The Crips: African-American Gangs In The United States

Improved Essays
The Crips are a primarily African-American gang that originated in Los Angeles, California in the 1969 (Howell, 2011). Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams founded the gang. The two had merged to form an autonomous alliance of two gangs. However, recently, the gang has disintegrated into various individual sets, which are often fighting each other. The Crips are considered by law enforcement as one of the largest and most dangerous gangs in the United States with an estimated membership of thirty-five thousand people as of 2008 (Howell, 2011). The gang has been involved in numerous criminal activities including murder, torture, robbery, drug dealing, and much more. Their primary rivals are the Bloods. There is no written or specific method

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Perpetuates itself. – This gang has been active since 1990 and long ago cut its ties with the Los Angeles Crips. New gang members are often recruited from family and friends of current members. (Abadinsky, 2009, p.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    MS-13 recently became known in the east coast gang culture. Instead of operating independently from each other MS-13 is beginning to come together as they recognize power in numbers and organization of the gang. By doing this MS-13 has a much tighter organization, stronger structure, and instead of various groups being self supporting, there is one leader. The leader is in charge of member’s payment of the dues and they organize the criminal acts in which members engage. This makes MS-13 vary similar to what has been referred to as “traditional organized criminal families”, similar to the Italian Mafia.…

    • 1662 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    MS-13 Research Paper

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages

    According to Drugs, Society, and Criminal Justice, outlaw motorcycle gangs and street gangs have been credited as the two types of organized crime in America since the 1980's (Levinthal, 2012). However, both criminal organizations have various gangs that are identifiable by crimes they commit, how they are committed, and where they are committed, just as each gang has their friends and foes. " Gang members who sell drugs are significantly more violent than gang members who do not sell drugs and are more violent than drug sellers who do not belong to gangs", (Levinthal, 2012, p. 107).…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    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.…

    • 2519 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    First off, The Crips are an African American gang founded in Los Angeles California in 1969. Throughout the years this gang expanded to be one of the bulkiest and prevailing gangs in the United States, with more than 30,000 gang members. The Crips are known to be muddled in robberies, murders, drug dealing, and many other criminal pursuits. The Crips ultimately became the most powerful gang in California. The Blood was founded on Piru Street in the Compton, California in 1970.…

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Sadat Cano Arizona State University Unique Gang In the United States CJS 468 1/2/2015 What makes the gangs in the United States unique is that gang members in the United States are more likely to get arrested for drug and alcohol related crimes than non-gang members. In cities of the United States almost all report gang activity “86% percent of the United States report gang activity. ”(Donnelley, 2014). This means that for every city, an average “¾ of the population report” (Donnelley, 2014) gang activity.…

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bloods vs. Crips Mrs. Stubbs-Mesumbe Period 5B Ike Anamelechi November 27, 2016 The Bloods and the crips are easily some of the most violent and famous gangs to ever be created. They were both founded in Los Angeles. These two gangs have been rivals for about their entire history as a gang. The Crips were founded in 1969 by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams.…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gangs in North Carolina Prisons, and How Gangs Communicate with the Outside World Gangs are undoubtedly one of the largest problems that the Department of Corrections faces daily. According to David Starbek prison gang is defined as: “an inmate organization that operates within a prison system, that has a corporate entity, exists into perpetuity, and whose membership is restrictive, mutually exclusive, and often requires a lifetime commitment”(Starbek). A person who was in a gang before coming to prison is generally able to find comfort with that gang while in prison, however a person who was not must earn the respect of that gang after they arrive. Prison gangs are considered to be security threat groups or STG’s and when dangerous or leaders of a gang are detained they are placed in the security housing unit or SHU, where they are on lockdown twenty-three and a half hours a day.…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    At one point in the film, Erik rebukes Raven, remarking “You want society to accept you, but you can't even accept yourself”. Erik is displeased because Raven’s self-denial ultimately serves as deference to the societal institution. Her desperation to be normal contributes to popular conceptions of normalcy as the ideal. As Davis points out, “The implications of the hegemony of normalcy are profound and extend into the very heart of cultural production.” (Davis 49).…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    It is not only social factors or political factors that lead gang violence. Personal factors play an important part in gangs choosing violence and it is the most frequent cause of violence by gang members. Especially when it comes to seek revenge for perceived slights or previous disputes gangs use their utmost power and resources (Buchanan, 2014). A member can be attacked for belonging to a rival gang, living in the same neighborhood of a different gang, or to settle an old score between gang members or their families. Sometimes revenge leads to a series of crimes.…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The most recent estimate of more than 30,000 gangs represents a 15 percent increase from 2006 and is the highest annual estimate since 1996. Gang violence in America has been a major problem in this country which affects several communities and several major cities all throughout America. If gang violence awareness can be more available to areas where it is most popular and holding seminars and informational classes about what the gang life can cause, then there will be a decrease in gang related activity. In America, there has been a rapid increase in gang violence and gang related activity which affects the countries major cities. While larger cities and suburban counties expectedly report higher numbers of gangs, there is also considerable variation within each area type.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The gang even fixed horse racing results by operating the local wire service where they sold information about horse racing activities to the local betting handbooks and parlors concerning the results of the horse racing events. They gang even branched out to other cities outside of Detroit by collaborating with other mobsters that were infamous (Lupsha, 25). One of the brothers called Abe had a string of casinos used for gambling in Miami which he co-owned with several of his friends such as Joe Adonis and Meyer Lansky. The gang would also defraud insurance firms by acting out accidents that were fake and even hijacked a filming company called Prizefight and forced them to charge higher entrance fees. The gang was considered to be overly violent than any other gang within the city of Detroit and even the neighboring cities, and it would constantly be fighting with different enemy mob groups over issues like territory control, deals gone bad or even supply of booze within the city.…

    • 2501 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When one hears the term "gang" their thoughts do not generally turn to a group of boys hanging out, but rather a group of adults who have come together with the unified purpose to fight. Whether it be over territory, persons of interest or a disagreement of how a situation should be handled; socially speaking, one would most likely think of notorious groups such as the Bandito 's, MS13 or in this instance the Hells Angels. The first chapter of the Hells Angels is believed to have been started dating back as far as 1948 in Fontana/San Bernardino California. Although there were several other motorcycle groups banding together across the state of California at this time, there was no documented connection with the Hells Angels.…

    • 1075 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When it comes to Latin American gangs that operate in multiple countries, many people may think of gangs such as the MS-13 or the Latin Kings. However, there is another gang that is just as violent and large as the ones that I have mentioned above, and they are known as the 18th Street Gang, or Barrio 18. As for colors, they wear blue, and as for symbols, they use the number 18, or they occasionally spell the number out using Roman numerals. We see traces of the gang originating as far back as the 1950’s, in Los Angeles, California, but the first official sightings of the gang are seen in the 1980’s in the same location, and gained attention in the Rodney King Riots that occurred in 1992.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essy Lamb Intro to Sociology Dr. Castro “Gang Leader for a Day” Course Paper Education and poverty are inversely correlated. If a person has more education they are less likely to be in below the poverty line. This also goes the other way, meaning that a person with little to no education has a very high risk of being bellow the poverty line. Venkatesh has several conversations with different people about education verses poverty. In one conversation, he is talking to Mrs. Bailey.…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics