Summary Of Policing Gangs In America

In todays United States we have a huge problem affecting society, gangs and the violence that follows them wherever they go. These days’ gangs aren’t just compiled of grown adults, they often lure in young teens to do dirty work and to add numbers to their turf. Despite laws aimed straight at these gangs they still defy the law and wreak havoc upon the territory that they claim. The members in the gang have a gang first mentality and will do everything possible to provide for and protect their fellow members. They will very rarely snitch on their own to help put a stop to some of the meaningless crimes committed by these savages.

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

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

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

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

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).

The correlation between gangs and drugs has always been an issue for the United States government. Major cities often overlooked the problem of youth gang violence, thinking it was only a 1960’s trend. Sixty years later, gangs and drugs continue to be a problem, but in an increasing number within urban, suburban and rural areas in the United States. People may characterize this problem with words such as violence, increase drug activity, and delinquencies, but not many seem to see the bigger picture. Lack of interaction, collaboration, and strategies from law enforcement, youth centers, businesses, churches, and political icons are increasing gang violence and drug related offenses in major cities. In such cities as Chicago, minority groups are the most vulnerable to joining a gang, which then leads to an involvement with drugs; they are faced with barriers – lack of family support, poverty, segregation, unemployment, etc. An incident that happened in Chicago history is the closing of the Cabrini-Green Project, where people involved with gangs had to find a new home, scattering gang-members throughout the city, and eventually leading to their spread and growth.

Chicago has the biggest gang problem in the country (Thomas & Bass, 2009). “There are more gang members per citizen in Chicago than anywhere else in the country” (Thomas, 2009, para 4). The average Chicago gang leader is 43, convicted of murder and lives in the suburbs. That leader on many occasions directs his gang from jail (Main, 2006) and 95 percent of inmates in the Cook County Jail are gang members (Thomas, 2009). Gangs are everywhere today just like they use to be. The high number of gangs causes violence and deaths to rise in Chicago.

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.

An often-repeated assertion is that gangs migrate to areas previously unaffected by gang activity to expand their drug operations (sometimes called “franchising”). As discussed previously, though, the overlap of the gang-drug connection is often overdrawn. Thus, it is necessary to thoroughly examine the extent of gang member migration, as well as the reasons behind the movement of gang members to other jurisdictions. Building on the work of research conducted in the 1990s, the NYGS recently examined the topic of gang member migration from the perspective of a nationally representative sample of law enforcement agencies across the United States.

On May 17th, 1912 the city of Chandler was founded in the heat of the Arizona desert. This Phoenix suburban town is home to approximately 250,000 citizens. Unfortunately, youth street gangs have been recently developing and causing a spike in criminal activity in this once safe community. Gang related violence and criminal activity drastically impacts the security of Chandler’s businesses and community members. Our community has been the victim of drive-by shootings, vehicle thefts, drugs, homicides, and other gang related criminal activity. The city of Chandler has had enough of criminal activity happening in our community. It is absolutely essential that a gang reform program is implemented in order to prevent and break this violent gang cycle. Community members, business owners, and school officials are aware of the elevated gang related criminal activity and as the head of the new gang reform program, I hope to implement new strategic programs. The gang reform program will be a three-tiered program consisting of evidence-based prevention strategies, early interventions programs, and necessary follow-up methods. It is estimated that this gang reform program will cost nearly one million dollars for implementation and startup of the gang reform program for 2016.

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.

Security has always been of major concern in many institutions across the world. This is perhaps because the success of many activities is highly dependent on the security that they associate themselves with. This report focuses on the gangs in Los Angeles, California. This task in this region has been mandated upon the Los Angeles Police Department, popularly referred to as the LAPD. The major stakeholders are the competent and highly qualified staff members within the department who have the necessary capacity to deal with the violent criminal gangs. The main problem that is targeted is the eradication of the criminal gangs within the region. This is through the elimination of illegal firearms, elimination of drive-by shootings and enactment of anti-graffiti laws which promote the gang activities. The graffiti have been shown by recent research to portray the gang territories.

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