Youth Gang Affiliations

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.

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

According to the Chicago Police Report’s CompStat within the year of 2014, there were 407 murders citywide. Chicago, Illinois is one of the United States biggest cities, with one of the highest crime rates. Chicago is also known for their large amount of gangs including, youth gangs within the city. According to the Chicago Police Department, they defined by their department, a gang is, “An organized group with a recognized leader whose activities are either criminal or, at the very least, threatening to the community” (Chicago Police Department, 2014, para.1). Chicago has one of the highest population of gang’s members in the city with about 150,000 gang members. If a city has an extreme number of gangs, then youth members just come with its nature. According to the National Forum of Youth Violence there were 1,109 young kids that had been being shot. Out of the 1,109 kids, 216 of them resulted in losing a life (Emanuel, 2010 p. 10). If we were to have more recognition towards this issue, then we would see a major decrease in youth gangs along with the violence that comes with the gang lifestyle.

States in 2004” this just supports the statement that it is a huge problem in the United States (Cooper, 2009, p. 1). Unfortunately, the Youth of America and these other countries have been a large demographic of these gangs for many years due to many contributing factors. One criminal factor that initiates gang violence are the overwhelming presence of adolescents and young adults involved with gangs, Celinda Franco states that not only youth participants but whole “youth gangs” have been on the radar for policy makers since the early 1900’s (Cooper, 2009, p. 2). Another factor is the nature of the remorseless and often violent nature of these gang related offenses many gang members act as if they have no conscience and no values, and the fact that a large percentage are “easy to influence” youth doesn’t help the case that most commit gang crimes on a whim. Finally, the fact that most of these gang related offenses that the youth carries out are in poverty stricken neighborhoods that have very poor socioeconomic status, this it is a bad situation that is difficult to escape from because young adults and adolescents do not have the means to move outside this zone and may never attain this goal (Cooper, 2009, p. 3).

When potential gang members become exposed to certain life situations they have a higher risk of joining a gang. When someone joins a gang they become susceptible to partaking in actions that they would not normally do. This paper will give some idea of what a gang is and describe some factors that can motivate a person to get involved with a gang. It will also explain the problem associated with an increase of gang member activity that result of a higher gang homicide. The data will show that the estimated number of gangs was at a high, then that number trended downward. Finally the number has risen to the present and has steadily plateaued at the high. In this report I will explain the relative correlation of the high in gang activity to

The reason behind the street gangs has been largely associated with myriad of social and economic reasons. Among the reasons as to why youth join gangs are desperation due to poverty as well as breakdown of a family as a cohesive unit. According to the survey of gang areas, Los Angeles showed identical poverty map within the area. In ss much as there are some other reasons behind youth joining gangs, when critically analyzed it, reveals that such reasons are always directly or indirectly related to family poverty and situations. Examples of these gangs are Surenos and Nortenos whose mode of operation and activities though different, share some similarities.

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.

Oftentimes, adolescents will spend time with gang people for approximately annually prior to making dedication to participate (Decker and Van Winkle 1996). Initiation rituals, including being beaten with a row of gang people ("walking the roadInch), to carrying out a criminal offense or doing harm to part of an opposing gang are occasionally needed to participate a gang, but they are frequently inconsistently applied (Fleisher 1998 Spergel 1995 Burns 2001). Many gangs also positively recruit new people, particularly when gang membership is low. Martin Sanchez-Jankowski (1991) offered three typologies of gang recruitment: (1) Fraternity-the gang promotes itself as, "awesome, stylish, the social factor to stay inInch (2) Obligation-the gang attracts an individual's communal feeling and (3) Coercion-the gang uses physical and mental

People often get into to gangs by offending members of the gang through a disagreement, debt, or for protection. Every day accidents happen new to the area or not, we may not always know our way. In some way shape or form, anyone can disrespect a gang member by simply bumping into them without purpose, angering the specific member causing more conflict between the gang member and the person that bumped into him leading the person into to the gang. Gang members try to help people that are in debt by getting them into to selling things illegally or stealing things. Researchers have found that “Teens also join gangs because of the mistaken belief that membership will protect them. But gang members are more likely to be victims of crimes than people not in gangs” (Klein, 2009) the realization of that person is soon realized when they or the gang comes to an end. Even though most gang members either ends up in jail, injured, or dead. People still see a safety in gangs leading to further conflict.

The subtle interplay of area poverty, high crime rates, under resourced communities, racism, intergenerational gang traditions, the easy availability of drugs, can all combine to influence young people to join a gang (OJJDP. 1994). Research also shows that rejection by peers at a young age, resulting in low self-esteem and unhappiness can lead to aggressive behavior, a condition that creates a higher risk for gang involvement (Thornberry, Krohn, Lizotte, Smith, and Tobin 2003). Moreover, a young individual can have friends who are gang members, which indeed increases the risk of gang membership. In reality a young gang member is likely to do poorly in school (Wyrick & Howell, 2004).

Americas youth gang problem has always been an issue dating way back. Just looking back 30 years ago during the baby boomers era. We can see that the youth associated with gangs around the ages of 13-17 grew to about 10 percent of the population. In the 1980’s and 1990’s movies like “Colors” and “Boys in the hood” and other Hollywood productions helped spread gang life to suburban and rural areas. Research today even shows us that gangs are now present in Europe and other foreign

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

No guardian might want to envision their children managing weapons or being undermined by them. These violence’s affects each child separately and their families as well. These groups enlist various diverse people for some reasons, such as bribery, family traditions, or even bullying. Although, numerous children feel like they must be a member of it yet there are numerous assets out in this world to keep them from trusting so. Gang violence has been a problem in society for several of years and is a growing problem each and every day. American youth becoming involved in gangs is not a new phenomenon. The first documented youth gang was in the late 1700s in New York, so gangs have been part of American culture for well over two centuries (Arinde, 2006, p. 34). Most of the youth who get involved with gangs come from poor neighborhoods in large cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. Seals (2009) expresses the general consensus on gangs thus: Gangs of aggressive and violent young offenders, terrorize neighborhoods in more than three-quarters of American large cities (Snyder & Sickmund, 2006). These collectivities attract only a third of high-risk youth, but their members account to about 80% of the serious delinquencies among minors (ibid.). Thus, although juvenile violence and crime can be linked to inferior socioeconomic conditions and racial issues, it is clear that gangs nurture young offenders towards lives of

Abstract: This review studies in depth research done on street gangs. Social issues have social scientists turning away from including this in their research around this time. Sociological views have been changed dramatically in the past 40 years due to gender and racial studies. Also, women have started to join gangs since America has been changed with woman equality laws passing.

A number of risk factors are associated with gang membership, gang activity, and gang involvement, but there is no single factor or set of factors than can be used to successfully predict which youth will, or will not, become gang members. Hill et al. (2004) use The Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP)—a longitudinal study that tracked 808 persons since 1985, when the participants were 5th grade students at 18 Seattle, Washington public schools that serve high-crime neighborhoods—to outline childhood risk factors that predict joining a remaining in a gang. The risk factors associated with gang membership were found in the neighborhood—availability of drugs, youth in trouble, low neighborhood attachment; family—family structure, bond with parents, low household income, etc.; school—leaning disabled, low academic achievement,