Poor parenting as well as living in the wrong neighborhood can ultimately lead a young adult to joining a gang. However, many young adults join gangs to feel like they belong somewhere and that they have a family that has their…
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.…
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.…
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…
al., 2014) what may be these visible problems in troubled families? Lack of guidance? The research in this article suggests that the more problems there are in the family and the more exposure there is to this undue violence the more coherent it becomes for an adolescent to become a gang member. Supporting evidence may be approached in a scarce way through the interactional theory by Thornberry and Krohn who combined that “gang membership result from a reciprocal relationship” (Alleyne and Wood, 2010) the theory in this report conducted by the secretary of state uses additional social domains built around this idea of peer pressure or schools but do focus on families as an add on so it cannot be applied by itself with Casey’s research. The effects of a dysfunctional family according to scholars and academics combined with and based upon social aspects turn ‘young children’ to ‘young gang members’ as shown by the report from…
Nicholas Crisafulle Dr. Greg Lukasik SYG 1000 Section 011 November 15, 2016 SYG Paper Assignment #2 Throughout the last few years, there has been a concern for those who are joining gangs at a young age. There are multiple variables within society to take into consideration for this decision being made by the younger generation. Strain Theory is one explanation for this choice.…
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.…
Its not uncommon to see juveniles as member of adult gangs. Juvenile gang members who are in adult gangs are typically drug runners or fall guys for the gang. The reason juveniles join gangs can very for different reasons. Some juveniles join so they can avoid being discriminated against or because they are seeking some form of acceptance. Others join because they are seeking someone one to love them, someone to be their role model, or someone to show them discipline.…
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).…
Gangs in Louisville, KY and how to Stop Them. This is the issue we are having on our fair city. There have been some incidents in downtown Louisville involving flash mobs of teens aged from 13 to 19 years. Assaulting persons and robbing them.…
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.…
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…
Trying to address the question of why youth join gangs requires the examination of multiple factors, and preferably, multiple theories. Social disorganization theory explains that the place where an individual grows up matters – disordered neighborhoods lead youth to join gangs. Due to its overemphasis on disorganization within neighbourhoods, however, social disorganization theory is not able to assess every factor that causes youth to join gangs. In this paper, I argue that youth join gangs because of neighborhood influence, poverty, and peer influence. Social disorganization theory is able to explain neighborhoods that lack resources and poverty as reasons for youth gang involvement, but it is unable to account for why gang-affiliated peers cause youth to join gangs.…
A youth typically begins hanging out with gang members at age 12 or 13 (even younger in some instances) and joins the gang between ages 13 and 15”(Slowikowski). Slowikowski quotes many turn to gangs for “protection, money, respect, fun, or because a friend” was in a gang. While these are common attraction of gangs that pose a appeal, these reasons only scratches the surface of how gang are formed. Based on extensive research by Slowikowski, the formation of gang have been categorized in 4 groups: Ethnicity, race, gender, and background. By illustrating demographic aspects of a person we are given a better…
Teens join gangs for a variety reasons from families, schools, friends, to what city they live in. Gangs are everywhere, even some of the nicest cities. Peer pressure, family, protection, and boredom are the main reasons I noticed that teens join gangs. In reflecting upon my own adolescence and witnessing teens joining gangs, I believe that all these reasons are closely associated. It seems as though gangs have no boundaries it affects the poor and the rich, small towns, suburbia, and some of the wealthiest cities.…