Youth Gangs: A Literature Review

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Law and media reports indicate that young gangs are in every state. According to Spergel, Curry, Chance, Kane, Ross, Alexander (1994) youth gangs is active and exist in small, medium and large sizes in every community. There is a different definition of youth gangs and gangs in different communities or states. Different researcher argue out of 45 cities and 6 sites the most frequently mentioned elements of a definition include certain group or organizational characteristics, such as symbols and a range of criminal activities, particularly violence and drug use and sales. Critically these researchers note that the respondents from these surveys indicate that gangs are networked across neighborhoods.
While explaining the structure and the characteristics
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Although family is known as the unit of building up the behavior of a youngster, it may harbor undesired habits that later develop to a gang member characteristics. This habit is common in single-parent families and where conflicts exist between parents. However, Spergel, Curry, Chance, Kane, Ross, Alexander (1994) points out that these family issues must be accompanied by other characteristics or behavior traits for a youngster to develop and become a gang member.
Politics and prison are also seen to be the roots of organized gangs. Some weak politicians, who lack support in their political calls, often result to involving youth gangs to perform some activities that would help gather support from the members of the community. Prisons breed gangs through streets. In other words, prison gangs grow from street gangs. However evidence indicates the reverse is also possible where gangs from the prison may also form their way into the streets Hagan,
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The most important aspect in this approach is to identify the areas prone to gang activities and deploying a certain number of law enforcers (the police) for a certain period of time. For suppression to be successful there should be a coordinated combination of intelligence information on youth gangs and deployment of law enforcement officers specifically trained and experienced to recognize gang problems in particular high incident areas. In some areas the police also carry out long communication with the gang members with a view to identifying their locations for actions. Police departments also ensure that judges were aware of the gang affiliations of defendants before sentencing criminal gang. Missions to eliminate gang groups are majorly carried out by plain clothes officers who perform day to day missions basing their pursuits on intelligence information provided to

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