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The Role Of Gangs On The Criminal Justice System

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Brendan O’Callaghan
2/24/16
Juvenile Justice
Gangs Assessed Juveniles’ participation in gangs is an ongoing issue continuing to face the Unites States of America’s criminal justice system in modern society. The first active gangs to appear within Western society were inscribed by a respected chronicler of crime in Britain 1873. Gangs first emerged into American society around 1783 as the American Revolution drew to a close. More serious street gangs, however, did not surface until the early part of the nineteenth century. Although gangs appear to specialize recruits at the ages of seventeen and eighteen years old, in some instances, gangs begin to mold future recruits at a younger age. The problem facilitate a rippling effect that can be felt throughout local communities, cities, and American society as a whole, affecting parts of society such as juvenile detention and correctional facilities (breeding grounds for recruitment), the economy, and parts of the local community. Activities perpetrated by juveniles in gangs stretches from drug trafficking and gun trafficking, which often results in physical violence (including murder, homicide, and drive by shootings), to less serious, more deviant offenses that are nonetheless viewed as problematic for the community. With the drastic influence and effect that gangs are having on juveniles, one may scrounge into hopelessness, fearful that there is no solution, when in fact the answer lies within all citizens throughout society

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