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).…
Flores’ book God’s Gangs (NYU Press 2014) has won the American Sociological Association's (ASA) Latina/o Sociology Section's 2014 Distinguished Contribution to Research Book Award. The epicenter of America’s gang problem is Los Angeles. The common rituals and customs of gangs, including Los Angeles’ eastside gangs, are hand signals, graffiti, and clothing styles. These have spread to small towns and big cities alike across America. Many people believe that urban marginality is related to the gang problems.…
Even though violence may be used, the main point of is for material gaining. The social gang/group is most of the time a permanent group of youths who generally exist in the pact with society. In difference to the common character of a gang/group generated crime self reported studies have revealed that youth crimes is a personal thing. Making young people pay with their lives for a certain crime has a very long history in the U.S. dating back to the 17th century. When a 16 year old boy became the first juvenile sentenced to death in colonial America.…
Los Angeles, the “gang capital” of the nation. Over than 450 gangs in the city, some have been in existence since the 1950’s. All of these gangs combined have a individual total of about 45,000. Gang affiliation has taken a big role in the city of Los Angeles, in the last 3 years there has been a total of about 16,000 crimes, 491 of them were homicides. Gang affiliation has taken a big role on the lives of many young people, falling into drugs, and maybe to the course of committing murder or other crimes.…
A serious problem that is going on in the United States is criminal street gangs. The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) defined gangs as “an association of three or more individuals, who members identify themselves by adopting a group identity with a purpose to engage in criminal activity by using force and/or intimidation and such crime are used to enhance or preserve the association’s power, reputation or economic resources” (National Gang Center, National Youth Gang Survey Analysis). The term “gang” is not a new concept as historians have traced this term back to the mid-1700s. However, gang violence has changed and evolved since the first recorded gang activity. Gang…
Gentrification is adding to inequalities and misfortunes within Bay Area communities. Gentrification is the purchasing of deteriorated urban areas and renovating by higher-end and middle class communities. An abundance of high-end communities come into the Bay Area and purchase up the real estate. Incoming middle and higher class take the Bay Area real estate and revitalise it into up-and-coming neighborhoods. The Bay Area residents, who have been living there for decades, are being pushed out of their homes.…
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.…
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…
The issue of gang violence has become rampant and a prominent issue in the society. Gangs involved in these shameful acts use violence as a primary means to enhance and regulate the sales of drugs in the society as well as to gain power, especially amongst their age mates. Gang activities are mostly rampant in low-income neighborhood where the less privileged children and youths are recruited into the gangs…
Compare and contrast racial conflict in the South and the West. This essay will discuss and analyze some of the racial conflict that happened in the South as well as the West. There continues to be racial conflict throughout the world and it has been that way for quite some time now. So does racism, racial profiling and racial conflict differ depending what part of the world or country a person is from?…
Decker et al. (2009) elaborates on the social pressures on immigrant children that can lead to gang involvement. First generation children of immigrants have to deal with “culture shock” and are conflicted between the values that they learn from their parents and the values they learn from their new society (Decker et al., 2009). Decker et al. claims that “culture is critical” in determining whether or not a youth will join a gang (Decker et al., 2009, p. 400).…
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…
Social disorganization is a prime example of this research. Although not all members of gangs are involved in serious violence crimes, violence does outline a major problem in urban communities. Juveniles turn to gang membership in these particular areas for protection. They feel that no one is there for them and they need to go out looking…
It has been noted that “Youth gangs in the U.S. have existed since at least the 1870s,” (Mosher, lecture gangs). Since the establishment, gangs have grown across the globe. In the fourteenth and fifteenth century, gangs “robbed, extorted and raped,” (http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Wh-Z-and-other-topics/Youth-Gangs.html). Gangs have evolved into street gangs from the violent past. Although some gangs do participate in violence, violence is not their sole purpose.…
In “Violence against Women” by Renzetti and Bergen, they explain how men use their strength and aggressiveness to harass women and other men. They did a study on 53 college males and found out that, 51 percent indicated a likelihood that they themselves, would rape a girl if assured of not being punished. They write, “To prove one’s self as being capable of performing under these circumstances was a substantial challenge and also a source of reward. One gang rapist articulated this feeling very clearly: we felt powerful, we were in control. I wanted sex and there was peer pressure.…