How does adolescent gang violence affect schools in low-income communities?
The most problematic areas that adolescent gangs are active are in low-income urban community schools. These communities have experienced the greatest amount of gang violence since most of the students come from broken families and minority groups. There is a growing amount in both male and female gang members from African American and Latino descent, who cause gang violence and also peer pressure their fellow colleagues to join this group of reckless individuals. Gang violence, mostly occurs between different gangs and ethnic groups. Gangs such as Bloods and Crips are popular among America's youth populations since it is well broadcasted in movies such as Straight
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Out of Compton and songs made by famous rappers such as Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg (Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr). Urban low-income communities that are thousands miles apart all contain similar issues regarding gang violence in schools. According to Stanford’s ethics of development, in the inner city communities of Chicago, gang violence in high schools increased 54% since the 20th century. In Detroit and Los Angeles the same thing is happening the amount of gang violence is growing within high school grounds. Since teachers and school officials are being blindsided more adolescents from these unfortunate communities are joining gangs in these less fortunate communities. Gang violence, mostly occurs between different gangs and ethnic groups. Adolescent gang violence in schools is a growing issue in low income Latino and African American communities throughout the United States. Most adolescent gang members from low-income minority families join gangs because they feel that they're alienated or left out from society. According to Jane Bless-Holtz from the national poverty center says, “The percentage of law enforcement agencies that reported adolescent gang-related issues between 2002 and 2007 more than doubled in low-income cities”. The evidence shows how gang violence is a growing issue as we go on in the future and we need a solution to hold off the growth. Before becoming gang bangers these teens were likely to live in a harsh environment where gangs were seen to be normal. As more people join gangs their fellow male and female students see how beneficial it is so they have a higher chance of being influenced to join one. Some of the benefits are protection from others and a sense of fitting in. Gang violence occurs between two gangs or “beef” with other students. The problem with gang violence is that it always includes many assaults since gang members fight for each other like brother and sister. According to Longres from the University of Tennessee, “Gangs satisfy a whole range of adolescent needs. The most significant of these is the adolescent hunger for peer approval and hunger”. Most adolescents from minority join gangs for the benefits of fitting in and having a close family not really recognizing the harm they are bringing into their lives. The reason why mostly Latino and African Americans, adolescents join gangs is because most Low income communities are usually from those two ethnic groups. Racial background plays a role in why teen join gangs is because they feel more comfortable with their own kind. In communities like (Michaud, New Orleans), (Mulberry, Baltimore), and (Compton, California) all contain a highly dense low-income African American and Latino population. Most of the children are being born into these communities come from broken families where they don’t feel cared for. As the population grows there will be more adolescent gang members since there are going to be more teens feeling isolated. According to Adrian Fleng from the human department of health and human services “There is also a tendency, based on the available data, to separate youth gangs into groups, such as African-American gangs and Hispanic gangs...many gangs developed in response to the threat from other racial/ethnic groups, thus creating conflict in schools”. The quote from Fleng shows how youth gangs are racially divided since adolescents want to be with their own kind rather than with other. When schools are racially divided in these harsh communities from cities like Baltimore and Oakland gang violence in schools is a result since there always going to be disagreement between the two groups. Since teachers and school officials are not reacting effectively enough in these unfortunate communities.
Gang violence is growing and reoccurring frequently. Gary Brunet for the ERIC Urban Education in New York says “schools either to react harshly to overly punitive and restrictive actions are to be so intimidated that they refrain from taking any action at all”. Schools don’t know what to do to stop this matter permanently since school officials don’t obtain the proper training to put an end to this growing matter. Most school administrators and teachers just deal with this issue instead of trying to put a stop to this issue. Overall, schools don’t provide their students with the proper education on diversity and the harms of joining a gang, but they instead just have harsh rules that only infuriate these students.
Gang violence has no solution to stop it entirely, but schools located in low-income communities can take steps to end this growing matter. They can find the students that influence others to join their group. They also can instruct teachers and administrators on how to tell a sign if a student is in a gang. They also can educate their students on diversity and make them feel valued rather than ignored. There isn’t a simple solution to this problem, but schools can take these steps to minimize the amount of gang violence and stop the growth of gang on their premises and in their neighborhoods
overall. In conclusion, adolescent gang violence in low income neighborhood high schools is a growing issue in the United States and must be stopped. Low income communities seem to be the target of adolescent gang violence and school are not doing anything to prevent it since they either do use a short term solution or they do not even know what going on in their own campus. African American and Latino gangs such as the Bloods and Latin kings seem to be popular among young individuals since most youth gangs are racially divided since they want to fit in with their own kind. A majority of adolescent gang members joined because they feel alienated and they don’t have anyone to protect them since they come from broken families. Regardless of gangs’ race and their nationalities, any school that sees that it is experiencing a youth gang problems needs to start a thorough funding programs and comprehension plan of gang preventions through some activities to assist young gangs deal with the psychological effects of violence and to offer healthy and educational alternatives to direct their actions.
