To What Extent do Parents Have a Role to Play in the Involvement of Youths in Gangs - Essay Example

?To What Extent do Parents Have a Role to Play in the Involvement of Youths in Gangs? Findings and Discussion Findings The in-depth interviews with a17 year old black male (A), an 18 year old black male (B) and an 18 year old male of mixed race (C) revealed that the young men grew up in rough neighbourhoods, and without their fathers. B;s father left him with his older brother who is now 25 years old and his mother who raised both boys on her own. At the time of his father’s departure B was only 1 year old. C’s father left him who was a middle child with his two siblings (a brother and a sister) and his mother when he was around 3 or 4 years old. Although, B’s father disappeared altogether, C’s father maintained tenuous contact through the years. A’s biological father left him when he was around 4, and he never saw him again. He is the oldest of 6 children and has a step-father with whom he has no relationship with to speak of. A’s only memory of his father are poor, he remembers his father abusing his mother. B spoke fondly of his mother who obtained an undergraduate degree and teaches English to adult students. A and C’s mothers did not complete school beyond taking their GCSEs. B describes his relationship with his mother as “cool” and expresses a lot of respect for her and appreciation for the sacrifices she made to raise him and his brother as a single parent. In hindsight, he admits that he gave her a lot of trouble and is really impressed with how much she put up with him and stood by him to the bitter end. A however, described his mother as preoccupied with a large family and feels she doesn’t really have time for him. C was similarly disconnected from his mother and felt that she was preoccupied with his little sister. When asked about the trouble he caused his mother, B admitted to having joined a gang at age 15 and getting into a lot of unlawful activities. All three of the young men described gang activities as including stealing, selling illicit drugs, fighting and according to B, even bullying in school. When asked why they joined the gang, they gave a number of explanations. B said having an absent dad and no form of security and protection in that regard made the gang particularly appealing to him. To begin with, the gangs were prevalent on the streets in which he grew up and in school where bullying took place. In order to feel an extra layer of security due to the absent father, and to acquire a sense of belonging, he joined the gang. Joining a gang immediately removed the threat of bullying in school. Moreover, in joining the gang, he was able to obtain a source of income as a means of helping his mother and brother out. This income came in the form of selling illicit drugs. He kept it from his mother and when she made inquiries about the source of income, the young man admitted lying to his mother telling her that the money came from helping friends with their newspaper rounds. C was influenced by his brother to join a gang. In fact, his older brother was his role model and he respected him and when his brother joined a gang he naturally followed in his footsteps. A claims to have gotten involved in a gang as a means of simply getting out of the house which he felt was crowded and he felt he got some space that way. A also claims that he didn’t really have anything to do at home with his mother rarely ever home and his step-father practically ignoring him. He also said that boys in his neighbourhood just hung out together and part of their gang activities included checking “hood passes” and being a member of a gang helped him to find some measure of safety and security. B also indicated that his need to find a source of income for helping his mother out was directly related to his absent father although he admitted that he was not sure whether or not his life would have been any better had his father been around. He spoke particularly disparagingly of his father, referring to him as nothing more than a “sperm donor” who simply provided the DNA necessary for giving him life and departed without assuming any responsibility for him. He does think however, that it would have been nice to have a father around and appears to hold it against his father for depriving him of the opportunity to experience having a father in his life. A and C also expressed disappointment in their biological fathers and felt no attachment to them. B’s mother sent him off to boarding school once she discovered his membership in a gang. For this he is grateful and entertains no regrets. But for his foray into the underworld of gang membership and his mother’s subsequent rescue, he feels he learned a lot from the experience and in the process has come to appreciate his mother’s strength and loyalty. These experiences have combined to make him a better person and have ensured that he has a brighter future and is fully committed to leaving his past indiscretions in the past. Although the young men expressed little faith in government and police, B did demonstrate a lot of maturity in identifying what he thinks might help the youth to avoid joining street gangs. Based on the respondents’ distrust in government and police it would appear that government and police can do more to gain the trust and confidence of the youth. According to B, young people growing up on streets such as the streets that he grew up on have little or no opportunities for recreation and personal growth and development, such as sports. In order to participate in meaningful activities the family needs money. Without money, the destitute youth are idle when not in school and when in school are subjected to bullying. The government appears to have other priorities and resources should be directed to communities where youth are susceptible to influences and threats from gangs. Police are often disconnected from the youth in these communities and in turn the youth feel unprotected and when confronting danger feel they cannot rely on the police to protect them and are forced to take the law into their own hands. Discussion The results of the interviews confirm the protestant view that fathers established moral standards for the family and provided counselling for their sons (Pleck, 2004). The subjects of my interview demonstrate an absent father and an absent father figure (although