What It's Like To Be A Gang Member

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 have been a growing issue across the United States for many decades now. Youth gang violence may have started around the ‘50s, but did not become a serious issue until the ‘80s and from there went through a downward spiral in some cities like downtown Los Angeles, which was where the notorious Bloods and Crips gangs both started. First, let’s simply define a gang as a group of people, mostly men ranging for ages 14-30, who claim territory and use it to make money for themselves and their neighborhood through illegal activities such as trafficking drugs and weapons. There are many reasons and components that are factored in when conducting research to hypothesize “why do people join gangs?” That is why it is necessary to compare and contrast all the social, biological, psychological, developmental, and substance abuse aspects and relate it to joining a gang. It is also important to touch base on the differences between males and females that join gangs, such as power differentials, social learning differences and social stratification differences.

The gang gives its members a sense of family. It helps them get up in the morning because they know they have someone to care for.

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

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.

This book was different than other literature that had been produced, because Duran was able to get closer and inspect the deeper characteristics of gang life and gang members themselves. This is something that other researchers in the field are typically not able to accomplish. He took on the perspective of investigating what role racial oppression had with the development of gangs. His perspective and his ex-gang membership background allowed him to be more trusted by all the gang members that he interviewed for this research.

For the children of the projects, the pressure to join a gang never waivers. Quick cash and protection are hard forces to resist in a world of poverty and violence. However, the children's role in these gangs is inferior to

This week I read chapter 5 of American street gangs (old book) Tim Deleany mentioned 3 points of what happens inside a gang that many don’t know, the first point is the categories they have based on the age the recruits are, the second point is the categories they are placed in depending on the activities they are involved, the third point is the process that involves the recruitment, punishment, and leaving the gang. At the conclusion of the paper I would be providing an experience my uncle went through when he was leaving the gang.

Adolescents are the majority in the gangs, and it is because the older member allure them into the lifestyle. Gang culture has major effects in neighborhoods. The fashion and the money are two attributes that attract the adolescents. For initiations, young men are involved in violence, drugs, and all sorts of crime. These attributes are deeply attach to the gangs. Because of these attachments it is difficult for kids to break away from gangs, or it is complex for kids to engage in productive activities. Moreover, aside from the crime, the culture is enticing. The colors, the details of the thread, and the logos allow for the fashion to be presentable. The money gives access to many things that is not accessible to someone who is employed in a minimum wage job. The notoriety of the culture allows for the gangs to be alluring. In Scorpions, Walter Dean Myers tackles gang issues in ways of doubting gangs and admiring the arts.

This just shows

There are more than 450 active gangs in the city of Los Angeles, California. These gangs in Los Angeles, California all combined have over 45,000 members. From 2015-2017, there was over 16,398 gang crimes in Los Angeles. The book Always Running is by Luis Rodriguez and he summarises his rough life that he has been through in L.A, and the significance of this essay to inform the readers about how gang life is. Despite the school board’s recent sentiments regarding the lack of value that fiction provides, fiction should remain in the school’s curriculum because there is no purpose in gang affiliation, gangs are everywhere throughout America, and gangs serve no purpose, and only cause trouble. The message in Always Running is gang affiliation

It takes a lot of guts and no small amount of courage and cunning to infiltrate a street gang in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago, but that is what Sudhir Venkatesh did as a 23-year-old graduate student at the University of Chicago. In order to find out first-hand how a gang that earns its money selling crack cocaine functions from the inside, Venkatesh dared to get involved on a superficial basis with the gang. But Venkatesh wasn't seen as person who was just trying to get a handful of quotes and get out because his involvement with the gang lasted for nearly ten years.

This shows that some gang members would do atrocious things just to fit in, not because they actually wanted to do it. “Beginning in the mid-1960’s, the violence in my neighborhood escalated, and by 1970, a major gang war had erupted.” This quote tells us that things got out of hand and daily life started to get more and more fatal until a fight took place. They didn't hold themselves back when traumatizing others. “I learned early on that in the streets, it was dog-eat-dog and survival of the fittest.”

“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).