Gang Injunctions: Ineffective to Prevent Violent Crimes in California In now days, the increase in gun violence troubles many communities in the United States. Many of the high-crime neighborhoods have become a total gang-controlled area. In 2013, the total number of gangs in the United States are 24,500 (Federal Bureau of Investigations). As major cities in America struggle to respond to the growth of gangs and attendant crime and violence, the law enforcement come up with gang injunctions to reduce crimes rates. Although a couple of gang injunctions have been granted in Texas and Illinois, the overwhelming majority of injunctions have been issued in California. In 2005, the total number of violent crimes were 5,985 alone in San Francisco that year, and 31, 767 in Los Angeles (Disaster Center). According to Matthew O’Deane, a police officer, and Stephen Morreale, an Assistant Professor of Worcester State University, a study and review was conducted of 25 southern California gang injunctions to understand if civil gang injunctions reduce crime. As a result, the study found that the crime rate decreased by 14.1% in injunction areas. Several California cities recently moved forward with gang injunctions to reduce violent crime rates. Gang injunctions have become a distinct Californian approach to fight crimes since they were first introduced in the 1980s in Los Angeles. The injunctions that have been granted primarily affect impoverished, minority neighborhoods and may actually serve to further stigmatize and oppress innocent minority youth who also live in these communities. Cities have issued them to fight local gangs, and promise that gang injunctions will cut down violent crime rate, and make the neighborhoods more safer; ho... ... middle of paper ... ...ht to defend himself in the court. Moreover, the gang injunctions obtained in the target area should be defined clearly for gang members. It is important to make sure that the identification of the target area are easily understood by both the police and the gang members. Gang injunctions are ineffective way to prevent crimes, because they lead to many problems that hurts the communities. Gang injunctions are suppressions instead of preventions. Therefore, using force would not help to prevent crimes. However, they are legal tools to enable communities to take back their streets and public places from the gangs and gang members that terrorize them. Gang injunctions did contribute to the stabilization of communities and reduce gang-related crimes, they just need improvements to make it more useful and acceptable for both gang members and residents in target areas.
This book also has the perspective of the police, which show the gang violence as a more black and white or good versus evil issue, and their militant approach to gang reformation. Jorja Leap holds a view that to stop gang violence, the same members that were once gangbanging need to divert the youth away from the same lifestyle.
Over the past 60 years there has been a recent phenomenon in the development and rise of gangs and gang violence. This is exceptionally apparent in South Central Los Angeles where the Bloods and the Crips have taken control of the social structure and created a new type of counter culture. Poverty in this area is an enormous problem caused by a shear lack of jobs; but just because there is a lack of jobs doesn’t mean that there will be a lack of bills to pay, so sometimes selling drugs in order to keep a roof over your head seems like the most logical option. Crime often times flourishes in these regions because the inconvenient truth is; crime pays. Senator Tom Hayden stated “It’s been defined as a crime problem and a gang problem but it’s really an issue of no work and dysfunctional schools.” this statement is in fact true, but with an exception it is a more broad issue than just involving school, and lack of jobs but goes beyond into social structure as a whole and more specifically the judicial system, this can all be supported by three sociologists Chambliss, Anderson, and Durkheim.
Schmidt, L. M., & O'Reilly, J. T. (2007). Gangs and Law Enforcement: A Guide for Dealing with Gang-Related Violence. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher, LTD.
First let's focus on the fact that gang related crime is one of the most dangerous challenges facing society and law enforcement today. They are younger, more brutal, unafraid of consequences and becoming increasingly more vicious. Gang members work together as cliques, they commit all sorts of violent crimes including murders, rapes, robberies and kidnappings. "They live in aimless and violent presents; have no sense of the past and no hope for the future; they commit unspeakably brutal crimes against other people often to gratify whatever urges of desires drive them at the moment and their utter lack of remorse is...
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.
Street Gangs are becoming popular in many cities across the country. According to the Department of Justice's 2005 National Gang Threat Assessment, there are at least 21,500 gangs and more than 731,000 active gang members (Grabianowski). Gangs bring fear and violence to neighborhoods, drugs, destroy property, involve youth in crimes and drive out businesses. When you have gangs in a community, it affects everyone in the community. An alarming amount of young adults are joining gangs and becoming involved in illegal activity. Most gangs have a rule that when you join the gang you are a member of the gang for life. Gangs can be removed from our communities with more community involvement and education.
Although in practice the STEP Act helps pinpoint gang members and brings awareness to crimes in the community. There are some who argue that the STEP Act is applied disproportionately to minorities. Countless first hand interaction with the criminal justice system have continued to reinforce the claim. In order to prevent street terrorism, I believe the first step is creating programs that deal with the prevention of joining gangs at an individual level. Examples of prevention are mentoring programs, investing in after school programs and providing opportunity for trade school and support for those who are trying to leave the gang life. These are some of the options that can prevent street terrorism.
Give the kids and teens after-school programs such as sports and mentoring programs. The government should not waste money funding useless laws, instead it should build more boys and girls clubs in the neighborhoods where gangs are likely appearing to organize. Most people who join a gang are just looking for a sense of belonging. These programs will show them they are smart and talented. It is that sense of belonging when they’re in an after-school group.
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.
Gang Injunctions are meant to be a pre-emptive tool that gives the police the capability to arrest gang members merely for being organized in public view, demonstrating a gang hand sign, or wearing gang specific clothing within the specified target area. There are some people who claim that gang injunctions violate first amendment rights. One of the main reasons being that Gang injunctions permit the police to contact and arrest suspected and known gang members: In certain cases before they have the opportunity to commit a crime. Other talked about criticisms are that gang injunctions is that it fails to tackle the root problems of gang activity. Another is the miss use of very valuable resources and taking it away from programs that could address those problems; gang injunctions also give the police too much power in harassing young men of color (even if they are not gang
Spergel, I., Chance, R., Ehrensaft, K., Regulus, T., Cane, K., Laseter, R., . . . Alexander, A. (1994, October). Gang Suppression and Intervention: Community Models Research Summary. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/gangcorr.pdf
But, the past decade has been noticeable by the increase of gangs and gang-related aggression, it has also seen the rising flowing together of Federal, State, and local pains to manage gang activity and decrease gang violence. Furthermore, it has seen the increase of more practical, community-based schemes for dealing with gangs.
According to the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (2007), “twenty-three 23 percent of students reported the presence of gangs on their school campus or in the surrounding area in 2007”. This indicates that there was an increase of twenty-one percent from 2003. Schools in urban areas seem to be affected the most by gangs, with thirty-six percent in 2005 vs, twenty-one in suburban area schools (Arciaga, Sakamoto, & Fearbry Jones, 2010).
Statistics show that school-based programs as well as community-based prevention programs minimize gang involvement. School-based programs address substance abuse and violence, which reduces the risk factors for gang involvement. For example, in the article “What Can Schools Do to Prevent Gang Involvement,” by Gary D. Gottfredson, he states, “universal programs in kindergarten through secondary school, which [is a] rewarding educational environment im...
Otero, Juan. “Curbing street gang violence,” National League of Cities. 21 Dec 1998. General Reference Center Gold. Jan 2007