1. (A) Discuss some of the reasons why minority youth may join gangs. (B) What are some of the reasons for female juveniles, in particular, to join gangs? (C) Lastly, provide some examples of how juvenile gangs have loyalties along racial lines. Research from Hanser and Gomila (2015) revealed that most minority groups “live in lower-class neighborhoods in large urban centers where the greatest concentration of law enforcement officers exists” (p. 340). Racial disparity and discrimination are common among juveniles who are born in the United States from immigrant parents, particularly those residing in lower-class neighborhoods where crime is prevalent. Minority juveniles will also find themselves facing various difficulties and challenges …show more content…
Hanser and Gomila (2015) states, “For many younger juveniles, adult gang members serve as role models whose behavior is to be emulated as soon as possible to become full-pledge gang-bangers because of the prestige, respect, and sense of belonging that the gang-banger role provides them” (341). Other reasons why female juveniles join gangs was due to lack of family support and various types of violence in their lives. Hanser and Gomila (2015) noted “The involvement of juvenile females in sexual activities, substance abuse, and violence was clearly related to membership in gangs” (p. 348). Sexual abuse was among the primary reasons why female juveniles join gangs. Female juveniles living in urban ghettos are more likely to be sexually abused, and they join gangs as a way of coping and to escape the realities of poverty. Female juveniles will experience more hardships as compared to make juveniles, before they are fully received as full pledge gang members. As previously stated, sexual abuse was among the primary reasons why female juveniles join gangs; however, sexual abuse does not end there because it continues to occur throughout their gang life (Hanser & Gomila,
He provides us a with a depth overview of a three-year study of 40 minority youths, 30 of whom were previously arrested. The study was done in Oakland, California. Rios give us a clear overview inner city young Latino and African American. Rios emphasize on the difficult lives of these young men, who are faced with policies in their schools, communities, and policing. Importantly, he gives us a clear understanding
Morch, S., & Andersen, H. (2012). Becoming a Gang Member: Youth Life and Gang Youth. Online Submission
The factor of racial profiling comes into play as federal grant programs award police for rounding up as many people as possible. This very tactic was demonstrated by the CompStat system in New York City and further expounded by Victor M. Rios’s analysis of the themes over-policing and under-policing. These themes focus on how officers, police certain kinds of deviance and crime such as, loitering, or disturbing the peace, while neglecting other instances when their help is needed . Rios also stresses how the accumulation of minor citations like the ones previously mentioned, play a crucial role in pipelining Black and Latino young males deeper into the criminal justice system. Rios implies that in order to decrease the chances with police interaction one must not physically appear in a way that catches the attention of a police or do anything behavior wise that would lead to someone labeling you as deviant . Unfortunately, over-policing has made it difficult even for those who actually do abide by social norms because even then, they have been victims of criminalization . However, since structural incentives like those that mimic CompStat are in place, police simply ignore constitutional rules and are able to get away with racial profiling, and thus interrogate, and search whomever they please. Since these targeted minorities acknowledge the fact that the police are not always present to enforce the law, they in turn learn strategies in order to protect themselves from violence that surrounds them. Young African American Americans and Latino youth thus become socialized in the “code of the street”, as the criminal justice system possesses no value in their
Mihailoff, Laura. "Youth Gangs." Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood: In History and Society. Ed. Paula S. Fass. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 916-917. Student Resources in Context. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
Female youths join street gangs on the basis of gender conflict, lack of family support and
...t of Young Members." Journal of Criminal Justice 28.6 (200): 473-82. ScienceDirect. Elsevier. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. Geilhufe, N. L. (1979) Chicanos and the Police: A Study of the Politics of Ethnicity in San Jose, California. Washington: Society for Applied Anthropology. Print. Miller, H. V., Barnes, J. C., & Hartley, R. D. (2011). “Reconsidering Hispanic Gang Membership and Acculturation in a Multivariate Context”. Crime & Delinquency, 57(3), 331-355 Walker‐Barnes, C. J., & Mason, C. A. (2001). “Ethnic differences in the effect of parenting on gang involvement and gang delinquency: A longitudinal, hierarchical linear modeling perspective”. Child Development, 72(6), 1814-1831. Wallace, A.F.C. and Fogelson, R. (1965). “The Identity Struggle”. Intensive Family Therapy: Theoretical and Practical Aspects (I. Boszomeniji- Nagy and J. L. Framo, eds). New York: Harper and Row.
