The Most Dangerous Gangs and How to Stop Their Violence

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.

The two ethnic group I’ve chosen to discuss here are the Norteno and Sureno Hispanics, along with the Bloods and Crips of the African American cultures. Although the groups have several ethnic differences the political aspect of the sets they claim have several similarities. In terms of street gangs, Hispanic, and African American gangs dominate the world of gangs, in size, violence, drug distribution, and representation throughout the country and even internationally.

This paper deals with gang violence in the city of Chicago since the beginning of time. It takes a deep look into the history of Chicago gangs and how they interact today. Also the past problems the City of Chicago made when dealing with gangs and the problems that gangs today have and how Chicago has the worst gang problem in the country. Also how gangs have turned themselves into big, and lucrative enterprises most known for money. Also stated are possible solutions to stop or reduce violence of the gangs that all start off with teaching the young kids about gangs and gang prevention.

‘’Teen shot dead in gang wars’’, ‘’ two bystanders killed in gang shootout ‘’, these are familiar headlines at the front page of the local newspapers, aren’t they? Every day thousands of people are affected by gangs across the world. Women are left widowed, children are orphaned and parents are left childless. Let me put what most people are thinking ‘’ gangs are a threat to all of us no matter what sex, age or background we are from. They ruin the safety of a society as a whole, is a never-ending cycle which needs to be stopped and finally being a gang member most probably wrecks an individual’s life.

The fact that prison gangs are not visible to the public makes them seem unknown to the public eye, however the pose the same threats to the United States as all other gangs. Prison gangs are also often written off and forgotten about by authorities due to fact that they are incarcerated. “Due to their seclusion from the public and their minimal visibility, prison gangs are difficult to target and are thus frequently overlooked as threat actors, which enables them to commit various crimes without detection while covertly impacting every level of law enforcement” (FBI 2013 National Gang Report). This oversight allows prison gangs to conduct even more criminal activity. Some of the most well-known prison gangs are the Aryan Brotherhood, Mexican Mafia and the Prison Brotherhood of Bikers (FBI 2013 National Gang Report). One of the most powerful and prevalent prison gangs is the Mexican Mafia due to their influence on local street gangs by taxing all their illegal sales and ordering Surenos type gangs to help accelerate their cause by collecting gang ordered taxes, assaults, and murders (FBI 2013 National Gang Report). Many members of the Sureno gang could be controlled by comparatively few Mexican Mafia members. In exchange for working as the Mexican Mafia’s foot soldiers, they received protection should they ever become incarcerated.

Gang violence in America is a plague which ends the lives of thousands of youth. The two most notorious gangs, mostly located near Los Angeles, California, are are the Bloods and the Crips. Many things will be covered concerning these specific gangs to understand the basics of these two rival gangs, one must understand how they gain members, what actions they take to mark their territory, and what symbols they use to identify themselves.

The Hells Angels may be the most popular known gang throughout Canada and America. The biker gang is known to be the largest in Canada with many chapters (known spots for soliciting) in British Columbia (Schwartz, 2011). Bellet mentions the angels “have a highly structured hierarchy, with full-patch members at the top, [while] below are prospects, hang-arounds, official friends and associates working their way through the ranks (2011). This gang is highly organized and among the most powerful within the list of notorious gangs on this list. The gang associates itself with drug and weapons trafficking; on the news, you may see news of Hells Angel’s members being charged for murder and or drug trafficking. For example, a member of the Saskatoon

I feel that there is a lot of gang’s violence in the world. There should be a way to be able to handle them before it get even worse than it is today. The problem is that gang’s cause’s harm not only to those who are involved in it but also people around gang violence. I feel that each various context and environment should have a way for coming up with solutions about gangs activities. First, political could have an impact solution on gang’s violence because their economy. Second, cultural could have an impact solutions to gangs because they are organized based upon race, ethnicity, territory and etc. Third, societal could have an impact on gang’s violence because it makes people in society feel unsafe. Fourth, racial could have impact

Gangs in the United States have increased rapidly, and are becoming more violent and deadly than ever. There are deaths of innocent, young, and gang affiliated people dying each year. This everyday occurrence brings moral and heart felt emotions to these death tragedies. These gangs are corrupting our streets and neighborhoods of America, which is something that is needed to be stopped. All members get introduced and jumped in for a reason, a reason of family, trust, acceptance, and respect which threatens many people today. Every year gang violence is proposed in which it should be prevented in today’s public because they have the urge to be involved with conflicts based on rivalries over reputation and turf, compensates on creating a lot of violence where innocent people are being killed, participate in drug trafficking, and encourages the youth to get involved and join a group of affiliated crime.

