Gangs In America - Research Paper Example

GANGS IN AMERICA Across the United s, crime levels have progressively fallen in the past decade. However, several policy makers claim that crimes committed by gangs remain destructive and threatening to many communities. Gangs are organized groups who habitually intimidate or use force to commit crimes. According to some experts, gang membership is predominantly widespread among the urban youths under the age of eighteen. Some gangs group together to control a particular area while others are organized around drug trade and work hard to corner illicit market. Other gangs are formed to simply protect their members against violence from the gangs which their members do not belong to but often they end up worsening the problem. Generally, gangs have a leader or a group of leaders. These leaders issue orders to the gang members and they end up reaping the fruits of their activities (Huff, 12). Afro-Americans, Hispanics, whites and Asians, are all part of the history of gangs in America. History often repeats itself, and gangs are not a recent or new phenomenon. The history of gangs has been traced back to the days of post Revolutionary war. Originally, they formed as a means of social clubs and self protection. In the late eighteenth century, immigrants from Ireland formed the first street gangs in the New York City. Other gangs later began to form, mostly by culture and race. By the period of 1920’s, Chicago is reported to have had almost 1200 gangs in the city. At that time, several gangs began to be formed in California and Los Angeles (Walker 2). Gangs changed with time as a new group of immigrants came to America. Until the mid of the 20th century, most of the gang members were of European descent, especially Jewish, Italian and Irish. The gang issue became worse in the years following the Second World War, as trade of drugs became an extensive concern whereas firearms became common and powerful. Majority of the notorious gangs are found in the impoverished areas of main cities like California, New York and Chicago. Over the last nine years in California, gangs have made evolution from being brotherhood and turf oriented, to now being involved with criminal enterprises. Gangs can also be found in rural communities and suburbs and in communities of significant socio-economic range. California has experienced gang problems for over 75 years. Some of professionals who work with Hispanic gangs should take their time to examine the history of gangs. Numerous current activities of gangs can be traced to the origins of particular gangs. For example, one particular gang that warrants study in California is the 18th Street gang. It is one of the biggest and well-known Hispanic street gangs in the America. This is brought about by its growth and recruitment patterns from the 1950’s until today. This gang was formed in 1963 and had its origins in racial prejudice. This California based criminal group was the first gang of Hispanic to break the barrier of racial membership. This readiness to step across racial lines facilitated rapid growth in the membership of the gang, which was mainly composed of multi-racial youths and immigrants (Walker 4). From early in the American history, gangs tend to compose of people in the lower classes, especially those who had migrated recently to the United States. The ethnic composition GANG ACTIVITIES Most gangs are involved in several types of criminal activities. These include carjacking, drive-by shootings, auto theft, drug sales, arms trafficking, murder, murder for hire and rape among others. International and National trade of drugs seem to be the main criminal activity for most gangs in America. The intelligence indicates that most gangs in America have established ties with Columbian and Mexican drug cartels, which has significantly impacted particularly the Southwest Border States. For example, the California’s 18th Street gang distributes outsized amounts of illegal drug, which has created ties with the black street gangs as well as Mexican Mafia prison gang. Most of the American gangs have been known to market marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine as well as tar heroin. With the expansion of the methamphetamine’s market, it can be predicted that the gang’s presence will equally expand, leading to encounters with these gangs in areas of America, which have not previously seen gangs (Arana 3). Tax collection is also another area of criminal activities, where most gangs in America are well established. In California, an area that is claimed to be the territory of the 18th Street gang, members of the gang will collect tax from businesses. The potential taxpayers include drug dealers, street vendors, shop owners, prostitutes and any other form of business that exist in the neighborhood. The gang members threaten to kill any person who declines to pay the tax. For example, in 1995 alone, the office of the California County District Attorney prosecuted 35 murders, which were the results of hit made by the members of the notorious 18th Street gang for failure to pay taxes (Walker 8). As the enforcement of the