Gangs have been viewed as an issue in society by many people. The earliest signs of active gang activity were reported to be in the western civilization. Around the early 1600’s , more structured gangs began to appear.In 1783, U.S gang activity emerged. This not only affected adults, but many of the youth and communities surrounding these groups of people. Influence came from all over benefitting the advance of these structured alliances. Gang origin has no specific set place. Regional focus helps pinpoint how cultural differences, and migration influenced these groups. Emergence of these said groups in the Northeast and Midwest U.S were fueled by immigration and poverty. The Irish, Poles, Italians, and Jews were arriving around 1820 - 1920. Harsh conditions passed through generations shaping later gangs. The Western region was more influenced by preexisting Mexican culture along with Mexican migrations. Specifically Los Angeles and Albuquerque. These regions later gained more immigrants to the deep south. The Northeast, Western regions and the Midwest showed the first signs of street gangs in the United States. Although the first formation of gangs was not to threatening, more serious ones began to show around the 19th century. In New York, they were said to appear around 1820. As stated by (Howell, 1999, 2006) Serious gangs tend to be categorized as having multiple year histories, large varying memberships, being organized meaning having some type of hierarchy with leadership roles, and being involved with violent crimes in the course of street presence including homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, and the use of firearms. Researches and Journalists saw gangs to be a male phenomenon. Because of this, not much inform... ... middle of paper ... ...ds ( Pesce and Wilczynski, 2005). The most effective programs in helping the youth again bad influences contain skill building strategies. One way schools themselves can help is to start enforcing dress code more, looking out for any gang signs or color affiliation. Overall, Studies show that schools who try and keep their students in school and away from bad resources, improve academically. Through time, gangs and gang activity have evolved and set the path for how things remain today. Works Cited Howell, C. James; Decker H. Scott. Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Web. 28 Jan 2014. Howell,C. James;Moore P. John. National Gang Center. Institution for Intergovernmental Research. 2010. Web. 28 Jan, 2014. Moore Joan; Hagedorn John. Nagia. Np. Nd. Web. 30 Jan 2010. Pesce C. Rosario; Wilczynski D. James. “Gangs prevention”. Nasponline. Np. Nov 2005. Web. 28 Jan 2014.
Parents must be cooperative with their child as well into a specific resource center that dealt with indecisive mothers of raising their child(s) to help them suppress their child from joining gangs at an early age. Many parents are not aware of resource centers in their local area where they could seek an assistance and advice from someone expert (Social Worker or Psychologist) especially if their neighborhood is prone demographics of drugs, crimes, and some illegal substance. There are many kids that joined gangs because they are in a neighborhood prone to drugs and crimes where they could be influenced by it instantly by a flick of a finger. An article “What Schools Do to Help Prevent Gang – Joining” by Gary D. Gottfredson shows a statistics of students in certain cities percentage in joining gangs and not doing well at school. “Baltimore City 41%, Philadelphia 61%, and Albuquerque 49%.” Despite their value in reducing the general risk for problem behavior, school-based programs aid strategies are unlikely to reach youths who might be at greatest risk of joining gangs: those who have dropped out of school. Kids that are a drop out of schools are not getting much attention because some programs only focus or covered only those who are not yet involved in such case. It is mortifying to see that government has no action upon the situation. Gangs have a huge negative
As a result, I have found intervention that would help adolescents avoid going gangs. The issues in the family system were attachment issues, violence, and parental role confusion. These issues impacted Reymundo life because it caused him to seek family in gang members. The community issues were oppression, discrimination, marginalization, and gang violence that caused the community to be an unsafe place for Hispanics. To avoid adolescent from joining gangs the interventions that would help reduce that is social intervention and skills
It is surprisingly difficult to pinpoint the origin of street gangs. This may be because of the inherent nature of gangs: a group of individuals who come together for the same purpose and in the case of str...
Gangs are a group of boys and believe it or not girls too, that frequently get together to make all types of vandalism and actions that are not admitted by the law. Gangs have been part of the world for a very long time; they have also evolved through time. For example gangs in the 1960’s are not the same as the gangs we see today in our days. Many gangs were made before and after the 1960’s but the major gangs in this time were: The Crips, The Latin Kings, KKK, The Bloods which were enemies of The Crips, and the 18th Street Gang.
