Rise Of Gangs In Schools Essay

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The rise of criminal gangs in the United States of America has caused a great concern from the authorities and the parents. Criminal gangs have continued to flourish even under the strict federal law (Craig, Vitaro, Gagnon & Tremblay, 2002). This has been uncontrolled especially in areas where there is a mixture of minority groups in the States. This rise has coincided with continued concerns for the increase of juvenile crimes, with many youths joining gangs as well. According to the reports by the National Youth Gang Survey (NYGS), the period that the youths joined these illegal groups peaked in the mid-1990s (Craig, Vitaro, Gagnon & Tremblay, 2002). However, in the period between the years 2002 and 2008, there was an overall increase in gang activity by 15%. There was also an increase of gang activity across all sectors of the US population. The same trend of lawlessness is depicted in students in different schools. For instance, in the late 1990s, a survey was conducted to investigate the presence of gangs in schools (Schram & Gaines, 2008). 28% of the national sample of schools carried indicated that there was a gang member in school, although this trend began to decline up to a period that ended in 2000. After that, the trend …show more content…

Communities must strengthen families and schools, improve community supervision, train teachers and parents to manage disruptive youth and teach students interpersonal skills. Research has it that youths between the ages of 12 and 17 are ones that have the most significant danger of being recruited into gang groups. Further, many gangs target youth’s who are stressed and depressed because they have the zeal and anxiety to prove many they are somebody in the society. Therefore, parents, teachers, and counselors must play a big part in the community to ensure that they curb the menace

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