A broken home, a single parent home, a home with low income or in a urban area all put juveniles at risk to become delinquents. As coming from any of these is not enough, add a youth with low self-esteem, the feeling of wanting to belong, or being in something that feels more like a family, than what they have at home and you have a prime candidate for a juvenile gang.
HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF JUVENILLE GANGS Juvenile gangs are an organized group of young people, normally in their teens that come together and place their claim on certain territory. These gangs are from different backgrounds and will do anything to protect and preserve what they believe is theirs, and theirs alone. Street graffiti is a way of life for them, showing their territory to other rival gangs. They are also known for their violence and drug trafficking, which is one of their primary means of income. Per Gains (1997), “Youth join gangs for protection, enjoyment, respect, money or because a friend is in a gang; youth are at higher risk of joining a gang if they engage in delinquent behaviors or are aggressive or violent, experience multiple caretaker transitions, have many problems at school, or associate with other gangs”.
Street gangs can go back as far as to when the European settlers first migrated to the colonies. The initial reason for the …show more content…
During the 1980’s the streets of Los Angeles, CA were turned into a major war zone. There were shootings everywhere you turned, from storefronts to schoolyards, no place or person was safe. Riots broke out and windows were being smashed. All of this from two of the most notorious gangs, the Bloods and the Crips. Tapia (2012), states that “The predominant image of youth gangs is consistent with a California study of adult gang members conducted by Skolnick and colleagues (1988) a decade
HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF JUVENILLE GANGS Juvenile gangs are an organized group of young people, normally in their teens that come together and place their claim on certain territory. These gangs are from different backgrounds and will do anything to protect and preserve what they believe is theirs, and theirs alone. Street graffiti is a way of life for them, showing their territory to other rival gangs. They are also known for their violence and drug trafficking, which is one of their primary means of income. Per Gains (1997), “Youth join gangs for protection, enjoyment, respect, money or because a friend is in a gang; youth are at higher risk of joining a gang if they engage in delinquent behaviors or are aggressive or violent, experience multiple caretaker transitions, have many problems at school, or associate with other gangs”.
Street gangs can go back as far as to when the European settlers first migrated to the colonies. The initial reason for the …show more content…
During the 1980’s the streets of Los Angeles, CA were turned into a major war zone. There were shootings everywhere you turned, from storefronts to schoolyards, no place or person was safe. Riots broke out and windows were being smashed. All of this from two of the most notorious gangs, the Bloods and the Crips. Tapia (2012), states that “The predominant image of youth gangs is consistent with a California study of adult gang members conducted by Skolnick and colleagues (1988) a decade