The wild world we live in is full of so many different things that affects us everyday especially on the many different experiences we go through that teaches us things that we learn and grow from. I want to focus on the subject of gangs and different aspects of the gang world and correlation with the concern of drug abuse and addiction. The important topics that I want to bring up that I really think connects gang life and their personal experience and addiction issues. The first topic that I think is very important is the individuals might be in for different reason. The second topic I will also be focusing on is trauma. The environment and surroundings different hardship and traumatic situations many people go through that might influence …show more content…
People that go through family trauma has often have issue later in life or might cause them to leave and enter into a even worse environment a perfect example people that end up in gangs after already experience trauma at one point in their live. The article Your Child and Gangs: What You Need to Know about Trauma - Tips for Parents by The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, it had some important points on what really might cause the youth to turn to gang life. They bring up the trauma that youth might experience has anticipates youth’s involvement in gang activities. The high number of delinquent and gang-involved youth mostly likely experienced some kind of traumatic events in their lives. When youth has experienced the trauma like abuse, neglect, maltreatment, or exposure to domestic and community violence and also being around addiction too. Especially when youth in exposed to community violence that has shown to increase the risk of gang involvement. They also bring up and important question of why do gangs appeal to traumatized youth. As traumatic stress isn’t the exact reason for gang involvement and delinquency, it can makes gangs more appealing to them. They also point out that as gangs can seemingly be a sense of safety, control and some form structure they missed in the lives of traumatized youth. It was interesting they also brought that gangs also provide a place for youth to repeat influenced patterns of behavior like violence. When school becomes their last priority and lack of positive influences, traumatized youth might find that missed emotion be feeling success, belonging and self-worth through becoming a member of a
1. (A) Discuss some of the reasons why minority youth may join gangs. (B) What are some of the reasons for female juveniles, in particular, to join gangs? (C) Lastly, provide some examples of how juvenile gangs have loyalties along racial lines.
Gangs have been in existence since the beginning of the Roman Empire. There were speeches made by Roman orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero, which references groups of men who constantly fought and disrupted Roman politics (Curry, 2013). The history of street gangs in the United States begins with their emergence on the East Coast around 1783, as the American Revolution ended. Though many believe the best available evidence suggests that the more serious street gangs likely did not emerge until the early part of the nineteenth century (Sante, 1991). Although our country has had their share of feared gangs like in the 1980’s with the turf war between the Bloods and Crips, back in the 17th and 18th century the Mohocks of Georgian, England were one of the most feared gangs. What draws juveniles to the gang lifestyle? Many people will say that most gang members are children from impoverished communities, single family homes where there was no father present, or maybe there is a more psychological/sociological answer? By appearance and presence most gangs cause fear, crime, and disillusionment in the communities they occupy. Throughout history joining a gang has been perceived as a life without any reward, yet by joining this lifestyle many juveniles are able to gain the needed stability and security in their lives.
The large negative impact on Oklahoma that gangs have caused resulted in a change in our state. In all fifty of the United States, more types and groups of gangs are committing more crimes and illegal activity. Gangs have significantly impacted Oklahoma by increasing violence, homicides, and drug trafficking, and something must be done. The amount of people affiliated with gangs is rapidly increasing. Oklahoma authorities say that gangs are an urban problem. In a report in the year 2010, studies showed that all seventy seven Oklahoma counties had some form of gang activity. They first started forming in the state in the 1980s. Some gangs were started from locals, and others were formed from the west coast. There are approximately 120 different sets of gangs in Oklahoma City including many different ethnicities.
Gangs can be classified as a group of adolescents who are perceived to be a threat to society, are mostly recognized by their name and territorial power, and have been involved in numerous acts that violate criminal law procedures in North America. (Esbensen, Winfree, He and Taylor, 2001). The first theme that was present in the pieces of literature collected was the lack of opportunities. As previously stated before, becoming involved in a gang starts at a young age. An article titled “Youth Gangs and Definitional Issues: ‘When is a Gang a Gang, and Why Does It Matter?’” explicates what exactly constitutes a gang, starting with young adolescents. Using a survey conducted in the United States, Finn-Aage Esbensen, L. Thomas Winfree, Jr., Ni He, and Terrance J. Taylor (2001) surveyed over 5,000 students. The questions asked were based on how and why they chose to be in a gang (whether they were a part of it currently or before the survey was conducted). The authors concluded their research in deciding unanimously that there was a connection between a social learning theory, and the commencement of gangs. Correspondingly, Herbert C. Covey (2003) created an academic book entitled, Street Gangs Throughout the World, which gave an in-depth look at the different types of gangs across the world. Throughout several chapters, Covey looks at the root causes of how any why gangs are formed. The author noticed that there was a significant trend among young, deprived adolescents and gang membership. (Covey, 2003). Covey (2003) indicated that the more underprivileged a youth was, the more likely the chances would be of them joining a gang, which is a major concern.
