission of the SDWCC Task Force, in partnership with key stakeholders, is to eradicate crime and violence caused by the West Coast Crips gang by creating a renewed community confidence and enhanced quality of life through a three pronged prevention, intervention, and suppression strategy. We will educate community members on the negative impacts of gang participation and attractive alternatives for families, and in particular the youth, in a robust prevention effort. We will utilize law enforcement and other emerging resources, to engineer intervention solutions for those at risk of gang membership and those already in gangs who are in need of, and desire legitimate lifestyle alternatives. The suppression element will attack illicit gang businesses creating disruption in their money making ventures and will aggressively target those most violent gang members to remove them from the neighborhoods and remove their influence.

Community crime prevention programs incorporate practices that target changes in a community’s culture, physical environment, or infrastructure to reduce crime such as gang involvement and violence (Citation Needed). This paper will examine the following three different strategies used in crime prevention programs: focused deterrence strategy, problem-solving policing, and situational crime prevention. Deterrence strategy or theory states that crimes can be prevented when the costs of committing the crime are perceived by the offender to outweigh the benefits of committing the crime (Braga et al., 2001). Programs that use the theory of situational crime prevention believe that crime can be reduced by identifying and then eliminating the forces that facilitate would-be offenders’ criminal acts (Clarke, 1992). Problem-oriented policing is an analytic method used by police to develop strategies that prevent and reduce crime. Under this method, a law enforcement agency will systematically analyze the problems of a community, search for effective solutions to the problems, and evaluate the impact of their efforts (Weisburd et al., 2004).

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.

To stop, reduce or deter crimes from happening is called crime prevention. In order to prevent crime one must understand why crime is committed. There are many theories to help understand why crime exists and what causes it, once this is determined, a way to prevent or deter it can be determined. In this essay, we will discuss two such programs Gang Resistance Education And Training (G.R.E.A.T.) and McGruff the Crime Dog.

According to the researcher, they examine individual who join gangs commit more crime then non- affiliated gang members. In this article, the researcher is interested by “what impact does the onset of gangs have on aggregate crime patterns”(George, 2007, p. 208)? This article is a largely review of about individuals that are in gangs commit more crime then non-gang members. The researcher used empirical studies, about how gangs shape the spatial distribution of crime in and around their territory (2007, p. 2008). Also they use existing literature on crime generators or attractors. Also how gang formation and the location

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.

Most of the criminals repeatedly engage in violent acts since they are assured that the law enforcers would not arrest them. The perpetrators possess crude weapons and guns that they use to attack the policemen. In this case, the law enforcers are intimidated by the large number of gangs because they continuously threaten them (Silver & Livingston, 2017). It is thus important to ensure that the federal government has passed laws that seek to safeguard the security of the law enforcers so that they can proactively combat crimes (Neese, 2017) .Once a criminal understands that attacking a police or

The United States has had a long history of gangs since its founding. Gangs have become a serious problem in the United States accounting for forty eight percent of violent criminal being done by street gangs. There are three types of major gangs in the United States, street gangs, prison gangs, and motorcycle gangs. Gangs pose a threat to the goals of community policing. Community policing is highly dependent on its relationship with the community. If the community is destabilized and in conflict law enforcement would have to use other methods to combat gang violence. Community policing allow law enforcement to gather information for citizen within the community which is used to create strategies, being that gangs are violent and pose a threat