one subject had a step-father with whom he had no relationship) and as such the absence of a male figure establishing moral standards. While the absent father did not live up to the protestant view of the ideal family setting the realities of today indicate that it is not always possible for a biological father or some other suitable male role model to influence the youth in the family (Pleck, 2004). Regardless, the young men interviewed had all the indications of coming from dysfunctional families in the sense that there was no male role models and a mother who struggled to make ends meet and raise a family on her own, or a mother who was entirely detached from her child. Growing up on city streets and the lack of opportunities to keep the boys occupied also demonstrates some level of family dysfunction. It was obvious that the mothers did not have the means to properly supervise the boys either because she worked to support herself and the children, or she was preoccupied with younger siblings or a large family. These struggles are indicative of the family’s low income or the fact that the mothers’ income was inadequate for establishing the kind of domestic surroundings that would ensure that the younger boys were productively occupied and supervised when out of school. Since the boys were able to join gangs and sell drugs at age 15 demonstrates a lack of a close relationship with a parent. The primary caregiver in each case had no idea that the children had joined gangs until after they were deeply involved in the gangs. This ndicates the lack of supervision and the degree of freedom the boy had as a teen. This is consistent with findings in the literature that gangs are drawn to youth from low-income families and with particularly weak relationships with their parents (Arthur, 1989). Findings in the literature also indicate that the low-income status and weak familial relationships make these youth vulnerable to gangs because it provides them with a compensatory source of security and structure (Arthur, 1989). As noted previously, the young men were likely unsupervised and left to fill their idle time as they saw fit. Montemayor (1994) informs that children who are raised in households where structure is lacking or there is little or no adult supervision increases the risk that the child will join a gang. With no father figure in the household and with a working and struggling mother, the young men as a boys had little if any family structure to speak of and found that structure and support system in gang membership. B informed that he joined the gang as a means of feeling like he belonged to something. This is consistent with Brantley, et. al., (1994) who argue that youth joins gangs when they have a feeling that they do not belong to something. Moreover, consistent with Brantley, et. al.’s (1994) argument, A and B admitted joining the gang as a means of obtaining protection from the gang itself. While Brantley, et. al. (1994) suggest that youth joins gangs to obtain friendships that are absent at home, this was not clearly established during the interview. According to B he had a “tight” relationship with his brother who was 7 years older than him. However, since his brother was 7 years older than him, he probably had his own circle of friends from which he excluded his young brother. C also had a close relationship with his brother and joined a gang because of this close connection. Perhaps in this regard, B did not have the kind of persistent friendship with his brother that would have kept him occupied and feeling a sense of belonging. In C’s case, joining a gang with his brother established continuity and the sense of belonging that he felt as a result of his relationship with his brother. Perhaps more significantly, Antrobus (2009) suggests that where there is no father in the household, the child is vulnerable to deviant behaviour and influences. Males who experienced parental separation before they were 5 years old were particularly at risk of committing a criminal offence up to the time they attained 32 years of age (Antrobus, 2009). Each of the young men interviewed had been separated from their biological fathers within in the first four years of their lives and although one maintained contact with his biological father and another had a step-father, those fathers were not actively involved in the boy’s lives. Moreover, by their own admissions, the young mend committed criminal offences as members of youth gangs and were not only influenced by their deviance, but engaged in deviant behaviour themselves. Moreover, growing up in rough neighbourhoods and primarily with a single mother is consistent with the expectations of researchers relative to children growing up in cities where gangs are prevalent and the number of households consists of single parenting (Antrobus, 2009). Thus, the young men participating in the interviews were possessed of the demographics that put youth at risk of joining gangs. Indeed, Smith and Bradshaw (2005) pointed out that: …Low income family, disrupted family, low parental attachment, and low parental supervision are risk factors leading to gang membership…(p. 6). While it is not altogether certain that B had low parental attachment to his mother, it is entirely true that he had absolutely no parental attachment to his father. A and C clearly had little or no attachment to either of their parents. Moreover, based on B’s own admission, he did not come to appreciate his mother’s struggles and commitments until his gang membership was exposed and he was rescued by his mother who sent him off to boarding school. It was only through this experience that he came to appreciate her commitment to him and his brother. Based on the information obtained during the interviews, it can be concluded that although, B professes a closeness to his mother, this closeness was only developed later on after his gang involvement was discovered. It would appear that up until this time, his mother was distracted by her struggles to provide for the boys and these struggles are further highlighted by the boy’s decision to join the gang as a means of obtaining a source of income to help his mother out with providing sustenance for the family. It is also clear that A and B’s mothers were likewise distracted and both appeared to the boys to be disinterested in their wellbeing short of providing food and minimal