Juvenile Gangs

Peers and Delinquency: Juvenile Gangs and Violence Going to school, doing homework, and playing are usual daily activities most young children worry about. Unfortunately, some children grow up in very punitive environments or hang out with the wrong crowd and as they grow up. Therefore, they feel lost and are in a search of belonging. Which leads to children ending up committing delinquent acts to fit in with the gang society in order to form a “family” as a sense of belonging. Many gangs begin with young adults knowing they are much more gullible and easier to control. The gang members make the young child or teenager believe in how joining a gang will give them a family and teach them the “rules” and “values” of the streets. This has

The definition of youth gangs has been hotly debated worldwide. A commonly accepted definition was developed by a group of researchers, stating that, ‘A street gang is any durable, street-oriented youth group whose involvement in illegal activity is part of its group identity’ (Klein and Maxson, 2006: 4) (3). Many young adults have joined gangs because of various reasons but some of the main reasons usually are, growing up in abusive/single parent households, low-income societies or simply because of certain peer’s they hang out with at school. Although parents are the primary source of influence and attention in children’s early years, between ages 8 and 14 children seek a stable peer group (4). Because some children hang out with bad influences they begin to feel comfortable and their peers encourage them to continue to have bad habits then as they grow the bad habits escalate and they begin to get involved in more serious crimes. The young adults begin to form cliques or crowds, then those groups become gangs and get into delinquent trouble that grants them the attention to fit in even if it involves law enforcement trying to stop

Many gang members end up in juvenile hall for discipline if they have done minor crimes but if the crime is major they are send into juvenile hall and have a hearing the next day. The problem of gang control is a difficult one. Welsh and Siegel in their book say, many gangs flourish in inner-city areas that offer lower-class youths few conventional opportunities, and members are resistant to offer help that cannot deliver legitimate economic hope (4). For this reason, many lower income children go into following bad steps and end up going into juvenile hall and then into prison if they continue committing deviant acts. There has been an outcry from politicians to increase punishment for the “little monsters” and to save the “fallen angels,” or the victimized youth who are innocent (4). The good thing is that during the years plenty of research has been made and facilities and youth groups are opened to help troubled children go into the right