Street gangs have been a part of the American culture for centuries. As a young child growing up in the 80’s on the North Side of Fort Worth, Texas I saw my fair share of gang activity and the violence associated with it. Little was I aware of a notorious and deadly gang that was transforming known as Mara Salvatrucha, also referred to as MS-13. What began as a street gang, MS-13 now has activity in much of the United States and according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is, “one of the most violent and rapidly growing transnational street gangs.” The people of America need to realize the great danger MS-13 possess. With some street gangs being relatively harmless, there are others such as Mara Salvatrucha that are becoming more fierce and territorial. The beginning of the MS-13 can be traced to Los Angles in the 1980s. * At first, Salvadoran families fled their country to escape the civil war, “that left more than 70,000 people dead and displaced a fifth of the population.” (Abadinsky, 188). “El Salvador is one of the poorest countries in Latin America with almost half of its population living in poverty.” (Abadinsky, 188). With the United States being known as the Land of Opportunity, the war and poverty combination was a good reason for Salvadorans to enter the U.S. and call it “home.” Initially, members of the Mara Salvatrucha were a group of Salvadorans that “banned together for support and protection from other gangs already present in Los Angles...” (Kindt, Post, and Schneider, 248). Common gang initiation for a prospective member is being beaten by several gang members, also called “jumped in” described in Gangs and Law Enforcement. (Schmidt, 39). Immediately, these new gang members have been introd... ... middle of paper ... ...s Most Threatening Terrorist Networks and Criminal Gangs.” PALGRAVE MACMILLAN. 2009. Print. Mitchell, Mitch. “Star-Telegram: 67 gang members arrested in North Texas”. 14 June 2011. Web. 11 November 2011. “MS 13 GANG.COM: MS 13 in Texas.” January 2010. Web. 11 November 2011. < http://ms13gang.com/index.html > Schmidt, Linda M.. “Gangs and Law Enforcement”. Charles C. Thomas- PUBLISHER, LTD. 2007. Print. Wilber, Del Quentin. “The Washington Post: The Crime Scene”. 11 January 2010. Web. 11 November 2011. < http://voices.washingtonpost.com/crime- scene/gangs/ms-13-gang-out-to-kill-rape-an.html> * No specific reference provided since this information is practically in all sources and becomes common knowledge after doing lots of reading on the subject.
In the documentary of “The World’s Most Dangerous Gang” it reveals how it’s group gets followers. Children can be as young as eight and be recruited into MS 13. The name MS 13 is Mara Salvatrucha 13. Mara is the Spanish word for “group” or “clique”. Salvatrucha stands for “street smart”. The number 13 was chosen out of respect and because “M” is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet. When children or adults are adopted to this group they have to first go through the initiation process. This ritual consists of being beat up by members of MS 13 for thirty seconds.
The MS13 is a perfect example of a counterculture. They are a world within themselves. The gang is very organized and structured; there is hierarchy with the gang. There is a significant amount of money flow within the gang. A few ways the gang obtains money is by drug dealing, illegal weapons, vendors pay the gang to work in their territories and for their protection, and drug dealers also pay the gang to earn the right to sell drugs in their territories. There are laws and rules that a gang member must abide by. One very strict rule for a gang member is silence. If a gang member becomes informant and it is found out that they are, it will more than likely result in death for the informant. The breaking of laws and rules are punishable, even by death. They have a law system and law enforcement of their own. Check courting is a punishment served by the gang to gang members who break the laws of the gang. There are initiations one must endure to become a member of the gang. Jumping in is one of the initiations, a brutal thirteen second beating by multiple people at the same time. (World’s Most Dangerous Gang) There is a communication system within the gang. They use stacking to communicate, tattoos, graffiti, and an overall dialect that is unique to the gang. This counterculture exists internationally inside and outside of prison walls. Within the gang there are individual cliques, but when threatened they will come together and fight alongside one another. It is instilled in a gang member to kill to maintain territory and to acquire new territories. T...
Morch, S., & Andersen, H. (2012). Becoming a Gang Member: Youth Life and Gang Youth. Online Submission
Having grown increasingly frustrated with these rampant displays of impunity by gangs, the Salvadoran public pressured its government to prioritize public security above all else. In response, the Salvadoran government has attempted to tackle the gang phenomenon using several strategies and methods which have evolved, due to the political and economic dynamics of the country and region, over time.
