National Youth Gang Survey Analysis

The strain families’ face in these communities can be seen in the youth. The National Youth Gang Survey Analysis in 2011 stated that 35% of African Americans are in gangs compared to 11.5% for whites. In 2008, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, African American youths made up 52% of violent crime, 58.5% for homicide, and 67% for robbery. Surprisingly, the population of youth was only 16%. Many juveniles are being overrepresented and given harsh sentences, sometimes in adult courts. This is largely due to the targeting of African Americans by the police. Many youth are joining gangs to survive on the streets and because it is what they are learning from friends and family. This is known as differential association. Differential association states that all criminal behavior is learned and that the learning process is influenced by the extent of the individual’s contact with persons who commit crimes.

The gang is a way to obtain the goals they could not obtain by legal means such as work due to the outsourcing of jobs. Gangs show violence and a criminal subculture that attracts youth. The communities surrounding youth are unstable. Families are often single parent creating a strain between parents or the child and a parent. Schools are underfunded due to the lack of funding from the government due to segregation and crime. The more crime there is, the less funding they receive. Children receive a lesser education compared to a predominantly white school. Many drop out and obtain criminal educations instead. Having a broken home, no money, no education, the criminal world of gangs becomes more inviting to youth who are the streets looking for a family who will support them and their needs. Social inequalities foster crimes in adults, but can really influence the