Gangs have existed in America since the early eighteenth century, they first rose a outsider institutions that provided membership and sense of self to individuals who were not seen as part of the community. Traditionally, gang membership correlates to familial membership; parental and family membership in a gang elevates the possibility of youth also joining a gang. Though these outsider institutions have developed overtime, they pose some of the most violent threats to public safety, but also to those they say they will protect. It is this violence and lifestyle dominated by power associated with gang memberships that create an appeal to black youth and change the course of their lives. Gangs are a creation of an ongoing cycle, in which society has failed to improve conditions for teens who are looking for new ways to belong in the community.
Adolescents who join criminal gangs are often continuously exposed to violence, drugs, and other negative behavior because they reside in socially disorganized neighborhoods. Individuals who reside in crime prone areas are more likely to become delinquents. In addition, many youths learn deviant behavior from their peers who engage in criminal activities. According to Miller’s (1992) estimation, in1982, there were about 760 gangs within the cities of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Miller (1992) notes that these criminal organizations recruited youths which caused more gang activity within the public school system. Furthermore, gangs that had a large membership of deviant youth were more likely to use gun-violence towards rival gangs than other gangs with older active members (Miller,
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
“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).
Abstract: This paper will discuss the correlation of youth gangs and how the cognitive and social learning theory comes in to play, and why female and male juveniles end up in the system. It will touch bases on how youth surroundings have a lot to do with the decisions they choose to make and the life style they end up living. Gangs usually recruit youth off the street, if a child sees that being a part of a gang is an everyday thing and is normal then they will be influenced more to do that. The cognitive theory ultimately states that a child learns from observing and from there environment. This essay will touch on the different statistics and the reasoning for youth gangs and gangs in general, it will also show statics of youth who are apart of gangs and are incarcerated. It will also show how it correlates with the cognitive theory and social learning theory.
Esbensen and Peterson draws on their research on how youth gangs were formed and operated and the stereotypes the youth gangs faced in the United States. Esbensen and Peterson outlined that sex and race/ethnicity were related to youth gangs and paid particular attention to the results provided by the National Youth Gang Survey. According to the National Youth Gang Survey, 90% of the gang members are Hispanic or African American. Based on a study on 11 cities in the United States, it was found that gang youths looked extremely similar to the youth residents in that specific community. Esbensen and Peterson outlined the community risk factors of youth gangs which includes individuals, family, peer, school and sex and race/ethnicity risk.
Criminological and Gang MembershipApril SmolkowiczGeorgia Gwinnett CollegeCriminological and Gang MembershipSocial scientists have researched and documented empirical findings of the many one-of-a-kind influential factors of formative years gang and non-gang involvement across the United States. While it is now not feasible to predict whether or not a younger man or woman will be a section of a gang, possession of certain danger elements can extend the probability.Social Leaning Theory Article One The motive of this paper is to analyze adolescence gang and non-gang attitudes and behaviors with the social learning idea factors and its possibility of predicting youths self-reporting of gang membership, explicitly with the ethnicity of “Hispanics’ and Anglos, of eight-grade college students in two southwestern cities”. The lookup article is empirical that meets the requirements of the capstone mission with the gaining of understanding on the difficulty of adolescence gang and non-gang membership attitudes and behaviors. The hypothetical context is primarily based absolutely on comparing key variables of the social learning theory, advantageous reinforcers, terrible punishers, and indications of differential definitions.The lookup method of cross-sectional quantitative records is used, that is then recoded systematically and equipped to be entered into a pc database. This evaluation will serve as an additional evaluation with the previous longitudinal information that is used
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.
The 1998 National Youth Gang Survey (2000) asked for a real estate agent sample of U.S. police agencies about youth gang crime. Mainly based onBased on police, gangs are frequently associated with enterpriseorganization enterprise crime, most likely probably the most most likely probably the mostessentially most likely probably the most mostundoubtedly most likely probably the most drug sales, robbery, burglary, automobile robbery, and robbery. researchers have recognized gangs organized about drug sales or other illegal companiesorganizationsfirmscompaniesbusinesses (Fleisher 1998 Howell and Gleason 2001 Sullivan 1989) nonethelessneverthelessneverthelessnevertheless mentioned that, other peopleother other doubt that gangs
Gangs continue to be an issue throughout the United States especially street gangs. These gangs are meticulous and organized on how they do things, but also how they target youth. There are many suggestions and studies that show the differences in youth who are involved in gangs versus those who are not. It is stated that youth who come from broken or dysfunctional families, youth tend to fall into gangs. In addition, some of the youth gang affiliated families are more likely to also engage in deviant behavior( Maxson, 1998). It is evident that it some youth stay in the cycle of deviant behavior because it is a learned behavior. Comparisons made between gang youth and non gang youth show that non gang youth have a strong support system and the usual nuclear family. In addition, they have people guiding them, whereas youth involved in gangs unfortunately are disciplined or guided through the criminal justice system(Maxson, 1998). These findings are interesting because it introduces readers on many of the reason youth fall into gangs.
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 programs, risk factors such as communal disorganization, poverty, low educational success, acquaintance
There are many overlapping themes and ideas present within the research report and the textbook. One main idea that was present in both documents, was the cultural aspect of gang integration. In both the textbook and in the research report, culture is intrinsically linked to gang involvement, as often times the culture that an individual practices will impact their standing within a gang. Furthermore, culture binds people together, which also happens when an individual joins a gang of like-minded and culturally similar others. Another area that was discussed in both documents, was how gang activity is related to school. In the textbook, school and other educational and institutional systems either excluded youth, or were simply not attended
Using the stereotypes of the American Culture, this study by Alleyne and Wood is based on Gang Involvement in a British setting. The study examines individual, social and environmental factors that can have an impact on gang-involved youths or non-gang involved youths. In order to find which factors play a role on involved/non-involved gang youth, the authors test for measure of individual delinquency, neighborhood gangs, parental management, commitment to school, and deviant peers. To help differentiate amongst the factors, the authors use a structural equation modeling, which provided the results in a statistical measure. Based off of the results, gang-involved youths were older than non-gang involved youths and that individual delinquency and neighborhood gangs predicted higher chances of gang involvement. The other factors of parental management, commitment to school and deviant peer pressure provided an indirect relationship to gang involvement.
The Department of Justice defines a gang as "an association of three or more individuals, who identify themselves by adopting a group identity, who creates an atmostphere of fear, or imitadation" (What is a gang? Definition, 2011). The FBI states that "there are now 1.4 million gang members involved in the 33,000 different gangs that are active in the United States" (Snyder, 2012). Gangs are a reality and a part of the everyday life of thousands of teens. There are different types of gangs, whether it's a street gang, prison gang, youth gang, criminal gang, or a drug oriented gang (Carlie, 2002). To some, even a fraternity can be labeled as a type of gang.
When we think of the word "gangs" we usually don’t see an image of youth in our heads, we automatically tend to see an image of male adults with tattoos, guns, drugs, etc. However, this is not always the case; some gang members are also juveniles. A data from Denver 's self-reported youth survey alone, found that 47 percent of gang members were ages 12 to 14, 31 percent were ages 15 to 16, and 22 percent were ages 17 to 18. (Robert, Herbert, & Scott, 2016) When looking at the number of active youth gangs nationally,