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How to make gang violence better
How to make gang violence better
Effects gangs have on the youth
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Gang violence is one of the most damaging acts that Chicago faces. Gang violence has been rising due to gangs growing in numbers. Gangs have been responsible for a lot of homicides, beatings, and robberies. Due to all these heinous acts, communities and mainly kids have been affected. It affects the mind of youths by means of influence, distraction, and curiosity of how it feels to be part of a gang. Gang violence stops families from moving into specific locations and they also make several businesses relocate to other better locations. Gang violence is a very serious downfall living in Chicago. In two articles written by Mark Guarino, “Behind Chicago’s High-Crime Summer: Persistent Street Gang Violence” and “In Chicago, Can Community Involvement Combat Gang Violence” he adds how Chicagoans are severely alarmed by the series of murders there are due to gang violence, including the death of an innocent eight year old girl who was caught between a heated gang war while playing outside (Behind Chicago 1), while adding how a gunmen approached a car and started shooting and killed a 20 ...
The first chapter of Policing Gangs in America is entitled, “Studying the Police Response to Gangs.” The primary purpose of the chapter is to establish how police agencies; Inglewood, Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Phoenix in specific, respond to gang problems in their respective areas. This chapter served as an introduction, giving a brief history of gang-related policing, how the public and media see the gang problem, research studies done regarding gangs and the recent declaration to shift away from suppression-oriented strategies as a result of overly aggressive actions toward citizens. Examples of this misconduct are given in the forms of gang units from Las Vegas, Chicago and Houston.
The deaths per year done by guns, 80% of them are gang related. If I Grow Up, written by Todd Strasser shows the life of a male kid growing up in the projects in Chicago. DeShawn wanted didn’t want to join the gang and stay in school. But his family didn’t have money or food. His friend that was in the gang had a bunch of money. So DeShawn joined the gang because in school they didn’t teach them much, and the money that his family got was a lot more of it when he got in the gang. I think that DeShawn had a choice not to join the gang because he could get a job, could have gotten a better education, and other people have gotten out of the projects.
Gang violence is a complex issue with many causes consisting of; lack of jobs, dysfunctional schools, and a biased judicial system, these things have shaped and molded the social structure of this South Central society into something dark and perverse, it has given rise to violence and death, and the inconvenient truth of the matter is it’s our societies fault. References Anderson, Elijah. 1990. The. The Code of the Streets.
CNN presents the documentary, Homicide in Hollenbeck, spotlighting gang activity in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollenbeck. This documentary explores the subculture of gangs existing within Hollenbeck from a several perspectives. The people documented include a mother who lost both of her sons to gang violence, a priest that has tried to help rehabilitate gang members, a police officer that has worked in Hollenbeck for five years in the gang unit, and a current gang member. For a conclusion, Homicide in Hollenbeck focuses on a juvenile exposed to gang life on the cusp of decided where they want their life to lead; gangs or freedom. Problems attributed to the high rate of gang activity and number of gangs in Hollenbeck are the high poverty rate, low employment rate, and broken families that make up the majority of Hollenbeck. The crime most discussed, as per the title of the documentary, is homicide The number of gang related homicides has risen even though the criminal behavior of gangs has ultimately decreased in the neighborhood. In order to fight the overwhelming gang presence, the police believe in increasing the amount of gun power on the streets and number of jailed gang members. The priest who runs Homeboy Industries stated that he feels most gang members are just young men who can’t get out of the gang life. With more funds and opportunities, he thinks the problem could be decreased. In the end, the documentary mentions that the FBI has formed a gang center where local law enforcement agencies can share information to gain more knowledge and to better fight the presence of gangs.
When help presented itself, many of the people at least made an effort to change and realize that violence was not the answer. The amount of people that are shot and killed in Chicago is a surprising number. Many of the violence does not come from someone necessarily being a bad person, but someone who is unwilling to back down from any situation (Kotlowitz, 2012). In Chicago many believe that “death before dishonor” is a good motto to live life by (Kotlowitz, 2012). The funerals that people attend are just a reminder to them, that one day the way they live their lives on the street will catch up to them (Kotlowitz, 2012). The violence interrupters are working hard in Chicago to help the people in the society, but if people do not want to change it is hard to make a difference (Kotlowitz, 2012). The people in Chicago also have to put in the work to make the community a better place, so that they feel safe leaving their houses instead of feeling like “every time [they] go outside somebody is going to get killed” (Kotlowitz,
...amily members have area rugs; don’t clearly delineate changes in the grading of floors, and lack bathing/toileting facilities that accommodate for easy access. Often modifications have to be made by family to the organization of living space and their health behaviors.
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.
The community research I’m doing is street gang violence in Pittsburgh, Pa. In Pittsburgh, its rank top worst gang violence you could possibly ever think of in the world. I choose this topic for my report because lately on news all you been hearing is killing, robbing, and stealing. A lot of people get killed or somehow end up in a cross fire. Pittsburgh is a very most beautiful place to live but don’t let that fool you. Every city has there good parts but in Pittsburgh has a lot of bad parts. For instance, downtown in the city of Pittsburgh is not safe at all. There are so many thefts than in real neighborhoods, including poorer ones. Crimes also tends to be random and opportunistic so just about any citizen can be a victim whether they are
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...
The dramatic increase of gun violence in Chicago has many questioning the effectiveness of state policies and police tactics. For many Chicagoans, gun violence is a common occurrence and this would not be the first time in which a big spike has been observed. In fact, Chicago was doing well overall in each crime category until recently in 2016, when they ended the year with 762 homicides victims that were gun related. Towards the end of 2016, Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago, had a press conference with the communities at the Malcom X College. He goes into detail of how he hopes to see a sharp decline on the heavy issue of gun violence surrounding their city. It’s an issue in which the mayor says will only work through a combined effort of its
The gang violence situation has changed dramatically over the years. It has changed from fist fights to people getting ...
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...
Violence Gangs are known to be very violent. Gangs use violence to protect their own gang members from enemy attacks.
Gang activity and violence is a major problem in cities. Joining a gang makes a person feel a sense of belonging and need when one feels alone or unneeded. It’s a bad outlet for a person. Some examples of gang activity is graffiti, drive-by shootings, fraud, robbery, and assault. 100% of cities with a population greater than 250,000 reported to have gang activity and violence. Knowing the signs can stop the problem at the source.
Gang violence is a major problem in our society today. If nothing is done soon, gang violence could take place in our neighborhoods. MW Klein, a gang researcher, says that gangs are an aggregation of youths who perceive themselves as distinct, and that are viewed as distinct by the community. Klein also states that the gangs call forth a consistently negative image of themselves through their actions (Klein). To those involved in gangs however, gang membership provided a youth means of attempting to consolidate their gender identities (Douglas). Most of the early American street gangs have historically been ethnically based. Early gangs were mainly Irish, Polish, or Italian (Klein).