The Cause and Effect of Joining a Gang with reference to Mara Salvatrucha 13

Initially gang activity could only be found in large metropolitan cities, but now gangs have invaded neighborhoods of all sizes across the country. Gangs introduce violence and fear to the communities they occupy, raise the level of drug activities, and destroy businesses and property which brings down the overall value of the whole area. Instead of going to school, many young people find themselves drawn in to the gang life which in most cases either leads to being locked up or death. There are various reasons why people would want to join a gang, but no matter what that reason might be one can only expect a life of violence and troubles.

The word gang-everyone knows what it means or what it stands for. Of course by the time children get to the end of their elementary years they’ve heard of know gangs such as; the Cribs, Bloods, Latin Kings, Vatos Locos, but none of those names cause as much fear and terror as the gang called La Mara Salvatrucha aka MS-13. La Mara known for their psychotic methods of killing and running their turf, no other gang comes close to causing the same fear as La Mara Salvatrucha (ms-13gang.com). Forced to abandon their home land due to the civil war in El Salvador, the adventure to the U.S. was good at the start but soon the odds turned against them. Therefore for their

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.

MS-13 is a gang that was formed in Los Angeles, mostly Salvadorans. Even though it was formed and made in Los Angeles, the gang grew out to the point that El Salvador was a place with all these gang members. A lot of kids joined this gang to have support by people who believed in them. A lot of members joined gangs due to the denial of jobs and other ways in order for them to get money to support their families. A lot of the members are also immigrants so their new to this country. They don’t know anybody so it’s hard to start to look for friends from zero. In order to become a gang member, the rules are sometimes different for both genders. Males need to get beat up, specifically in MS-13, for 13 seconds. Females have the choice to get beat up for 13 seconds or get in by having sex with gang members. They can also tell you to kill someone to see where their loyalty stand. Not all the gangs are the same but this one is the Mara’s

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.

There are approximately 1.4 million active street, prison, and outlaw gang members comprising more than 33,500 gangs in the United States, according to the National Gang Intelligence Center of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Gangs are defined as a group of people who form an alliance for a common purpose and engage in violent or criminal activity. Gang violence continues to grow in California. It is inarguable that the gang problem has become more entrenched, over the past 25 years, especially here locally in Porterville.

Defining gangs have been compared to packs, teams, and groups. Participants of gangs do not necessarily commit violent acts or commence in illegal matters. The National Gang Center has come to a consensus on defining gangs with the commonalities of three or more members between the ages of 12 through 24, shared identity, recognized by others as a gang or crew, has levels of organization, and usually involved in criminal activities (Shelden, Tracy, Brown, 2013). Some gangs are excluded from this definition due to not proportionate with their usual activities. Overall, we can consider gangs to be founded when members share similar characteristics and establish a symbol to represent their livelihood.

While they might sport the tattoos, the jackets, colors, and signs, often these members are only tangentially affiliated. According to much of the available literature, tattoos also serve as a badge of protection against coercion from other gangs (Jackson and McBride 1985). In the current study, tattoos signify a number of different and personal matters, only one of which gang membership and a warning to others.

People seem to struggle to understand the concept of gangs. There are a lot of strange factors that go into the makeup of gangs. Yes, there are no positive aspects of gangs, but those negative aspects have reasons as to why they are so negative. It is the people who join, that make gangs so threatening. Men and women who join are trying to get away or rebel from someone or something. They may feel that joining a gang will give them the security of a “family”. Those who join are so broken that they try to put the pieces together when joining a gang. This has been the case throughout U.S.

A gang is an organized group with a recognized leader whose activities are either criminal or, at the very least, threatening to the community. (Walker, 2011) Throughout history there have been some infamous gangs that have gotten media attention and others that have gone under the radar. One of the more underground gang structures are prison gangs. The Nuestra Familia may not be in the news as much anymore compared to other gangs, but they are nothing to be taken lightly. Prison gangs have been around since the late 20th century and only seem to be getting stronger if nothing is going to be done to prevent them. Gangs in prison have members in and out of prison. One of the more popular gangs that has been gaining steam recently is

The Ms 13 gang is currently one of the most dangerous and powerful gangs in South America and the United States. As I dug into my research I discovered the reasons,strategies and cruelty of this gang.The majority of the members of this gang are people from Mexico,El Salvador,Honduras, Guatemala and some from Canada.Most of them are young men who grew up in a poor neighborhood and raised themselves in the streets watching the rest of the men in their family get killed or beaten up brutally because they were protecting their own.The gang was originally created in the ‘barrios” of Los Angeles in the 1980’s right after El salvador’s civil war. The name ‘ La Mara Salvatrucha 13 ‘ represents the clever salvadoran gang. The gang’s frightening motto is ‘Mata,Controla,Viola’( Kill,Control& Rape)This gang is made out of many smaller cliques the biggest one being the ‘surenos’.These gangs provide protection to each other and it facilitates their communication.By teaming up with other gangs they are able to manage easily other territories and mantain their power as one big union. Another way they’re gaining a lot of power is because they have formed an alliance with Los Zetas, who is one of the biggest and dangerous drug cartel in Mexico. Members of the gang are serving the Zetas as warriors for the gang which has made the Ms13 gain a lot more power.

“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

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.