Sidewalk Bleeding Research Papers

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.

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.

Gang crime is one of the most intriguing social phenomena’s across the world, as defining the deviancy has been difficult due to a broad range of definitions (Wood & Alleyne, 2010, pg. 101). One definition is given by David Curry and

While there are some differences between Monster by Walter Dean Myers and On the Sidewalk Bleeding by Evan Hunter, The similarities in the moral struggles are pronounced by the characters drive to find their own individualities. Though choices of their own, both characters came to realized that they have traded their individuality and Struggle against the label that societies have given them.

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

Most law-enforcement personnel agree on a couple of key points: gangs will always be around, but the negative impacts caused by gangs can be prevented or mitigated to some extent. However, media reporting has a natural tendency to cover areas experiencing escalations in gang violence, sometimes directly or inadvertently creating the illusion that the upsurge is

Even though gangs provide a sense of support, the "values" instilled in members are horribly dangerous to society. Murders and drive-by shottings go unpunished more often than not in areas like the Henry Horner Homes. Gangs have become powerful enough that high-ranking members who are forced to face the law are protected by high-priced attorneys and investigators (163).

Individuals who are affiliated with gangs commit crimes such as homicide consistently. Gangs target areas where people are not unified and would be less likely to contact authorities if violence broke out. Drive by shootings occur so often that Detective Dale Wallis says “they [gangs] do not care who’s going to get shot” (qtd. in Minty 1). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did a report to determine the top five United States cities to have high levels of gang homicide. Those five cities were Los Angeles, California; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Long Beach, California; Oakland, California, and Newark, New Jersey. The study

“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

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

Gang crimes, such as graffiti, burglaries, murder and extortion, are devastating to a community’s well-being and sense of security. “The vast majority of violent incidents involving gang members continue to result from fights over

The issue of crimes committed by gang affiliates is a topic that involves criminal investigations. Investigators have to respond to crime scenes that involve shootings and homicides. In a crime scene, there are specific guidelines that police need to follow to begin the investigation. The guidelines mentioned in the Criminal Investigations Principles Book include: “Approach, Safety, Medical Attention, and Search for Witnesses, Broadcast Alarm, Scene Boundaries, Management Notification, Media Relations, and Officer-in-Charge” (43). These guidelines are important for how police officers respond to a crime scene in order to gather as much evidence and information as possible. Gang violence amongst youth has been an ongoing problem in the city

The purpose of this paper is to review and verify a recent study by Scott H. Decker of the University of Missouri – St. Louis, entitled Collective and Normative Features in Gang Violence (Decker & VanWinkle, 1996). The study will attempt to address why our local increase in gang violence has reached monumental heights causing an increase in gang members appearing your court.

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

From a social analysis of gangs, specifically, the widely known APEX gang in Melbourne, the gang is formatted as a group with informal structure that generally ‘hang out’, where incidental crime occurs. The gang will generally ‘hang out’ in a public location and the group generally supplies peer support and forms an identity for individuals, providing the belonging they desperately seek. They generally identify their gang as providing “fun”, “loyalty” and “solidarity” (White, 1996). Although, the reasoning behind the formation of youth gangs such as the APEX gang in Melbourne may not be out of self-interest, but out of a need to belong, subsequently displaying another limitation of classical criminology, the ‘activities’ of the APEX gang and other youth gangs is certainty out of self-interest. On channel nine’s “A Current Affair”, two APEX gang members were interviewed and in regards to recent robberies one exclaimed ‘we want stuff, so we take it’