Why Are Gangs Important To Children?

In society today, there is a major problem We live in a society where gangs are taking over our neighborhoods in numbers. It is the responsibility of the individuals to part take in getting their neighborhoods back under control. Gangs are becoming a growing problem in American society. More young people are turning to gangs to solve problems in their lives or for acceptance. When youths join gangs, they drop all their social activities with school, family, and friends. However, individuals ruin their lives, and the chances of them having a decent education, and a successful life by getting involved in gang activity.

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

Many think they are going to become gang famous. Lots of youths join gangs to make fast money. Young people who are not financially stable yet because of reasons such as struggling to find a job or trying to help their parents would consider getting into a gang because it is fast and easy money that can help support themselves and their family. Financially disadvantaged young people would also rather look for a fast way to earn money. In the gang life they can participate in things like one drug deal and make enough money to get materialistic items such as clothes and sneakers than actually having a real job that would take a full months earnings. The appeal of obtaining money fast can be overwhelming for children and gangs are involved in drugs and other criminal activities that give children opportunities to get money

Future gang members tend to become involved in delinquency--including violence--and alcohol or marijuana use at an early age. During childhood and early adolescence, friendships with aggressive peers, conduct problems, and involvement in delinquency are stepping stones to gang membership. Future gang members are likely to have other gang members in their school classrooms, they perform poorly in elementary school, and they have a low degree of commitment to school. They often are identified as learning disabled. They show higher levels of stability in the family, peer group, and school settings, and they spend lots of unsupervised time with friends. Many youth gang members have none of these characteristics. These are good kids, from good families, and they are good students; however, these youths do not remain in gangs long. Adolescents ' allegiances to friends, gangs, and other peer groups tend to be brief.

Juvenile street gangs are expanding, and evolving into crime that has not been linked to gangs in the past, according to the FBI. While they expand into white-collar type crimes like counterfeiting, identity theft and mortgage fraud, they also continue to be involved in illegal activities that they are more well known for, such as drug sales, recruiting new members, violent turf wars, and prostitution, the FBI reports. The number of active street gangs (including gangs in prisons) is around 33,000, and membership in those 33,000 is estimated to be about 1.4 million, the FBI reports. This paper delves into the scholarly literature available about gangs, and for the most part this paper focuses on juvenile gangs albeit some of the data may also include gangs that include older individuals. This paper focuses on gang members' relationships with adults, their interactions with counselors in schools, risk factors associated with gang membership, weapon-related issues and other matters connected to juvenile gangs.

In recent years, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) noticed the increase in the number of teens between the ages of nine to seventeen being involved with gangs in the United States. While most people would agree that gang membership is an individual choice, scholars believe that it is more important to shift the focus of these programs from an individual level to a community level. This literature review examines a few of the prevention programs the OJJDP have implemented in the school’s curriculum and after-school

“Violent crimes committed by juveniles are not diminishing, as other crimes, as reported by the Justice Department statistics, are (Siegel and Welsh, 2011).” We see that juveniles have more access, and more use of the weapons of violence, including gang affiliation. So why do young people join gangs? First of all, the gang

When examining and analyzing gangs and their social meshwork, it is without a doubt that gangs are seen by the majority as social pests in the community. As a whole, these numerous gangs throughout the country are more than just a bunch of criminals covered in tattoos, they are people, with feelings, who just need positivity in their lives. Most gang members, living in impoverish conditions, grew up in households were they were abused, unloved, and neglected. They grow up with no positive social support and become accustom to violence and negativity. More often than not, these children grow up in family’s were gang life is the only life they know, because their family members are gang members as well. They witness domestic abuse, and disarray, and a large majority grow up in households were a father figure is nowhere to be found. Mostly raised by single mothers, these children become hyper-masculine, and feel the need to make up for not having a father, and also because gang life is masculinized by violence and gang-banging. They come to believe that violence is normal and all of this creates a domino effect of involvement into gang life. With no social support, and no clear direction, children take it amongst themselves to find a connection with anyone willing to show them some sort of family structure. Impressionable children find themselves turning to gang life as a means to have that sense of family they never had. In a gang they feel that they are protected and feel in

Gangs are becoming prevalent in today’s society and within our schools. More and more young people are turning to gangs in an attempt to escape their everyday lives and the future, which they perceive as dismal and bleak. They are initially attracted to the prestige and cash flow, which is glamorized by the street gang. Many gangs are actively involved in criminal misconduct, such as drug and gun trafficking, burglaries and homicides. However, street gangs are not just a criminal justice issue, but a social problem, which is triggered by poverty, peer pressure, boredom, despair and lacking a sense of belonging.

