Approximately 260,000 youth in the United States are gang-affiliated (Harris et al.). Depending on the young child's lifestyle, attitude, or environment, all have a say in impacting the child's joining a gang. Why are youths getting involved in joining a gang, and who or what are the ones directing them to join a gang? Youths are too young to be aware of real-world problems, but they don't see that joining a gang could be one of them. One of the reasons young boys join gangs is because of relatives. Another reason is because gangs select children with characteristics of delinquent behavior. Additionally, having a single parent family can affect children participating in gangs. Also, children who are associated with gang members are highly likely …show more content…
The home life of a child is important; having a single parent in a household can make it a lot more difficult for them to manage the child. The function of the family structure is that there is a high chance of children being directed to choose to join a gang, as in the article it says, “adolescents living in single-parent households are more likely to engage in deviant activity (including truancy, running away from home, smoking, school discipline problems, and behaviors that lead to contact with the law” (Steinberg). For this reason, single mothers may have a difficult time being able to command the child to behave or follow their directions. Single mothers not being able to provide structure for their youth may cause them to act out in a way that makes them want to join a gang. Due to this crucial time in adolescent development, teenagers may turn to gang participation. As the article says, “single mothers have less control over their youngsters, that this lower rate of control is related to their children's greater involvement in deviance, and that "the raising of adolescents is not a task that can easily be borne by a mother alone” (Steinburg). Moreover, having one parent absent can increase the probability of gang membership; children living in a single-parent household is very impactful for them. Specifically, just the mother being the head of the house can be quite difficult for her, and it may lead them to make poor choices, such as joining a gang. Furthermore, gang membership is an indicator of chronic substance use in adolescents, which can be the cause of
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).
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.
With an average of one murder per hour, El Salvador, a relatively small country of about six million people, is on its way of becoming the country with highest homicide rate in the world. The violence that has become a Salvadoran social norm derives from many different factors, with the main factor being the high rate of gangs. With over 60,000 gang members actively involved in gangs, the nation has been taken under a sort of violence and mass death only caused by wars (Vice News, ‘Gangs of El Salvador’). Yet, I argue that this war does not continue on because of the high position gangs hold in Salvadoran society today, but is found in its impoverished youth. It is in the impoverished youth that violence is found, not because they partake in
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...
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.
The presence of gang violence has been a long lasting problem in Philadelphia. Since the American Revolution, gangs have been overpopulating the streets of Philadelphia (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). Most gangs in history have been of lower class members of society, and they often are immigrants into the U.S (Teen Gangs, 1996). Gangs provided lower class teens to have an opportunity to bond with other lower class teens. However over time, the original motive of being in a gang has changed. In the past, gangs used to provide an escape for teens to express themselves, let out aggression, and to socialize with their peers. It was also an opportunity for teens to control their territory and fit in (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). In the past, authorities would only focus on symptoms of gang violence and not the root. They would focus on arresting crime members instead of preventing gang violence. Gangs are beginning to expand from inner-city blo...
According to Miller’s theory, young boy’s who do not have a father figure growing up will turn to gangs to achieve a sense of masculinity within each other. Girls will turn to all-male gangs to have a sense of father figure as well. Because of the masculinity is missing out of children’s lives, the gang life tends to attract them because of the power and respect that comes along with being in a gang. (Delinquency In society, p.180-181)
Among the crimes that gang members are often associated with, some of the most common are theft and drug sales. According to a bulletin posted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the commission of crime, including non-violent crimes, is disproportionately high among youth gang members. In Seattle, Washington, the OJJDP performed a study in which “gang members (15 percent of the sample) self-reported committing 58 percent of general delinquent acts in the entire sample, 51 percent of minor assaults, 54 percent of felony thefts, 53 percent of minor thefts, 62 percent of drug-trafficking offenses, and more than 59 percent of property offenses” (Battin et al., 1998).