Gangs are a group of people involved in illegal activity. They were formed over 200 years ago in the United States and have now reached approximately 1.4 million individuals. There are five different types of gangs. The traditional gang, the neo-traditional gang, the collective gang, the compressed gang, and the specialty gang are all different types of gangs. Captain Dexter Nelson, a spokesman for Oklahoma City police who used to work in the department’s gang unit, said “all gangs exploit areas that are less equipped or less willing to
In 2003 as a response to communities with a large amount and growing number of youth gangs the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, initiated the Gang Reduction Program (GRP) (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). The formation of gangs is seen as a response to system failures and community dysfunction. As a result, one of OJJPD’s anti-gang initiatives is to make communities safer and have a pro-social environment (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). Furthermore, OJJDP plans to provide economic and social opportunities that gangs often promise to new recruits which are often obtained in an illegal and dangerous fashion (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). OJJDP believes that the GRP is capable of addressing the underlying issues for the increasing popularity and intensity of gang activity in specific suburban and rural neighborhoods (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). The program takes an integrative approach to dealing with the issue of increasing membership and participation with gangs. The following will discuss the program’s goal, theoretical basis, methods of operation, and overall effectiveness. After reviewing these major aspects of the GRP I will personally assess the value of this program and conclude whether or not the evidence supporting the program’s efficiency is strong enough for me to recommend it for implementation.
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...
Chapter 4 describes various theories that provide explanations for the existence of gangs throughout the nation today. Moreover the chapter examines from the earliest theories of gangs to the most recent ones. Along with the other theories described in the chapter, Social Disorganization Theory is the central theory of study. Among other theories, Social disorganization is the most important; it was developed by the Chicago School. The theory goes on to further explain and link crime rates to the neighborhood’s macro-level (ecological) characteristics. The theory’s focus is that ethnic heterogeneity, low socioeconomic status, and residential mobility reduce the capacity of community residents to control crime.
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...
Tobin, Kimberly. Gangs: An Individual and Group Perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
Youth gangs are united under common interests and are typically regarded as a menace to society, often performing illegal activities. Gangs have existed for hundreds of years in a number of cultures, however many people educated on them put the emergence of the modern youth gang in the nineteenth century. Gangs and youth groups have existed since at least the middle Ages. Accounts from England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries describe criminal gangs that robbed, extorted, and raped. Although these early gangs had characteristics associated with the modern youth gang, today’s urban street gangs emerged in the United States where the social and economic pressures associated with rapid industrialization, urbanization, and immigration created an environment where organized criminal gangs could thrive under Mihailoff.
Gangs have become a prevalent problem that influences different areas in society. A solution was suggested ...
...an likely, it will never be conceivable that gangs and gang violence will be hindered entirely. With assistance from the populations in each municipality and township it can be thinkable to halt and reduce the unnecessary quantity of gang followers and gang-related crimes. We must consider that countless means to reduce the magnitude of gangs in America do, in fact exist. Assorted substitutes to being a member of a gang are the availability for programs in the school and community, educational curriculums for parents and children, and capturing the most faithful gang members and directors of gangs. It is essential for the protection of us as American residents to commence in the progression of managing and restricting gangs at the present. Without stopping gang involvement, America will develop further into a brutal and treacherous nation for the blameless masses.
Stopping gang violence requires more than just the law enforcement in solving gang problems. Gang involvement among youths remains to be a prevalent problem to parents and society. It is often associated with violence and other criminal activities within the community. Though reasons remain to be varied, youth participation continues to increase through out the years. In seeking then to understand the motivation for youths joining gangs, it is essential to look at good family function, which promotes healthy development, as well as looking at how poor family function, is related to poor outcomes for youths. The questions to also keep in mind when it comes to family function is which aspects of parenting are risk factors to youths joining gangs as well as how can we help future families in decreasing those risks? Preventing youths from joining gangs in the first place is crucial in realizing on how to reduce youth gang activity. Which leads us to the question “can we stop gang violence?” My answer to this question is yes; we can stop gang violence with effective parenting. Although, school-based programs as well as community-based prevention programs may reduce gang violence, effective parenting stops gang involvement early on from childhood to adolescence.
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).