“Teen Gangs”. (2009, Apr. 9). Issues & Controversies On File. Retrieved Mar. 29, 2014, from Issues & Controversies database.
Society has marginalized women into gender related roles that made it almost impossible for them to succeed. Women in society have been taught to become puppets to a male master. Women in society were supposed to follow the orders of their male counterparts. Some of the women who felt that they have been marginalized by society tend to create or join subcultural groups known as gangs. The question remains: are female gang members used as disposable accessories in gangs or are they forming their own gang to liberate themselves from gender related roles set by society? Girls in male gangs have been viewed as disposable accessories, but they have changed the nature of a gang by creating all female gangs eliminating the male dominant figure. I believe that female gangs have been misunderstood and are liberating themselves from the stereotypes set by society.
The importance female gangs is that often times females joins gangs because of poor home life, a search for an identity, and a search for social interaction and belonging. Women who are in a gang early-life experiences presented a depressing picture of abuse, parental crime, and fatherless homes (Fleisher, 1995, 1998; Miller, 2001). When females joined a gang, they joined a network of friends. Depending on the intersecting gang networks and the age, propensity to violence, crime involvement, young girl on the street would experience different steps of male influence
Drug and alcohol abuse is one of the most common physiological impacts triggered by gang membership. According to Cepeda and Valdez (2003) and Decker (2000), gang members are more prone into substance abuse considering it is often used by gangs in their activities and sometimes, it is used as an initiation rite for gang membership. Gangs and substance use have long been associated with one another as many gangs sell these substances within the black market. Studies indicate that gang members do indeed understand the risk of bad drugs, but they see marijuana as an acceptable substance considering they can still control their use of the substance unlike other illegal drugs (Decker, 2000, pp. 395-406). In female gang members or those affiliated to gangs, they would use occasional drugs and alcohol use in order to become in with their peers. The more they are connected to gangs, the more these females become enticed to use drugs or drink alcohol (Cepeda & Valdez, 2003, pp.
Juvenile criminal gangs have long been a significant issue with the criminal justice establishment. Youths coming together to commit criminal acts normally attributed to adult and more vicious criminal organizations are now being routinely committed by juveniles. The reasons for these youths in committing the activities have somewhat baffled author tries as well as scholars and researchers. It must be noted however, that juvenile delinquency is not new; laws in the past have sought to control the criminal and deviant tendencies of children, and prescribing changes from rehabilitative to retribution against criminal acts committed by juveniles. Many of the common assumptions-from being accepted and venting violent behavior- have long been considered as the more traditional reasons accepted as the reasons why youths join gangs. However, research studies have shown that youths are joining gangs for different reasons than just material gain and acceptance. The paper seeks to use the theories espoused by Agnew as well as other supporting postulates proffered by Akers and Sellers, Guillon, and Merton in analyzing the issues as well as the possible solutions in lowering the propensity for youths to join these gangs.
In general, the news media call much attention to the rising female delinquent as an increasingly autonomous being who commits criminal acts without the help of males. The Boston Phoenix reports, “Now, many fear, more young women are adopting the rituals of gang life,” while an article in the Christian Science Monitor claims that female gang involvement is now a “documented problem.” The article in...
Young people may get pure pressured by their friends into joining a gang. Furthermore, numerous young people join street gangs because they feel they are rejected by society and do no have the same values. Having faced either physical and/or sexual maltreatment, young people who are maltreated tend to have impaired physical and emotional social functions. References Bell, K. E. (2009; 2007).
The criminal justice/social justice issue that I plan on studying is “Youth Gang Activity and Violence”. The reasons why I wanted to study this topic was because there has been issues on the youth generation today. The resent story was a group of gang affiliated went around cutting people and then a few days late the girl gang affiliated started cutting only girls for appreciation. Also knock out, where a group of three to four teens go around neighborhoods and punch people in a way that they fall and take their belonging.
From stressful environments to influences and abuse will lead a child to gang life in their youth and adult years. Some children are motivated to become part of a gang for the sense of connection or perhaps to define a sense of who they are. Others are motivated by peer pressure, feeling the need to seek protection for themselves and/or their family, because a family member is also a gang member, or to make money. There are many other risk factors that may contribute to youth’s involvement in gangs: growing up in an area of heavy gang activity, gang involvement within the family, history of violence in the home, to little adult supervision, unstructured free time, and lack of positive role models. A life of gangs means death or the possibility of a prison sentence.