Street Gangs: Removing them from the community

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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. States such as California and New York have a big problem with gangs. Gang-related homicides in Los Angeles County has increased dramatically in the last 16 years, reaching epidemic proportions especially for young male African Americans and Hispanics, according to a study by co-authored by Deirdre Anglin, assistant professor of emergency medicine at LAC+USC (Maceo para.1). When someone decides to join a gang they have to let current members of the gang know that they are going to be a member for life and they are dedicated to the gang, this can be proven in a gang affiliation. Boys are usually forced to fight several gang members at the same time. This is called being "rolled-in" or "walking the line." Girls may be forced to have sex with several gang members or fight other female members. For some gangs you have to beat someone up, rob a store or commit a drive-by shooting. This puts innocent citizens in danger. In Chicago, the year 2012, more than 40 people were shot over Memorial Day weekend alone (Childress para.2). Re... ... middle of paper ... ...ow Street Gangs Work" 26 September 2006. HowStuffWorks.com. 02 November 2012. Kelley, Don. "Street Gangs Got Start in L.A.." corrections.com where criminal justice never sleeps. The Corrections Connection, 13 2010. Web. 2 Nov 2012. . Maceo, B. (1995). University of southern California news. Retrieved from http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/1376.html Del Barco, m. (2008, march 10). South L.A. gang violence claims young victims. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88045529 An eHow Contributor, Initials. (2010). How to stop gang violence. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/how_2090450_stop-gang-violence.html National Drug Intelligence Center, Initials. (2009, July 1). Drugs and gangs fast facts. Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/ndic/pubs11/13157/index.htm#relation

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