Juveniles often join gangs to be accepted into a society of their peers. These juveniles are looking for acceptance and a sense of belonging. They join these gangs for special status amongst their friends, protection from other gangs, financial help, peer pressure, excitement and for some juveniles, they are born into a gang society and it is a family tradition. Gangs can also act like a family. They will praise, chastise and show them a form of love and respect that they are looking for but cannot get at home.

In most cases, adolescents join gangs because of close relationships with family members or friends who are already in gangs. Some adolescents are born into gangs as a result of either their parents’ gang history or neighborhood affiliation (The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency and Prevention: Why Do Youth Join Gangs?, 1998). Protection is also extremely important when it comes to gangs, violence is an everyday occurrence in many gang related environments, and as a result, many adolescents seek out gang involvement for protection from opposing gangs (Taylor &

At this time, it is impossible to believe that youth gangs and juvenile violence is a myth. There is no denying that there are gangs and they are brought about by many of America's youth who wants a quick fix in life. There are plenty of studies to back this up. Results from a national survey of law enforcement jurisdiction showed that there are almost a million gang members in the United States alone. Within that ‘million’, there were 46,000 people involved in gang accidents that spurred violent crime in the country. Due to our general information about gang formation, it is common to blame their development on poverty and other social problems. You must start by looking at the availability of drugs and weapons in the community.

Introduction In the united states, young females and males are joining gangs for various reasons. To prevent our youth from joining gangs, there are different precautions that need to be considered and recognized. For communities to avert youth from joining gangs they need to identify why adolescents find a gang lifestyle beneficial. There are many risks that affect the community when an adolescent decides to join a gang.

For many, it’s because they do not have any choice. If they have parents that are on drugs, then they may need to start selling drugs simply to be able to afford to pay for their own meals, and if they have younger siblings, they also need to be taken care of. Kids are being forced by their own flesh and blood to grow up too fast. These kids are in need of money, and if they are not old enough to get a job, then they are not really given much of a choice on whether they will join a gang or not. There is no age requirement with gangs; some have been known to recruit children as young as six years old. Even if they are able to find a job that will hire them, they could potentially make much larger figures selling drugs. The younger siblings of the kids who must follow this path grow up to see their family member who is active with a gang as a provider who deserves their admiration because they took care of them when no one else could, when no one else would. This brings us to legacy. Legacy alone is reason enough for some to join a gang. If they have a family member who has been in the gang, they may feel it is expected of them to join as well. “Families can have gang involvement spanning over multiple generations. This is one of the toughest forms of pressure to escape, as the gang lifestyle is deeply rooted in family traditions and values.” And for many without members of their family in gangs, they have no sense of familial efficacy at all. They may feel unimportant and undesired by their family at home, but in a gang, they have brothers and sisters to take care of them and who always wish the best for them. The sense of family found within a gang is so strong that they will get into potentially deadly combat with anyone who even attempts to hurt one of their own. Yet another reason that some do it is simply because they have nothing better to do. Society has failed them in that they are in a position where they can’t

Gang involvement is on the rise in most communities affecting socioeconomic status, racial relationships, and inhabitants (Esbensen et. al., 2012, p. 128). Despite a continuous increase with youth gang affiliations in underserved communities, there is still a scarcity of promising or effectual gang prevention and intervention programs offered by schools. Facing time and resource constraints school administrators need to consider the “cost and benefits” of each possible intervention plan (Esbensen et. al., 2012, p. 142). Consequential to low intervention program, risk factors such as communal disorganization, poverty, low educational success, acquaintance with aberrant peers, and little to no parental attachment will continue to make a path toward gang affiliation and criminal actions. Observations have confirmed that gang involvement correlates with increased law violating behaviors alongside victimization, vastly decreasing the possibility of graduating. Without having met the average educational expectations may result in severe consequences throughout an individual’s life. It is for this reason that workshops, rather than programs, that are relatively low to maintain and very beneficial need to be formulated and implemented in schools.