Hispanic Adolescent Youth Gangs

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Gangs have been a point of concern for states and societies around the world for centuries. Youth gangs are not exempt from that same categorization and have operated for the same amount of time worldwide. Over the last century however, a proliferation of youth gangs has been witnessed, especially among Hispanic youths immigrating into the United States. Researchers and scholars have offered multiple theories as to why youths, and Hispanics youths in particular integrate themselves into gang organizations. Three schools of thought arise when conducting gang integration research. Rational Economics Theory1 proposes that youths, and all individuals, join gangs for financial and material benefit. Cultural Deviance Theory considers youth gang members as exposed to a lower class subculture that rationalizes and even promotes crime, delinquency and gang membership, contrasting to the “normal” set of prescribed values and culture in more civilized society. Acculturation Theory argues that youths join gangs as a means to be acculturated by ethnically or compositionally similar peers, whether as a response to ethnic marginalization by members of the host country or inability to acculturate to their new home. Rational Economics Theory is a powerful argument for explaining the membership of some gang members. However, its methodology does not provide an adequate answer to the question of why Hispanic youths join gang because it fails to analyze ethnicity when asking its research questions. The theory provides the assumption that the lure of money is equal for all people, but some research provides contradictory evidence, especially in the case of Hispanics. CULTURAL DEVIANCE THEORY. Acculturation Theory provides the most reasonable explana... ... middle of paper ... ...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.

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