Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys Dr. Victor Rios is an award winnings college professor, author and speaker. Dr. Rios provides captivating, evidence-based professional developments to educators about the power of positive quality of interactions in the lives of young people. Rios was hanging out with teenagers on some of the country 's toughest street, in Oakland, California.…
Douglas J. Pettiford Stanley “Tookie” Williams CRIMINOLOGY July, 6 2015 The life of a gang member is a harsh one that often leads to imprisonment or death. Many who embrace gang life do so to fill emptiness or void in their life. Gang leadership frequently offers to fill that void, under the pretense of fellowship and family. Those who do accept the call gain a sense of power and belonging.…
Strengths for Change Gang involvement is on the rise in most if not in every community, affecting socioeconomic status, ethnic composition, and population (GREAT). Despite a continuous increase with youth gang affiliations in underserved communities, there is still a scarcity of promising or effectual gang prevention and intervention programs offered by schools. One reason for the lack of programs has to do with the time and resource constraints that school administrators face. With limitations on resources school superintendents need to consider the “cost and benefits” of each possible intervention plan (GREAT). As a consequence to low intervention program, risk factors such as social disorganization, and poverty, low educational commitment…
The most common definition of a youth gang involves self-formed group of young teens imbedded within a structured organization. The group is distinctly recognizable by those in their community, tend to have a name, and have a negative association with crime (Klein 1971). The group adheres to a strict agenda and often partakes in criminal behavior to reach a set of goals outlined within the guidelines (Thrasher 1927). Additionally, as determined, youth gang activity is contingent on an individual’s socio-economic status, race, and neighborhood (Klein 1971). However, given that such factors are never standard across all communities, it becomes difficult to place every individual into a standardized definition of gang members.…
However, the theory that is responsible for keeping the author from abandoning gang-life during his young adult years was the Labeling theory which I will explain later in the paper. Growing up Kody did not have a good relationship with his step father who favored his siblings and often took them on trips, leaving Kody behind with his mother. Kody later in the book is told that his biological father was Dick Bass, not Scott. One of the largest factors in the Social Learning Theory is differential association which is “the process through which individuals are exposed to definitions favorable and unfavorable to illegal behavior” (Lilly, Cullen, & Ball, 59). In other words, differential association proposes that individuals learn the different patterns of norms and values and attitudes towards certain illegal behavior through interaction with family members and peers.…
I wish to pursue studies at the University of Guelph Humber because I want to further my knowledge in the field of Psychology. Choosing Guelph Humber was the option that stood out the most to me as I believe that Guelph Humber has the resources needed to help me develop myself so that I may reach the goals I have set for myself. I have always enjoyed the study of human behavior and the physical mind and want to take my passion and turn it into a career by integrating it with my knowledge of the criminal justice system in a enforcement or counseling role. I will achieve academic success through the use of long and short term planning as well as organizing myself in a more effective manner. I have a long term goal of working with the ministry…
Original Gangstas is a film that shows the formation of gangs in Gary, Indiana through either social disorgianazation theory or underclass theory. The films centers primarily around black subculture and gangs. A key theme of the film is that the community must use the same violence as gangs do, if they want to get of the gangs. Original Gangstas was directed by Larry Cohen (1996) and is a Blaxploitation film, a type of film genre that cast black actors in low budget films that would target a black audience, which centers on gang violence in Gary, Indiana in the mid 1990’s. The films starts out explaining how the gangs were formed due to the extreme loss of jobs that Gary suffered when many of the steel mills closed.…
More information on this process is desirable, notably because these two men announced their desistance while incarcerated at Stoney Mountain Penitentiary and were consequently ostracised for the remainder of their sentences (Buddle, 2011). We know from this work that corrections systems are the primary pathway through which gangs recruit new members, often under duress and for the purpose of protection (Buddle, 2011). Buddle identifies many challenges associated with getting out of gang life (i.e., paying off debts to the gang, finding employment with a criminal record, facing stigma related to gang involvement, etc.). She also notes that this can be particularly difficult in cases involving youth and that many organizations dedicated to this process are “chronically underfunded” (Buddle, 2011). While it is easy for one to imagine why it might be so difficult and even dangerous to leave a gang, a more detailed account of the process, inside and outside of the corrections system, would be intriguing.…
In an article review by Brien et al. states that, “Given the close association between gang participation and violence, there is significant overlap between risk factors and developmental trajectories for involvement in violent and gang delinquency”. They create fear and violence within neighborhoods, transport in drugs, destroy property, involve youth in criminal acts, and drive out businesses. Gangs can attract teens away from school and home into a life of violence. One of the dangerous aspects of gang violence is its often unselective and…
Researchers have found that females are more responsive toward cognitive based treatments because of their empathetic and perspective nature. Therefore, gender based preventions and treatments must be developed to efficiently understand why researchers have determined two overriding themes for gang membership of females. Molidor (1996) explains that girls may join a gang in order to avoid negative home environments and because they might identify with aggressive behavior that was exhibited by their parents. Female youth who experience abuse within the family unit sometimes may join a gang to seek out protection from the abuse. It is also very common that the abuse in the household stops a healthy relationship between child and parents from forming therefore, female youth look for support elsewhere.…
Several months had gone by, and we began to notice that individuals were belonging to different gangs who are now associating with each other. From the research that we had conducted, along with interviews of hundreds of gang members belong…
This even leads to lower self-esteem and confidence in these students which also leads to violence. This leads to violence because young males tend to turn to gangs in which they feel as if they are a part of a “family” or “brotherhood” where they feel accepted and loved opposed to feeling like a rejected individual in their own communities and homes. Being a thug or gangster than starts to become a factor in this young African American’s individual life because he may feel as if he must be exactly like the gang he is a part…
Even when children come from a stable family, they still may affiliate with gangs. In high school, countless students in Saint Louis are exposed to gangs. Whether they are exposed to them in high school or in the streets of the city, gang members fill the city and the youth is not…
Gang membership has typically always involved individuals who are male, as gangs were originally founded by men specifically for men. Although males have consistently been more involved with criminality and conventional gang activities, research and statistics have shown females are increasingly becoming involved in gangs and participating in gang criminality (O’Neal, Decker, Moule Jr., and Pyrooz 2016). As noted by O’Neal et al., (2016), the literature is lacking in terms of studying females who commit crimes and more so in regards to females in gangs who choose to disengage. Studies and research on this topic is vastly understudied and needed greatly. O’Neal et.al (2016) stress the urgency of researchers focusing on the role of gender and…
The learned behaviors through gangs are more in favor of the individual because of the respects and values pertained in the gang. Rather than outside of the gang prospect of an unsupportive society, peers, and environment for the individual, the individual strives towards the supportive side of…