The Influence Of Gangs In America

When young teens get involved with gangs they pretty much throw their lives away because they leave school and frequently get arrested taking away any hope of getting a real job and honest living.

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.

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.

Gangs originated naturally during the adolescent years of a child. They started from small play groups that eventually found themselves in conflict with other small groups of youth. Due to the conflict between the two small groups of youth it became a part of a child’s mind set to come together as a gang and protect their rights and satisfy the needs that their environment and families couldn’t provide. There are about 24,500 gangs in the U.S and out of those gangs 40% of them are juveniles (Hess, Orthmann, Wright, 2013). There are numerous reason why a child would join a gang, and the

. The shutting down of factories in South Central Los Angeles contributed to a number of gangs forming. Many African Americans moved to that particular part of the city because of how well the factories. The city also grew in population because of all the jobs that were available. When the jobs were gone and the factories shut down and move to other states the youth were left without role models. A fifteen year old boy named Raymond Washington started the gang which eventually became known as the Crips. Furthermore, with all of the other young people without jobs and role models they pulled together and started another gang of people that were not a part of the Crips. This gang will also change names a couple of times and become the Bloods.

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.

This chapter is about a man named Sudhir Venkatesh he is 25 years old. He is a University student studying Sociology. After Sudhir has attended two seminars by the college he is invited to do a study on how black people live day to day. After finding a specific building he was looking for, the Robert Taylor projects, he walks right in. When walking in from left to right he could see the use of drugs. Right off the bat Sudhir is treated like an intruder, even though he is there for information and is not known around the city of Chicago. The gang that Sudhir runs in to in this book is everything but pleasant if you’re not their "own kind". Sudhir is called a Mexican, the only reason he was called Mexican was because of the way he looked. The gang, the

When one hears the word immigrant, they think of someone who has left their native country to build a new life in a new country, hoping for a better life than the one they left. Defining the word immigration in context of gangs takes on a whole different meaning. Sometimes, immigrants are the gangs, due to poverty, isolation, language barriers or unemployment. Often time, immigrants bring their gang activity into the country with them. Other times immigrants are the objects of hatred and violence from local gangs. Consequently, immigration is a big part of understanding gangs.

Gangs was the evolution for power, strength, dignity and showing no remorse or weakness it was a golden ticket to get respected and be heard some will say it’s a social movement that focused on justice and other will say it’s bunch of thugs who are endangering the communities. However the gangs were consider a movement and wanted justice from a political standpoint.

One of the main reasons people choose to be gangs is because they feel a sense of belonging and family.A lot of people who join gangs also don’t have a father figure or have a family but their family situation is extremely unstable. Gangs act as a substitute family that provides brotherhood and protection, something that a family is supposed to do. Another reason people choose to be gangs is because of money and greed. Drug trafficking, sexual and human trafficking are extremely profitable black markets that gangs actively participate in. In fact, according to the Global Financial Integrity, it displays data that shows,”that global drug trafficking is worth $426 billion to $652 billion, the human trafficking industry is worth $150.2 billion

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 Social Work Dictionary defines a social problem as “a condition among people leading to behaviors that violate some people’s values and norms and cause emotional or economic suffering”. The above definition accurately describes the social problem that gangs are, and their impact on a community. People who live in gang infested neighborhoods live daily with fears of losing their lives and the lives of loved ones. That fear, along with the fear that their family members will join the gang, or that they will be physically harmed in some way by the gang. They may exhibit many emotional, psychological and physical problems that people who don’t live in gang infested neighborhoods do not. Since before the 1940’s law enforcement and others have attempted to put a stop to gangs. These solutions usually hampered gang activity but didn’t eradicate it. Gangs evolve their practices over time to adjust to law enforcement tactics. Today gangs are involved in sex trafficking rather than drug dealing. Sex trafficking is easier to hide, more profitable and has less legal ramifications.

Over the past few years there has been an increase in gang and drug related activities, here at Olle Middle School those activities happen and they need to be taken care of, one small change can make a significant difference. Gangs are dangerous groups of criminals. In today’s society when we think of gangs, violence comes to mind, and is because

Gangs have direct effects on a society, such as increased levels of crime, violence and murder. Gangs also have long-term or late suggestions in that gang members are more likely to drop out of high school, struggle with unemployment, abuse drugs and alcohol or in end up in jail. These factors not only contribute to the gang members, but they also force taxpayers to pay for welfare and community-assistance programs. Common reasons for the younger generation to join gangs, include trying to find a place where they belong and sharing in mutual desires for safety from family problems or life challenges. Together, the feelings and attitudes among gang members haze them to act violently, often self-contradictory with rival gangs. This violence leads to injury and death of not only members but also of bystanders in the community. High gang activity also causes fear among community members, discourages business activity and obstructs home-value appreciation. Communities, also must pay for higher levels of law enforcement when gangs are prominent.

Imagine if there were no more gangs roaming the streets. There would be less violence and less reasons for mothers to be worried. This may sound impossible, but this can be reality if we take the proper steps in fixing the problem. We have to focus on the starting point of gangs, we have to find out why people join gangs in the first place. We need to focus on the young people and providing them more opportunities to better themselves instead of lowering themselves. If we pay attention to the youth, that will bring us one big step closer to our goal of ending all gangs, but it's not that easy.