According to sciencedaily.com ( Sam Houston state University, February 12, 2015) there are over one million juvenile gang members in the United States alone. Teenagers don't understand the violent life time commitment it takes to join a gang. First of all homicide plays a major role in gangs and with gang activity. Second, when you are initiated into a gang, you are in it forever. Lastly a gang my say they are you're family, but truthfully they are not. First, homicide in gangs is a major problem in the United States. Murdering classifies one as more superior than others. According to Marcle Leburn in the book "Child in Crisis" (leburn, 2011), "To become a gang member an initiation usually needs to be passed. This often consists of violent acts like fighting, drive-by shootings, gang rape and murder". murder will put a teenager in juvy, or even jail. Kids that join gangs at a younger age are more likely to spend there life in and out of jail. …show more content…
A person is commonly in a gang until they die. Tiffany Walden from newsarchive.com interviewed a former gang member. " I never did get out. It’s like you retire. When you get older and you have kids and a family, you basically become what they call “old school.” You don’t have to gang bang anymore. Everyone will always know who you are. Once you’re in, you’re in. As far as gang banging activities, I basically retired. To me, myself, in my eyes and my family, I’ve retired." (February 22, 2012) This shows that you don't really "get out" of a gang, until you
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
A gang is a loosely organized group of individual people who join forces for social reasons. Or anti-social reasons depending on how one looks at it. A person may join a gang for numerous reasons. These reasons include the need for “identity, discipline, recognition, love, money, and belonging.” 5 “Today there are approximately 274 Blood and Crip gangs in Los Angeles County alone.” 1 The gangs that are often in the news are usually made up of African-Americans. “African-Americans first formed street gangs in the late 1920s and early 1930s on the east side of Los Angeles near Central and Vernon Avenues. They were also forming in the downtown area of Los Angeles around the same time.” 4
Gangs are made up of a big “family”, which includes men, woman, and children. Children as young as seven or nine years old have been recruited in the gang. Gang member join gangs for many reasons such as protection. They live in the gang area and are in danger to violence by rival gangs so they feel they need to be protected. Another reason they join gangs is for the brotherhood. When they have lack of communication or a bad home environment they look towards the gang because it shows them love and protection like if they were family. They also join for the profit, recognition, and for the dangerous activities. Before gang members join a gang they either commit a crime or going through a procedure such as getting jumped by a group of other gang members. This procedure well test their courage and fighting abilities.
David Kennedy (2014) explores this in the chapter he authored for the book “The Causes and Consequences of Group Violence”. He mentions that membership in gangs in rarely purposeful. Young men (mostly older teens to mid 20’s), usually drift toward gang involvement due to other family member involvement, protective from rival gangs in the area or due to their surroundings – young men grow up seeing others join gangs, so they also join (pg. 56). The first and last reason are examples of a descriptive norm, people do what others around them
In the past they have been responsible for crime after crime, but in today’s day and time some gangs are trying to be better and make a difference. The fact is, not all gangs are bad, like the media would like you to think they are. I think the media should start covering both the good and bad aspects of gangs and what they truly do for the community. If children and our youth see the positive aspects that gangs have to offer, they may be less likely to only follow the negative path gangs can take them down. I hope that the media will one day realize what a positive impact they can have on society, and they will one day quit being so biased in their reporting.
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.
Within the past two decades, a growing concern has been focused on what can be considered a social epidemic among the youth of our nation. This social distress stems directly from the rising number of youth gangs throughout the country. Gang mentality and social deviance of this form has been noticed and documented in this country for decades. “ Prior to the 1970’s, gang violence was still popularly associated with white ethnic enclaves in the cities of the Midwest and East, and gang incidents were typically brawls involving fists, sticks and knives. Today, gangs are made up largely of ethnic groups, especially African American and Latino Americans, and handguns and other military hardware are the typical vehicles for the acts of aggression and rampages so common in large cities” (Franzese, 2006) . Now though, in the twenty first century, gang chapters, mentality, and its proficiency as a dominant force among the youth has spread not only to the large urban cities in the country but also to the suburban and rural areas of the nation that were once untarnished by this outbreak. As the number of youth gangs reach an all time high in this country, our main concern is being able to quickly identify the problem when it arises and to swiftly eradicate it before it rises beyond the control of the officials in the area. Youth gangs rise up and take control so rapidly among youth that you have to be able to reach adolescents before a problem that at one point could have been stopped, now is forced to be merely contained.
Gang violence has been a problem for many years, and it shows no signs of subsiding any time soon. One of the biggest challenges faced by those attempting to stem the tide of gangs in the United States is the cultural and societal factors that contribute to the continued survival and growth of gangs within communities. The most critical factor in combating gang violence is juveniles.
However, gangs are essentially an organization that disregards the law in all forms. Within urban cities there are public housing sectors; these neighborhoods are known to have high rates of crime and gang activity. Just within Chicago alone there is about 10% of the city’s crime found within public housing communities (Lens, 355). When city officials have the power to construct public housing there is a sense of lost hope for those who grow up there. The teens are surrounded by the activity of gangs all around them.
Given that garbha means embryo or womb, scholars have translated “tathāgata- garbha” as the embryo of a Tathāgata, the germ of a Tathāgata, the womb of a Tathāgata, or the matrix of a Tathāgata. In Chinese texts, “tathāgata-garbha” is translated as rulai zang 如來藏. Here, these Chinese words are translated into English as Tathāgata store, which means a Tathāgata in storage or hidden. “Tathāgata store” works well in all texts that use it. For example, in text 666 (T16n0666), one of the two extant Chinese versions of the Mahāvaipulya Sūtra of the Tathāgata Store, the Buddha reveals that all sentient beings have the Tathāgata store in them, and describes it by nine analogies, including a Buddha inside a lotus flower bud, who is revealed
A gang can be defined as a group of people who unite to serve a common purpose and engage in violent or otherwise criminal behavior. (http://www.ci.torrance.ca.us) The types of crimes committed by gang members differ between gangs, but the crimes generally associated with gangs include vandalism, robbery, drug-trafficking, assault, arson, and murder. There are many reasons why teenagers may join gangs. The root causes of violent gang formation are poverty, stressed families, unemployment, under-employment, under-education, racism, and the breakdown of sociocultural institutions. (http://www.instanet.com) Many people join gangs for protection from violent people in other gangs. (http://www.public.iastate.edu) Other people join gangs for the sense of family that comes along with it. The youth gang satisfies a void - the child's desire to feel secure. It provides the child with a sense of identity, belonging, power, and protection. The gang provides a protective barrier against the outside world. (http://www.highways.com)