Gangs are very dangerous to everyone in society. “Gangs are groups of people (mostly young males) who band together for protection and a sense of belonging. The U.S. Department of Justice officially defines a youth gang as a group of young people involved in criminal activity” (Gangs 1). There are about one million gang members in more than 20,00 criminally active gangs in the United States. Also, that group of about one million people, are accountable for up to eighty percent of our nation’s crimes. Since 2005, gangs have nationally added about 200,000 members (Targeting Gangs 1). This is why more action from the community needs to be taken to help with the growing gang-related crimes here in America.

The issue of gangs in the United States is one of massive proportions. According to the FBI's website, as of 2010 there are 33,000 violent street, motorcycle, and prison gangs in the U.S. with approximately 1.4 million total active members (Pastor). These gangs derive most of their revenue from the smuggling and distribution of illicit substances and weapons. Many of the gangs in the U.S. recruit members as young as 11 years old, such as the well known 18th Street Gang from L.A. ("18th Street Gang"). The fact that these gangs prey on inner-city youth who have nowhere else to turn is why they remain so powerful, seeing that for every gang member incarcerated the gangs can simply recruit another member. Due to these reasons I believe that gang activity is one of the largest social issues we face in the United States today.

Gang crimes is one of the main issues in our community and what the residents in most areas in the united states are currently worried about one thing in mind about gangs and one of the answers is violence that incudes drive by shootout in their neighborhoods due to rival gangs coming on other gang’s territory for financial reasons for example like getting people in that area to pay protection money or sell drugs ,recruiting and to gain more ground and parents today are worried for the safety of their kids when they go to school and out while waiting for the bus to come and pick them up every day. Gangs today in our modern society have four important dimensions’ age, size, commitment and attraction.

The overall theme of the study depicts overall “mechanisms and processes that result in the spread and escalation of gang violence” (Pope, Lovell & Brandl, 2001, p. 160). This was achieved by the author by directing his studies on ‘contagion as an aspect of collective behavior that produces expressive gang violence” researchers of this study did this by focusing on “contagion as an aspect of collective behavior that produces expressive gang violence (Pope, Lovell & Brandl, 2001, p. 161). ‘Contagion’ is defined as ‘subsequent acts of violence caused by an initial act; such acts typically take the form of retaliation” (Pope, Lovell & Brandl, 2001, p. 163). These gang related acts can take the form of games, fights, meeting and sometimes homicide. It can also be said that all gang behavior is committed as a group. It then follows that this behavior can safely be categorized as ‘collective’ or grouped behavior. Often times a designated

Gang and gang violence has always been an ongoing problem within the country. Street gangs have evolved into some of the most notorious group associated with murders and killings that law enforcement agencies have encountered. Gang violence has become one of the most serious crime problem happening in the country that involves physical assaults, drive-by shootings, homicides, robberies, prostitutions, and home-invasion along with a long list of criminal activities. It had occurred and multiplied so fast in which it reach an all-time high epidemic of young gang people killed on the streets or entering into the juvenile and prison system throughout the country. Such death occurs on a daily basis especially in the inner cities that are

Working with other students, taking two weeks to finish, and creating a new and inventive topic that has no simple solution. For this group project we decided to present the topic of gang violence. We then talked about gang violence in a perspective that others may have not considered. The purpose of this speech was to have all the students involved and to get the information for each bullet completed and detailed. The target audience could be anyone that ranges to teenagers and adults who have considered joining a gang or others who are even being affected without knowing and to have more knowledge on the topics.