In the last couple decades, crimes has been increased rapidly all across United States. Street gang’s activity and violence are becoming and growing problem in our society. Many organizations have an effort to keep street gangs off the street but street gang has found their way into our schools and our neighbors. People are joining gangs every day. They join gangs for many different reasons, but the main reason is because of their reputation, their needs, protection and attention from other people (Gang Program Alternatives). Most of them are come from urban area where poverty and poor families present. Sometime gang recruiters start looking and recruit members in school, and teens are becomes their target. The gang recruiters understand why they like to chose young teens to be in their gang. They know teenagers are easy to fall for all the temptation of drugs, fame, money and being a cool person. After a short period join in the gang, these kids starting to see money is easy to make and they can use these money to help their struggling families and love ones, but they do not realize that they will end up being forced to commit all type of crimes, and they might caught up in a middle of violent activities if they still staying in the gang. Join in a gang is seem very easy, but what about leaving? Unfortunately some people want to get out but they cannot get out, because their gang leaders indicated that once you jumped in therefore you cannot leave, but if you do leave then there are some tragedies are waiting for you. Sometime you eventually get killed for living. But if you stay, you end up addicted to drugs, locked up in prison or even dead. There will always be violence and ...
The society is a complex web of interactions between the different factions. At the very basic level is the family unit and in this case the nuclear family unit. The social connection between family members is the basic connection that the rest of the society uses to stay together. This is a cohesion that can be considered to have adhesive elements of the various people in the society. Ideally, there is an insatiable need in human being to be part of something bigger than themselves. As such the connection at the family level and to loved ones provides the attachment that people require to feel safe and secure. It is thus common for people to tend to look for that element of connection if the family unit does not provide for the same (Publicsafety.gc.ca, 2016). Adolescents are largely at a stage where they are trying to establish their values relative to what their environment dictates. As such, they tend to be easily carried away by whatever their environment presents. Some of them end up getting initiated into gangs. This is a common element especially for those who come from the poor communities in the society. This common trend has also been established to be
Gang involvement and its associated violent crime have become a rapidly growing problem for the United States. Generally, gangs consist of young people of the same ethnic, racial, and economic background. Usually of a low socio-economic status, these gangs engage in illegal money making activities and intimidate their neighborhoods and rival gangs with violent crimes and victimization. Gang members exemplify a high value for group loyalty and sacrifice.
Juveniles are important for several reasons. They are most at risk due to their position in their community. Parents in low income areas often work long hours and are not able to supervise their children as much as necessary. This can lead juveniles to seek companionship or support from other youngsters in their neighborhood. This places them in a vulnerable position that gang members may exploit to give them a sense of belonging or community. Older members of gangs may be seen as role models and looked up to. In families in which older family influences are present, gang culture may already be a part of family life. In some families, gang membership may be a tradition reaching back several generations. Younger members of the family may feel expected, or even required, to follow the same path. Such a pervasive presence of gang mentality and culture in a youngster’s life can be tremendously difficult to defeat. Additionally, the high crime rates endemic to many low income neighborhoods may further push youths to turn to gangs as a form of protection and security against the threats that they face.
Juvenile criminal gangs have long been a significant issue with the criminal justice establishment. Youths coming together to commit criminal acts normally attributed to adult and more vicious criminal organizations are now being routinely committed by juveniles. The reasons for these youths in committing the activities have somewhat baffled author tries as well as scholars and researchers. It must be noted however, that juvenile delinquency is not new; laws in the past have sought to control the criminal and deviant tendencies of children, and prescribing changes from rehabilitative to retribution against criminal acts committed by juveniles. Many of the common assumptions-from being accepted and venting violent behavior- have long been considered as the more traditional reasons accepted as the reasons why youths join gangs. However, research studies have shown that youths are joining gangs for different reasons than just material gain and acceptance. The paper seeks to use the theories espoused by Agnew as well as other supporting postulates proffered by Akers and Sellers, Guillon, and Merton in analyzing the issues as well as the possible solutions in lowering the propensity for youths to join these gangs.
There are various reasons behind young people joining street gangs. One of the reasons young people join street gangs is because of neighborhood disadvantages. A theory that can contribute to why young people might join street gangs is Social Disorganization Theory. Social Disorganization theory assumes that “delinquency emerges in neighborhoods where neighborhood relation and social institutions have broken down and can no longer maintain effective social controls (Bell, 2007).” Social Disorganization contributes to residential instability and poverty, which affects interpersonal relationships within the community and opens opportunities for crimes to be committed.
Introduction Crime rates are on the rise in the world today, particularly in the urban centers but even more in other places. The issue of youth mobs is increasingly emerging to be of serious concern in many nations, specifically for law enforcers. Many of these crimes such as theft, robbery, rape and terrorism are just but a few of the crimes conducted by youths. Many of the youths are led into crime by unemployment, poverty and the need for a sense of belonging. It is the duty of every state to ensure that enough opportunities are created for youth for them to earn a living through employment.