The Influence of Youth Gangs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Influence of Youth juntos - Essay ExampleOften, the blame is placed on social and economic disadvantages, lack of parental involvement, or a failure of institutionalized support such as the foster care system. Intervening in a childs pre-teen years could help change the childs first inappropriate steps down the road to becoming a large number member. Yet, many of the childs decisions to engage in extreme anti-social behavior have their foundation outside the childs upbringing, socio-economic status, or physical environment. The social environment of todays youth has left them vulnerable to the influence of gangs, and has helped shaped a class of youth incapable of determining right or wrong and incompetent to realistically weigh the outcome of their actions.Finding markers that could help sociologists, family courts, schools, and law enforcement previse a childs propensity to engage in gang activity could help lead to early intervention or create effective anti-gang programs. To begin a discussion on gangs and gang membership it is helpful to clear up somewhat of the more common misconceptions and myths that surround gangs. While gangs are often comprehend as a modern problem brought on by the stress of growing up in todays world, they have been around since the beginning of mankind. The origin of gangs in America began as the new immigrants, faced with a harsh life in a new country, would die or abandon their children. The 18th ampere-second orphanages, predecessor to the foster care system, were set up to care for the expanding population of homeless children (Lewis). However, the children soon discovered that they could look after one another as a means of existence. According to Lewis, Gangs were generally comprised of members of the same race and ethnic background, who banded together for protection, recreation and financial gain. This would inevitably lead to problems of immorality and theft as the gangs became more organized and cohesive. In e ssence, youth gangs in America were initially formed for the purpose of survival. Modern gangs can today be found in almost any medium sized American city, and have focused their criminal activity on the drug trade and violence. Gang membership has exploded in recent decades and Savelli reports that national membership topped one million youths in 2001. In addition, gangs are spanning the country to cities such as Minneapolis where members are as young as 13 years old (Chanen and Collins A1). Their escalating numbers have also been accompanied by an escalation in the types and rigourousness of their crimes. Firearms have become much more commonplace within the youth gang setting and a study by Ruddell and Decker revealed the following Regardless of the lieu of these respective studies, juvenile respondents generally told the researchers that they had some experience with firearms and that they were relatively easy to obtain. In addition, when juveniles were asked about their firea rm of choice, they typically indicated a semiautomatic pistol of some description (50).This has led to more sophisticated organizations as rival gangs fight for drug territory and use violence as a means to go down their disputes. As an example, the US Department of Justice states that, The Black Gangster Disciples Nation (BGDN) exemplifies such an evolution from a relatively disorganized criminal street gang to a formal criminal organization