Youth Gang Violence

In the years prior to the creation for the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) program, America’s inner cities was experiencing a substantial increase of gang membership along the youth living in impoverished communities. During the early 1990s, many viewed gang activity as a particular community’s problem, but as youth and gang violence was increasing drastically across the United States’ inner cities, the public’s perception about this social issue changed. Due to the rapid rise of gang violence and youth membership, delinquent behavior by youths began to receive a substantial amount of academic and media attention.

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.

Surveys of youth and/or young adults (hereafter, surveys of youth) also assess parameters of gang phenomena. Estimates of prevalence rates of gang membership ranging from 5% to 25% have been reported from major projects initiated by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Also by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (the National Evaluation of the Gang Resistance Education and Training; Bjerregaard & Smith, 1993).

Gangs can be classified as a group of adolescents who are perceived to be a threat to society, are mostly recognized by their name and territorial power, and have been involved in numerous acts that violate criminal law procedures in North America. (Esbensen, Winfree, He and Taylor, 2001). The first theme that was present in the pieces of literature collected was the lack of opportunities. As previously stated before, becoming involved in a gang starts at a young age. An article titled “Youth Gangs and Definitional Issues: ‘When is a Gang a Gang, and Why Does It Matter?’” explicates what exactly constitutes a gang, starting with young adolescents. Using a survey conducted in the United States, Finn-Aage Esbensen, L. Thomas Winfree, Jr., Ni

Youth gang violence anywhere has a bad reputation and a curious history. During the 1990’s the number of gangs in the U.S. Increased by six times as many as there were in the 1980’s.

Gangs are nothing new to American society, what is new and disturbing is the recent spike in juvenile crimes with reported ties to certain gangs. Youth gangs have been prevalent in schools in large cities since the 1970 's. However, they have become even more prevalent in schools in the recent past. In the student survey component of the 1995 National Crime Victimization Survey, more than one third (37%) of the students reported gangs at their schools and the percentage of students reporting the presence of gangs at their schools nearly doubled between 1989 and 1995, and then decreased in 1999, according to a more conservative measure.

In order to define the nature and scope of juvenile antisocial behavior we must determine that “gangs are variable, diverse and difficult to define in precise terms” (White, 2007) and that “adolescent antisocial behavior is an issue of major concern to parents, teachers, police and governments and is a significant cost to the

In addition to the issue of defining a gang, the reasoning and motivation behind the use of violence by these groups of individuals appears. It is quite difficult to identify whether a crime is gang related or not, such as in the case of the shooting of Randall Barrs. One definition of gang related crimes are that they must be committed within the group context and clearly promote the goals or interests of the gang (Mares 2010; Rosenfeld et al. 1999; Howell 1999). This creates the debate in regards to whether individually motivated crimes are still gang related. The importance of this pertains to how gang related crimes would be documented within the justice system. However there is no dilemma in seeing the positive relationship amongst gang memberships and violent crime. Klein (2006) finds that youth who self report their gang involvement are four to six times more likely to engage in serious violence than youth who are not gang-involved. Howell (1998) states that official police statistics from the United States show that gang members are twenty times more likely than other at-risk youth to engage in a drive-by-shooting, ten times more likely to engage in a homicide, eight times more likely to commit robbery and three times more likely to engage in an aggravated assault. In addition gang members are also more likely to carry weapons such as firearms and use them (Wortley 2008). Studies have shown that gang violence is more likely to occur in public places, involving

Gangs are first and foremost social groups. Delinquency tends to be a group phenomenon, but the gang context amplifies

The purpose of this paper is to review and verify a recent study by Scott H. Decker of the University of Missouri – St. Louis, entitled Collective and Normative Features in Gang Violence (Decker & VanWinkle, 1996). The study will attempt to address why our local increase in gang violence has reached monumental heights causing an increase in gang members appearing your court.

Gang and gang violence has always been an ongoing problem within the country. Street gangs have evolved into some of the most notorious group associated with murders and killings that law enforcement agencies have encountered. Gang violence has become one of the most serious crime problem happening in the country that involves physical assaults, drive-by shootings, homicides, robberies, prostitutions, and home-invasion along with a long list of criminal activities. It had occurred and multiplied so fast in which it reach an all-time high epidemic of young gang people killed on the streets or entering into the juvenile and prison system throughout the country. Such death occurs on a daily basis especially in the inner cities that are

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

“In the United States, studies of large urban samples show that youth gang members are responsible for a large proportion of all violent adolescent offences. On average, 20% of gang members were responsible for committing about 80% of all serious violent adolescent offences.” Gangs have started to realize that recruiting younger members to commit crimes, benefits them. This is because the gangs know that they aren’t old enough to be trialed as an adult. This has caused more gangs to do the same thing.

Gang violence and activity among the U.S. has grown increasingly over the past twenty-five years. As these numbers increase, schools have ultimately become affected. A study released by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reported, “45% of high school students have gangs or gang members on their

Delinquency is simply criminal behavior, whether it is shoplifting, doing drugs, fighting, or vandalizing property, delinquency is the act of committing minor crimes. This delinquent behavior is mainly committed by the younger population. All youths can be a delinquent, but that doesn 't necessarily mean that they are in a gang. Gang membership is a major gateway for delinquent behavior. Dr. Jody Miller says that studies show that young gang members are responsible for a substantially large proportion of delinquent acts (Jody Miller, 2001). She uses the data from the Rochester Youth Development study, Thornberry and Burch report to back this up. This study shows that youth gang members, boys and girls, accounted for 86 percent of all serious