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The Effects of Peer Pressure
Why do individuals join gangs
The Effects of Peer Pressure
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Kenneth Georges Miss Bozoian Language and Composition, P1 15 June 2017 There were many ways to join a gang but not to many ways to get out. What I’ve read was that once in a gang theres no way out until you die but I would like to think as soon as you go to jail or prison that’s about it, but a lot of the people joining gangs are usually pressured into them. In order to be in a gang the gang could assign a certain task to you, these task can involve murder, stealing, or for females being sexed in. Being “sexed in” is when a female performs sexual favors for every one of the gang members. There are many reasons why people join gangs. While most teens join gangs due to peer pressure some are in gangs for being accepted. Being accepted by people who understand you is worth way more than anything to some people. Growing up I didn’t make a lot of friends so when I did get a friend I would go out of my way to keep them happy and accept me. That feeling of being wanted by other people is sometimes a wonderful feeling. One way of getting out of a gang is getting a tattoo removed usually one that symbolizes …show more content…
A lot of blacks were being terrorized by the police and the police were harassing their neighborhood so the community would start to form these gangs to protect their neighborhood from the harassment. You see the problem these days with gangs is that they have been blown way out of proportion my experience with gang was when I was younger I began to realize really early that something wasn’t right like why did the people I hang around so much or even loved was getting into trouble also the ones being nice to me were mean to other people I finally accepted that this life was not for me and that’s not the type of person I was. For example when the gang in my neighborhood was supposed to be helping the neighborhood out instead they were destroying it and drawing a lot of negative attention to our
Hanser and Gomila (2015) states, “For many younger juveniles, adult gang members serve as role models whose behavior is to be emulated as soon as possible to become full-pledge gang-bangers because of the prestige, respect, and sense of belonging that the gang-banger role provides them” (341). Other reasons why female juveniles join gangs was due to lack of family support and various types of violence in their lives. Hanser and Gomila (2015) noted “The involvement of juvenile females in sexual activities, substance abuse, and violence was clearly related to membership in gangs” (p. 348). Sexual abuse was among the primary reasons why female juveniles join gangs. Female juveniles living in urban ghettos are more likely to be sexually abused, and they join gangs as a way of coping and to escape the realities of poverty. Female juveniles will experience more hardships as compared to make juveniles, before they are fully received as full pledge gang members. As previously stated, sexual abuse was among the primary reasons why female juveniles join gangs; however, sexual abuse does not end there because it continues to occur throughout their gang life (Hanser & Gomila,
Did you know gang's first started off as a way to help stop police brutality? Some gang members are “jumped in” or have to prove their loyalty by committing criminal acts. In the 1960s many gang organizations joined the Black Panthers. The Black Panthers wanted blacks to control businesses, education, employment, and the media in their area instead of having these businesses controlled by white people. They wanted to act as a community army so they can stop police brutality and racism. The leader of this important organization was Bunchy Carter. Street gangs had completely stopped as more black empowered organizations began to form in Los Angeles. After the Black Panthers disbanded that is when street gangs began to become popular because
Morch, S., & Andersen, H. (2012). Becoming a Gang Member: Youth Life and Gang Youth. Online Submission
First let's focus on the fact that gang related crime is one of the most dangerous challenges facing society and law enforcement today. They are younger, more brutal, unafraid of consequences and becoming increasingly more vicious. Gang members work together as cliques, they commit all sorts of violent crimes including murders, rapes, robberies and kidnappings. "They live in aimless and violent presents; have no sense of the past and no hope for the future; they commit unspeakably brutal crimes against other people often to gratify whatever urges of desires drive them at the moment and their utter lack of remorse is...
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).
A gang is a group of reoccurring individuals or close partners with a high potential leadership in a certain organization, taking control over territory in a specific area by either identifying themselves as to whom they are or claiming control, engaging individually or collectively in violence or other forms of illegal action. To become a part of gang in today’s world you show your loyalty by committing such crimes as murder, robbery and/or theft in order to be accepted as a member of its group [1].
Chapter 4 describes various theories that provide explanations for the existence of gangs throughout the nation today. Moreover the chapter examines from the earliest theories of gangs to the most recent ones. Along with the other theories described in the chapter, Social Disorganization Theory is the central theory of study. Among other theories, Social disorganization is the most important; it was developed by the Chicago School. The theory goes on to further explain and link crime rates to the neighborhood’s macro-level (ecological) characteristics. The theory’s focus is that ethnic heterogeneity, low socioeconomic status, and residential mobility reduce the capacity of community residents to control crime.
In the beginning, cities and police departments refused to accept the fact that there was even a gang problem or acknowledged that that were even gangs present in their communities; however, it did not take long before their views on the subject matter began to change. As more of these so called gangs began to appear the more the general population began to notice how dangerous and violent they were becoming. While rural counties only exhibited six percent of gangs nationwide, smaller cities exhibited a whopping thirty-three percent (Riedel & Welsh pp. 222). It is in these smaller cities where the poverty stricken tended to flock to.
There are some positives to being a gang member, believe it or not. The first reason why gangs can be good is that it forms a brotherhood and relationships. This is because when gangs get together they become a family and they all become best friends or “brothers.” Another reason would be that it can provide safety. It provides safety because many gangs live by, “mess with one member, you mess with the whole gang.” So if you are involved in a gang. You have a lot of guys that have your back if you stumble upon conflict. But, you must do the same for the other gang
Furthermore, there is usually an initiation into a gang that is a ritual ceremony. They do this to see if you have what it takes to join a gang. Some
Drugs According to the social disorganization perspective, gang members do drugs because they are forced into a substance. Drug offences are a common substance that is used and abused in gangs. Most people and kids that do drugs are because of peer pressure. Other reasons why gang members do drugs are because the environment that they are in forces the people to do drugs to fit in. They also do drugs because the environment they live in stresses them out so much that they lure them into drug use and abuse.
An active gang member is an adolescent girl or young adult woman who identifies herself as spending a lot of time on the str...
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.
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.
People outside the gang life see only either the climate of fear created by the gangs or the sense of belonging experienced by those inside of them. What they do not see is the day to day reality of living inside their secrets - the initiations, the daily rituals, the network of friends and enemies, all of the information they each have that could get them killed upon suspicion of informing. A friend of mine who belongs to a gang once told me that a gang is more than your family, it is your entire life. Once a person has joined a gang, they can not see past it. The gang takes over everything, leaving no time for school, work, or any other commitments that a member may have made prior to joining.