discipline. Antisocial tendencies in peers have also been found to be an indicator that a young person is at risk of joining gangs (SSDP, 2001, p. 3). The bullying in school was among the primary reasons given by B for joining the gang. However, B informed that his mother received a post-secondary education which is a clear indication that she completed her secondary education. This is inconsistent with findings in the literature that youth whose primary caregiver did not complete secondary education was vulnerable to joining gangs (Lahey, et. al., 1999). However, the fact that A and C’s mothers did not go complete their secondary education, is consistent with findings in the literature (Lahey, et. al., 1999). Implications are that an educated parent is more likely to provide adequate guidance to his or her children. However, an educated parent may not be able to provide guidance and supervision as was the case here. B’s mother, like A and C’s mothers, was preoccupied with caring for their children and very likely stressed and unable to provide them with the kind of guidance they required in the circumstances of their neighbourhoods and schools. Vigil (1988) suggests that youth who become gang members are typically raised in a “mother-centred” household. This is certainly true for the young men with whom I conducted the interviews. However, Vigil (1988) further claims that initiation in a gang typically occurs when there is physical and emotional neglect by parents and where role models are poor. The young men’s mother may have inadvertently neglected them emotionally as they struggled to provide care for the boys. There is no evidence that physical neglect took place outside of the mothers having to leave home to work or simply ignoring the boys. Moreover, B designated his mother as a good role model for him. A and C did not seem to hold their mothers in high regard and appeared to feel somewhat neglected, at least emotionally. Certainly abandonment by the father can be perceived as emotional and physical neglect. In fact, Vigil (1988) argues that where a child is raised in a home with an absent father, this can take both a physical and mental toll on the child’s development as the child will feel that there is no viable alternatives and will be drawn to gangs as a means of gaining some measure of acceptance. It is also quite possible that the young men’s mothers sought to compensate for the absent father by granting the boys significant freedom. It is also possible that their preoccupation with providing for the children on their own also gave the children significant freedom and a lack of supervision. In either case, this would have set up a situation in which the mother came across as a permissive parent. According to Vigil (2007) and Aldridge, et. al., 2009), young gang members in Los Angeles came from either permissive or authoritarian parents or families with either absent of abusive men. There are also elements of social learning theory in that the young men was exposed to youth gangs and delinquency in his neighbourhood and school. We also have one of the young men admitting that he merely followed in his older brother’s footsteps. According to social learning theory, behaviour is learned from observations and interactions with family members and friends (Bandura, 1977). While there is no evidence that the other two young men mirrored family member’s behaviour in joining gangs, it is obvious that their peers were gang members and exhibited deviant behaviour. Thus this behaviour was learned from the exigencies of their neighbourhoods which they described as a ghetto and according to B, his own experiences in school where gang members bullied other students. Deprivation of maternal bonds for a time is also believed to be linked to deviancy among youth (Bowlby, 1952). This is certainly true for A and C. However, I am not sure how strong this variable is for B as he had his mother in his life and in retrospect describes the relationship as close. However, as previously noted, there are reasons to believe that the bond was broken early on as the mother was left to raise a one year old and an 8 year old all by herself. It is quite possible that she did not forge the kind of emotional ties that the boys needed as she first had to deal with the break-up of the family and very likely had to give attention to the 8 year old who likely was impacted by his father’s sudden absence. Moreover, the mother had to take over the role of sole provider of the family and this would have taxed her physically and emotionally to the point where she was physically and emotionally absent. As Bowlby (1952) argues that in the absence of love and care from a primary caregiver, the child will develop insecurities. If this absence persists and the corresponding insecurities persist, the child is at risk of developing criminal behaviour (Haralambos, 1990). It is unambiguously established that the young men interviewed grew up without the love and care of their fathers or an attachment to a male father figure in their lives. It is also clearly established that this had a significant impact on them as they developed deep-seated resentments for or ambivalence toward their fathers. It is also obvious that their mothers were absent either by necessity or by choice, although they were not technically absent. In this regard, we can compare the mothers to the role expected of fathers in the upbringing of children. According to Lamb (2007), men who are usually breadwinners are not usually expected to have as extensive an involvement in the child’s upbringing because of consumption of time at work. In many ways, the young men were raised in a family structure that would be tantamount to being raised by a father in fulltime employment with no other parent present. The emphasis in much of the studies conducted in the literature reflects that men work long and stressful hours with little time to devout to the exigencies of family life (JRF Website, 2008). No doubt, B’s mother would fit neatly into this characterization of men’s working habits as she was not only the breadwinner of the family, but the only working adult. All of the mothers were absent by their struggles and worries about financial commitments and one of the young men was affected enough to join a gang as a means of helping his mother out with her financial responsibilities. Another important theme revealed in