According to the National Gang Center, the change is gangs from 2002-2007: +12% in larger cities, +33% in suburban counties, +27% smaller cities and +24% in rural counties (National Youth Gang Center, 2009). The gang problem in the United States of America has been getting worse since the first gang was formed by Irish immigrants in the early 1800s. For low income and areas with high population, gang involvement with youths has also been getting worse. Regarding gang-related homicides, it is for difficult data collection industries to gather correct information because after a murder is committed it must be determined whether the murder is gang-related or not. But despite that, reports of gang-related murders are concentrated mostly in the large cities in the United States of America. Including San Jose, where there are long standing and persistent gang problems, which mean there are a larger number of documented gang members. There are literally thousands of anti-gang advocacy groups because there are so many concerned parents. These groups support politicians who are working to try to create legislation to reduce the gang problem in the United States of America. There are a number of theories on how to combat the gang problem, but a strategy which rarely fails is to take small steps in progress and continue to move forward.. There will never be a perfect solution that solves every aspect of a problem. But one policy that covers a wide range of issues involving gangs is the United States Constitutional bill S.132, “Gang Abatement and Prevention Act of 2009.” It is the most extensive and sophisticated piece of gang legislation to appear in the last decade, it has many objectives on increasing and enhancing law enforcement resources committed to the investigation and prosecution of violent gangs. It has had more supporters from both parties than any anti-gang bill in the last decade. S.132, “The Gang Abatement and Prevention Act of 2009” has the potential to deter and punish violent gang crime, to protect law-abiding citizens and communities from violent criminals, to revise and enhance criminal penalties for violent crimes, to expand and improve gang prevention programs; it will give jobs back to police officers such as those in San Jose who lost their jobs and will help law enforcement indentify gang crimes to be able to put murderers behind bars faster.
Gang involvement has been quite higher than past years. The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey estimates that about 32.4 percent of all cities, suburban areas, towns, and rural counties had a gang problem (Egley et al., 2010). This represented a 15 percent increase from the year 2002. The total number of gangs has also increased by 28 percent and total gang members have increased by 6 percent (Egley et al., 2010). This shows how relevant gang related activity is in today’s society. More locations are beginning to experience gang activity for the first time. Gang crime has also been on the rise in the past...
Theriot, Matthew T., and Barbara “Sunshine” Parke. "Native American Youth Gangs." Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice 5.4 (2008): 83-97. Print.
3. Maclure, Richard, and Melvin Sotelo. 2004. "Youth Gangs in Nicaragua: Gang Membership as Structured Individualization." Journal of Youth Studies 7:417-432.
*Many of the juvenile gangs that have formed in the United States in recent years are reminiscent of the post -war pachucos (Paz, 14).
As a result, the law enforcement officials have proven to have a lack of empathy and the poor connection to their county. Which has provoked many citizens to speak out against law enforcement and in view of the opinion of the newscasters it has “created a climate of fear” and has left the Latin community feeling intimidated and helpless. The government has precautionary reactions to this violence and have observed the organization of MS-13. The video then speaks of the gangs as “domestic terrorists” with the most threatening crimes, such as the piling unsolved homicide cases, which have led to many suspects. Government officials chose to state that these gang members would be eradicated from their community, by remaining fully committed to “finishing the job”.
(179) Some of the primary examples of the power of the Los Zetas in Tamaulipas define the increasing role of immigrant-related human trafficking issues, which relate to kidnapping as a business opportunity. Los Zetas is an organization that kidnaps immigrants from Central America against their will in order to extort money from immigrants wanting to get into the United States:
This book review covers Policing Gangs in America by Charles Katz and Vincent Webb. Charles Katz has a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, while Vincent Webb has a Ph.D. in Sociology, making both qualified to conduct and discuss research on gangs. Research for Policing Gangs in America was gathered in four cities across the American Southwest; Inglewood, California, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona. This review will summarize and discuss the main points of each chapter, then cover the relationship between the literature and class discussions in Introduction to Policing and finally it will note the strengths and weaknesses of book.
The presence of gang violence has been a long lasting problem in Philadelphia. Since the American Revolution, gangs have been overpopulating the streets of Philadelphia (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). Most gangs in history have been of lower class members of society, and they often are immigrants into the U.S (Teen Gangs, 1996). Gangs provided lower class teens to have an opportunity to bond with other lower class teens. However over time, the original motive of being in a gang has changed. In the past, gangs used to provide an escape for teens to express themselves, let out aggression, and to socialize with their peers. It was also an opportunity for teens to control their territory and fit in (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). In the past, authorities would only focus on symptoms of gang violence and not the root. They would focus on arresting crime members instead of preventing gang violence. Gangs are beginning to expand from inner-city blo...
Hallswort, S. And Young, T. (2004) Getting Real About Gang. Criminal Justice Matters [online]. 55. (1), pp 12-13 [Accessed 10 December 2013]
Many stereotypes of gangs have been fabricated. The problem is that a majority of gang members do not fit these stereotypes, which, in turn, makes it hard for the to be caught (Klein). Traditionally they organize their group around a specific neighborhood, school or housing projec...