law puts pressure on the violent activities in America, some of the gang members have become involved in some non-violent criminal enterprises like creating fraudulent Immigration and Naturalization Service’s immigration cards, identification cards, credit cards and food stamps among others. For example, the Clanton Street gang was at some point active in the cellular telephone market of cloning, but this activity is declining as the days go by, because of the introduction of the digital cellular phone services. Easy access to firearms has increased the threat from gangs even greater. Not long ago, most disputes between members of a gang were solved with their fists. Nowadays, they are often solved with semiautomatic weapons and hand guns. Today, America has over 300 million guns, twice as many as in 1980. Many of those guns are on the hands of over 200,000 gang members. In California and other urban areas, the issue has become so extensive that several high schools in America are forced to install metal detectors in schools (Howell 2). Today, complicated gang movements have members crossing government lines recruiting members and establishing syndicates in various states in America. Most of the gangs in America use children since they clearly know that the children cannot go to jail once they are caught. Before, the gangs had been dangerous and mobile, and the issue is spreading. CHARACTERISTICS OF GANGS Gang members frequently adorn their bodies with tattoos. For example, the most common tattoo is the 18th Street gang’s number 18 tattoo. The tattoos are located anywhere on the body, and other members will cover their whole body with tattoos, including placing them on their foreheads and also above their eyebrows. The tattoos also indicate the clique of the gang to which the person belongs (Walker 12). The gangs of today wear particular types of clothes or colors and come from every ethnicity, Afro-American, Asian, white and Hispanic. They use monikers or nicknames to identify themselves. Today’s gangs did not originate these criminal activities or identifiers. They have substantially expanded and increased what was necessary to be a gang banger of long ago. Members of other gangs wear many types of clothing. For example, the 18th Street gang members wear clothing form professional sports teams. SOLUTION FOR GANGS’ VIOLENCE Most criminologists and social scientists agree that the most successful approach for dealing with notorious gangs is those which emphasize intervention and prevention, instead of enforcement and suppression. The United States Attorney General in 1992 announced the reassignment of over 350 FBI agents to carry out investigations of street gangs. The increased enforcement of the law is helpful but, not the entire solution. Majority of the experts concur that a multi disciplinary approach must be put in place to stop the growth of gangs in communities. Gang behavior cannot be changed through intimidation and fear. This will only make the problem complex because intimidation and fear are the same techniques, which are used by the gang members (Walker 14). From California, one of the fruitful strategies to stop the spread of criminal activities related to gangs, which grew from an Illinois law that permitted state officials to treat gangs as unincorporated associations. CONCLUSION Gang problems are proliferating across America, even in small towns and cities. The composition of gangs of the youth is changing. Smaller and less structured gangs have begun to emerge. Although drug trafficking is not an organized activity managed by gangs, gangs of drugs are more predominant now compared to the previous decades. The racial composition of notorious gangs is also shifting and becoming more organized. Gang violence, especially homicide has vastly increased, owing to availability and use of dangerous weapons, more so the semiautomatic and automatic hand guns. Most gang problems are homegrown. Migration of the gang appears to contribute little to local problems of gangs, including drug trafficking. Even though significant progress is being made to identify the principal risk factors for youth involvement in gang, more information is needed to specify the developmental sequence by which these factors operate. This knowledge will be exceptionally helpful in the development of intervention and prevention programs. Work Cited "Special Report: Out of the Underworld - Criminal Gangs in the Americas." The Economist Jan 07 2006: 23-. ABI/INFORM Complete. Web. 5 May 2012 . Arana, Ana. "How the Street Gangs Took Central America." Foreign Affairs 84.3 (2005): 98-110. ABI/INFORM Complete. Web. 5 May 2012. Hazlehurst, Kayleen. Gangs and Youth Subcultures: International Explorations. New Brunswick [u.a.: Transaction Publ, 1998. Print. Howell, James C. Gangs in Americas Communities. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications, 2012. Print. Huff, C R. Gangs in America. Thousand Oaks (Calif.) [etc.: Sage Publ, 1996. Print. Steve, Nawojczyk. Street Gang Dynamics. The Nawojczyk Group Walker, Robert. Gangs or Us: Gang Identification Training and Expert Witness. Dynamics: 2011. Print. Read More