The American headlines of any large city will site killings on street corners, robberies, assaults, intimidation, and drug interaction. While not all-criminal activity is associated with gangs, the 780,000 strong members do account for a large majority of the problems that are plaguing America. There is no one-way to stop gang activity in one single swipe, but through a combination of cooperation, education, and training techniques law enforcement can minimize the gang’s movements and even stop a crime before it is committed.
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...
Issue: “The number of youths joining gangs in the inner city has doubled, while the number of gang leaders serving time in prison and being released after good conduct has increased. The crime rate for gang violence has risen 20% from last year” (American Intercontinental University, 2015).
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...
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.
There are few known active members of street gangs attending district schools. The gang activity that is seen is that of ‘want-to-be’ gang members who are influenced by family members who are involved in street gang activity. Other ‘want-to-be’ members are often swayed by popular culture. Primarily, school administrators and district officials encounter smaller groups of students, anywhere from 3 to 10 students,from elementary to senior high, who band together and give the group a name. The group serves as a support system for members. These groups tend to be fluid and can disband as quickly as they formed. Most of these groups are benign and caused few difficulties. On occasion there have been groups that have caused greater disruption including violence, intimidation, and drug use. This has led to suspension and student transfer. When a student is identified as a street gang member or has shown signs of street gang influence the first intervention the district takes is to inform the parents of the individual, awareness is
Gangs have been around forever and there are two types of gangs which are, street gangs and prison gangs. They have the same structures that are divided as leadership and soldiers. The main difference between a street gang and prison gang is that a prison gangs are more disciplined than a street gang. Incarcerated members cannot escape their environment and therefore, are forced to comply with the facilities and gangs regulation. Gangs are always involved with criminal activity and it's difficult to control negative behavior and to lower recidivism rates for gang members.
The streets of Philadelphia are rapidly becoming a home to violent acts and random homicides. Innocent lives are taken every day due to the strong presence of gangs, and the streets are run by unruly groups of fearless young adults. Gang violence in Philadelphia is a major issue, and the citizens will never be safe until gang prevention occurs. Gang prevention is not a simple task, but with the right resources available, it is possible. Gang violence is a problem that will contribute to the collapse of Philadelphia, and it has yet to be solved throughout many generations. With gang violence on the rise, the best solution to gang violence is to educate the youth and parents about gangs and use family support to prevent the creation of gang members from the problem’s core.
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.
Pesce C. Rosario; Wilczynski D. James. “Gangs prevention”. Nasponline. Np. Nov 2005. Web. 28 Jan 2014.
Gang violence is a growing problem in this world. No parent would like to imagine their kids dealing with weapons or being threatened by them. These violence’s affects each child individually and their families as well. These gangs recruit multiple different individuals for many reasons such as bribery, family traditions, or even threatening. Although, many kids feel like they have to be a part of it but there are many resources out in this world to prevent them from believing so. Gang violence has been a problem in society for several of years and is a growing problem each and every day.
Gang violence has been an issue within the United States since the colonization in the late 1400s. Although gang violence has always been around, larger more organized factions began arising in the 17th century. Today, according to youthinfo.gov more than 700,000 youth were treated in the ER for gang related incidents. While many actions have been taken against gang related, not all seem effective. While very interesting on how people are drawn into gangs, our government must implement more strict measurements against the clans of hooligans.
Gang members are typical members of the same ethnic group. Fear and hatred for people of another race is called xenophobia. People who are victims of racism are often racists themselves. Rap music often features lyrics that are offensive to Asians, Jews, and African Americans. Earlier this century, the United States was divided into ghettos. Those days' gangs were from all races. Gangs today sell drugs to every race and share or compete for street corners. Most of gang's enemies are gang members of the same background. The Crips and Bloods continuously wage war at one or another. They even shoot members of the same ethnic group.
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...