the literature is the significance of the relationships between the child and the parent during the early years of childhood (Bowlby, 1956; Robson, 2006). The young men did not have the benefit of any relationships with their fathers. Each revealed that their fathers left the family when they were quite young and certainly under the age of 5 and while B has no memory of this father, A and C’s memories of their fathers are unflattering. The importance of the father’s involvement in the child’s life is demonstrated by policies and services geared toward encouraging and helping fathers to become involved in the child’s life to some degree (Levine, 1993; McBride & Lane, 1997; Department of Health and Department of Education and Skills, 2004). The fact is, in more recent times fathers have become increasingly involved in the upbringing of their children (Beck, 2005). Fathers are not only participating in parental classes but are assuming a greater share of the responsibilities for actually caring for their children and are becoming engaged in the child’s education (Beck, 2005; Lorinc, 2002). Meanwhile, the media has been constantly articulating the significance of a father’s involvement in the child’s upbringing (Beck, 2005; Brott, 2006). Obviously, the young men participating in the interviews would have been aware of the importance of fathers becoming involved in their children’s upbringing via the media. It is also quite possible that they witnessed at least one child experiencing a close relationship with his father in school or in his neighbourhood. However, whatever the source, the young men know of the significance of having a father in his life as B himself said: ... I aintgonna lie it would be nice to have a dad around who can protect you and show you tings init but if he’s a dad like mine then hes just a ‘pussy’ for leaving us like that. I don’t need him init my mum is more like dad to me, shes like my mum and my dad, its crazy. Implicitly, B acknowledges the strain that his absent father has had on his own upbringing and the strain it had on his mother as the sole provider of the family. It was anything but ideal as he described it as “crazy”. The three essential components of fatherhood were absent: “interaction, availability and responsibility” Lamb, et. al., 1987, p. 125). Therefore as much as the mothers may have attempted to compensate for the fathers’ action they could not adequately provide the children with fatherly interaction and availability. While she could have assumed his responsibilities she could not have completely absorbed all of the absent father’s responsibilities as she had to also find time to be mother to all of the children. Absent in the literature is discussion about how a lack of opportunities might be a predictor of youth vulnerability to gangs. B expressed the view that a lack of opportunity for productive and recreational engagement. According to the young man: …Yea, like we just don’t have nothing to do so I think that’s like another reason why youths join gangs and that. Complicating matters, the young did not have the funds to facilitate their own recreational needs and to engage in productive activities. As the youth pointed out, these kinds of activities take money, a rare commodity in this neighbourhood. There was nothing in the literature indicating the vulnerability of youth to dangerous and threatening postcode gangs. As revealed by one of the respondents, postcode gangs typically intimidate and frighten the youth and basically keep them imprisoned within their specific postal codes. Youth found outside of their designated postal codes are at risk of attack for crossing over those boundaries. One method of obtaining protection is to be associated with a postcode gang. Conclusion A review of literature reveals that there are a number of reasons why youth are drawn to gangs. Even so, there a number of specific indicators that will allow for a reasonable degree of certainty in identifying youth who are at risk of joining gangs. Collectively, these risk factors can be characterized as linked to peer pressure, conditions in the home, conditions in school and community/neighbourhood disturbances. The results of the interviews indicate that all of these conditions existed with respect to the individuals interviewed who had previously spent time as a members of gangs. Therefore the results of my study are consistent with findings reported in the literature. In addition the interview identified two additional factors not reported in the literature: postcode gangs and a lack of opportunities. While the latter may be broadly linked to conditions at home, school and in the community, lack of opportunities was not listed as one of the variables associated with these conditions. With the emphasis on conditions in the home and in particular parental involvement in the child’s upbringing, parenting styles, and the child-parental relationship as reported in the literature, it can be concluded that parents play a significant role in youth involvement in gangs. The interviews conducted with former members of youth gangs confirm this conclusion. It appears that the young men’s abandonment by their fathers provided several incentives for joining a gang: a feeling of belonging; protection and security; economic sustenance and general feelings of insecurity. When coupled with the fact that their mothers were either struggling to take care of the boys, or was otherwise occupied, and suffered as a result of the father’s absence, this had an impact on her ability to provide adequate physical and emotional support for the boys. Exposure to gangs in a turbulent neighbourhood and school environment with a lack of parental supervision and support due to an absent father and a mother overburdened with sole care of the children, ensures that gang membership is inevitable. Bibliography Wadsworth, M (1979). Roots of Delinquency.Infancy, Adolescence and Crime. Barnes & Noble Imports: USA. Pleck, E.H. (2004). Two dimensions of fatherhood: A history of the good dad-bad dadcomplex. In M.E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (4th ed., pp. 32-57). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons, Inc. Vigil, J. D. (1988). Street socialization, locurabehavior, and violence among Chicano gang members. Washington, DC: National Institute of Mental Health. 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