Rhetorical Analysis For Street Gang

In Policing Gangs in America, Charles Katz and Vincent Webb describes every issue in American Gangs today. The ultimate goal of this book is how the gang officers work and the different kind of atmosphere they work in. Their job isn’t like other law enforcement jobs. It’s one of the more dangerous occupation in the Criminal Justice system. These gang officers focus on how they react to public gang issues.

The documentary Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008) focuses on conditions and causes of gang violence in Los Angeles, California, as well as the history and background of the main gangs that reside there. The information in the film is compiled from interviews of past and present members of the Crips and Bloods, which are the two main gangs that contribute to the violence in the area. The interviewees explain how the gangs work and the conditions under which these people live daily. There can be parallels drawn from the film to Elijah Anderson’s article titled “The Code of the Streets”, published in 1994, that discusses violence in terms of gang and criminal activity.

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 of New York (2002), a bold and violent movie directed by Martin Scorsese takes us back to a New York without skyscrapers and modern-day lavishes that shows the rise of violent gang power and political corruption. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis, the film features a personal struggle placed within the context of gang warfare between Nativists and immigrants, which is set in the larger context of the Draft Riots and the Civil War. It is a reconstructed historical narrative that uses interlocking events filled with gang violence and political corruption to show how the modern New York was born.

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.

New Jack City is based in the 70’s-80’s with the main character Nino Brown. Nino is a young black small time drug dealer who was selling cocaine to the rich white people. The movie started off with one of Nino “killers “Duh Duh Duh man, holding a white man over a bridge “you don’t have my money & you don’t have my product.” Nino said to him before he had Duh Duh Duh man let him go. The introduction to the movie starts off strong and has you wheeled into it already. Nino has a right hand man named G-money, he was the one who introduced Nino into the crack life. Then Nino sets out to become the kingpin of the crack game even if it meant killing off all his rivals, and even taking over a whole apartment building called The Carter. But out to stop

In May of 1998, Kipland Kinkel brought a gun to his school. Over the course of two days this escalated from: being sent home, to murdering his father and mother, to murdering 2 students and wounding 26, earning a lifetime sentence of 111 years and 8 months in prison. In the court case being examined, the presiding judge addresses the original case, defendants ground for appeal, and the justification for the State’s decision to deny the appeal. Judge Haselton effectively uses ethos, logos, and pathos to support the Higher Court’s decision to deny the appeal because the original sentence was constitutional and just.

This book was different than other literature that had been produced, because Duran was able to get closer and inspect the deeper characteristics of gang life and gang members themselves. This is something that other researchers in the field are typically not able to accomplish. He took on the perspective of investigating what role racial oppression had with the development of gangs. His perspective and his ex-gang membership background allowed him to be more trusted by all the gang members that he interviewed for this research.

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

Adolescents are the majority in the gangs, and it is because the older member allure them into the lifestyle. Gang culture has major effects in neighborhoods. The fashion and the money are two attributes that attract the adolescents. For initiations, young men are involved in violence, drugs, and all sorts of crime. These attributes are deeply attach to the gangs. Because of these attachments it is difficult for kids to break away from gangs, or it is complex for kids to engage in productive activities. Moreover, aside from the crime, the culture is enticing. The colors, the details of the thread, and the logos allow for the fashion to be presentable. The money gives access to many things that is not accessible to someone who is employed in a minimum wage job. The notoriety of the culture allows for the gangs to be alluring. In Scorpions, Walter Dean Myers tackles gang issues in ways of doubting gangs and admiring the arts.

“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

“According to statistics from the National Youth Gang Center, more than 24,500 gangs, consisting of more than 770,000 members, exist in about 3,300 cities in the U.S.” (Rank 1). Although it is not illegal to be a member of a gang, it should be noted many gangs participate in illegal activity for funding and will use the money as a way to entice new membership. The “money begins flowing, and with that comes all of the things associated with material wealth that is usually beyond the reach of these adolescents without the criminal activity of being involved in a gang” (Nawojczyk 3).

Street gangs in this country can probably be traced back to the first wave of Europeans who migrated to the colonies for a better life for themselves and their families. Many of the first gangs were formed as a means of self protection, with the thinking that there is simply strength in numbers. The missions of gangs in today’s society have grown and emerged to include many violent criminal avenues, including drug trafficking, prostitution, money laundering, and extortion but the original thinking that there is strength in numbers remains true. Criminology experts believe that the number of teens involved in gangs or gang activity may be as high as 1 in every 5 people in most urban areas. Those number jump to 1 in every 3 people in

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.

The look and study of street gangs have been shifting over the past 4-5 decades due to changes in the tactics taken by sociologists. There were many books written about these gangs including “The Gang” , by Thrasher, which was recognized as one of the first or if not the first gang related to sociological views. People ask questions such as, “Why do people join these gangs and why do most of them end up causing havoc and violence within a city.” This is a question a normal person that isn’t looking at these people as subjects due for change but rather people who aren’t “normal”. Sociologists look at these people and ask questions like, “Where do they live? Who are they friends with? How and why did their social practices and cultural values change?” These are questions a sociologist would ask simply because there are many factors which come out when determining the choices of deviance within a person.