Frederic Thrasher: The Emergence Of Gangs

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The term gang can be attached to a legion of groups which would include outlaws from back in the nineteenth century in the west of America, a congregation of unruly prison inmates, members of the triads, the mafioso, and other organised criminal entities such as sons of anarchy a know motorcycle gang, and groups of socially displaced inner city youths. Despite its diverse definition, the term gang most of the times denotes the involvement to illegal or disreputable activities.
The term gang were mostly facilitated by social scientists they use this term to describe a group of juveniles, this research can be dated back to 1927 with the involvement of Frederic Thrasher's literature titled The Gang: A study of 1313 gangs in Chicago.
Thrasher, …show more content…

This blatant lack of social control was used as a tool which encouraged youths to establish their own means of social order, they did this by either forming new gangs or joining existing gangs.

The research which was done by Frederic Thrasher was substantially influenced most of the theories which emerged after it related to gangs. Albert Cohen, 1955 theorised that the emergence of gangs was directed to a subculture which had been created by the lower socioeconomic youths, and this was a result of their exclusion from mainstream middle-class culture. These youths noticed that they were unable to obtain the status of middle-class and created a gang culture that offered them an alternative source if …show more content…

Gang activities have been increasing over the years from crimes ranging from robberies to homicides. In California, estimates were made by the Justice Department that approximately 175000 to 200000 persons were members of gangs. In the county of Los Angeles gang activities for over a period of five years accounted for over 23000 of the crimes that occurred.(Friedrichs. M. 1999). Gangs have become not only a problem for those communities where the gang's ar located but has become a problem for everyone. These gangs have also incurred a significant impact upon the

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