Violence is a very common characteristic of street gangs, and gangs make up 45-90 percent of violent crimes in most areas (FBI, 2010). Respect, Reputation, and retaliation are the three R’s that lead to violence among street gangs (Pacheco, 2010, pg.33). Recently initiated gang
Even though gang violence is not a new phenomenon there has been a noticeable lack of Canadian based research done on this topic (Gordon, 2000; Varma-Joshi, Baker, and Tanaka, 2004). Although there is limited knowledge about gang violence, research shows that males are more likely to engage in gang activities (Gordon, 2000; Jemmott, B., Jemmott, S., Hines, and Fong, 2001). There are several factors that contribute to why many youths become involved in gangs. One of the main reasons why visible minority youth become submerged in gangs is because they are searching for a sense of identity and belonging (Gordon, 2000; Meloff and Silverman, 1992; Nodwell and Guppy, 1992; Fantino and Colak, 2001). Gordon (2000) finds that, “they want to belong to a friendly, supportive group that include their friends or close relatives and this includes a desire to be with individuals from the same cultural and ethnic group; gang members felt ethnically marginalized” (pg. 51). The reason why minorities are attracted to gangs is because they create a family setting which embraces their differences as opposed to being judged on their differences by mainstream society.
The root of gang violence all begins at home and then spreads. A troubled teen may be lacking the love and attention from their parent whether it is because they work too much, or simply do not care. Then, the teen will result attending school and will begin to find that comfort in places that they can feel stability. According to Ramsey, Rust, and Sobel “girls tend to become involved in gangs for prosocial reasons […] [such as] robbery, […] shoplifting, and prostitution [while] male gang members tend to be involved in activities such as drug dealing and fighting.” Most people involved in gang activities can feed off a person’s vulnerability and use that to convince a person that it is ok to commit crimes. Finally, that teen will remain in that life style and probably involve others or can get out, but surely be affected by the past for the rest of their lives.
Tobin, Kimberly. Gangs: An Individual and Group Perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
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.
These gangs tend to hang out in certain places and claim it as their territory. Many of the gang members are drawn together by similar interests, and are brought up in similar neighborhoods. The Social Disorganization Perspective The social disorganization perspective follows the substance users to their living era and environment. Social disorganization perspective examines why individuals move from one environment to another and how they struggle to adjust to a new environment, and how they are lured or forced into substance use, deviance, or criminal activity in the face of difficulty in the new environment or due to their individual maladjustments. On the other hand it studies how a particular environment causes stress, disillusionment, and disorders among individuals who live in it, and why substance abuse, deviance, crime, and other social problems tend to increase in a time when or in a place where change occurs abruptly.
What is love? Many people would answer this question differently. People fall in love, get married, and form families with children, pets and houses. Every family differs from one another. The reason that no identical families exist in this world is that people understand love in their own ways.
Young people may get pure pressured by their friends into joining a gang. Furthermore, numerous young people join street gangs because they feel they are rejected by society and do no have the same values. Having faced either physical and/or sexual maltreatment, young people who are maltreated tend to have impaired physical and emotional social functions. References Bell, K. E. (2009; 2007).
With the promise of a greater life by the gangs, the excited teens get attracted to the illegal activities of the mob (Bryman, 2008). Some of the teens are addicts of substances and they tend to believe that being in a gang will give them the freedom to continue using it. At home, the challenge can be bad since parents may not even have an idea of an addiction or ways of coping. Therefore, most teens are forced to join a mob because they have the desired freedom and access to the drugs. Some of the teens are pressured into joining a mob if their association will add to the mob’s criminal actions.
Hallswort, S. And Young, T. (2004) Getting Real About Gang. Criminal Justice Matters [online]. 55. (1), pp 12-13 [Accessed 10 December 2013]
Although gang members insist that gangs are the only way to ensure success today, others maintain that the only way to survive is to eliminate them. Many gangs threaten the safety of everyone in their 'hood (territory or neighborhood). Innocent people living in gang war-torn towns live in constant fear of death. However, for children who have no one to look up to and no future to look forward to, gangs can become their surrogate family. Gangs are not only a set of friends or a nights activity. Gangs are a way of life. There is no way to eliminate them, but changing the violent nature of many gangs is possible. Admittedly, gangs cause many serious problems, but they could end up helping more people than they hurt.