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Street Gangs And Crime

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Street gangs are social and criminal problems that affect the society. Street gangs are majorly composed of juvenile delinquents and youths in the community. Gang violence is thus an economic and social issue that affects the general public and business community. Street gangs are violent and are majorly found in big cities. They involve themselves in criminal activities such as vandalism, binge drinking, looting, homicide, theft, drugs and alcoholism, weapon trafficking, and kidnapping. Thus, gangs are a representation of cultural, economic and moral frontier of conflict and competition for scarce resources (National Gang Centre, 2015). Street gangs and crime can be explained through the use of different theories, including Chicago School, …show more content…

The social changes were linked to the rapid increase population and migration effects, urbanisation, and industrialisation in the City of Chicago. The massive social changes culminated into issues relating to; housing, strain on social amenities, and poverty. The rapid social changes compelled sociologists to understand how the city was going to stay stable in spite of the rapid changes. The dramatic social change and the location of the city within American social life were used to develop the Chicago School. Bulmer (1984) contended that “The Chicago School was characterised by a commitment to empirical research on the city of Chicago, focusing upon its ethnic and racial intermixture, its social problems, its urban form and its logical communities” (p.12). Thus, the theory is based social problems related to rapid urbanisation, economic growth, influx to meet labour demands, and migration …show more content…

Cesare Lombroso is famous proponent of this theory. The biological positivism was influenced by the scientific findings based on research conducted in the 18th and 19th centuries. Biological positivists’ theorists sought to understand how human behaviour was related to crime and criminal activities. Thus, a biological or genetic defect can be applied to provide a distinction between law abiding citizens criminals. According to Bohman (1987), biological positivism is based on the supposition that criminal behaviour results from chemical imbalance in abnormalities and brain. The primary finding was that the social element accompanied by biology could result into criminal activities if the father uses alcohol (Bohman, 1987). Cesare Lombroso (1935-1909) conducted a study to measure the correlation between physical abnormalities of person and the tendency to commit crime (Siegel, 2015). Lombroso pointed out that physical abnormality, including skull and jaw dimensions, and face and body asymmetries could be used to identify

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454 Words | 2 Pages

In the newspaper paper article, “No Sanctuary in Chicago’s street Gang wars,” Kass (2017) focuses on a recent murder in Chicago. Kass states that Chicago is a place of death do to the ongoing gang wars that Chicago is experiencing. Kass (2017) further points out Chicago gang crime is an “intergenerational problem, of grandfathers and fathers and sons and mothers and daughters wearing their gang colors.” Kass’ statement about in gang crime being an intergenerational problem is consistent with prior gang research. Intergenerational gangs is not a new phenomenon.

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454 Words | 2 Pages

How well Wes Moore describes the culture of the streets, and particularly disenfranchised adolescents that resort to violence, is extraordinary considering the unbiased perspective Moore gives. Amid Moore’s book one primary theme is street culture. Particularly Moore describes the street culture in two cities, which are Baltimore and the Bronx. In Baltimore city the climate and atmosphere, of high dropout rates, high unemployment and poor public infrastructure creates a perfect trifecta for gang violence to occur. Due to what was stated above, lower income adolescent residents in Baltimore are forced to resort to crime and drugs as a scapegoat of their missed opportunities.

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720 Words | 3 Pages

Ecological and Social Disorganization Theory 's idea is that a city is separated into circles, or zones, radiating out from the center. The center of the city is the central business district and as you move outward from there, the less problems or crime is found. The first zone, as I mentioned, is the central business district which is where businesses and factories are found but few people actually live. The next zone is the zone of

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625 Words | 3 Pages

Criminal and conflict gang whose primarily intent of crimes for tangible gains. Social structure theorists consider that the main components to illegal behavior are the ascendancy of social and economic influences that are distinguished in rundown communities where the population is predominantly lower-class citizens (Siegel, 2010). This following theory goes into helping us comprehend ways the human behavior, is the result of physical

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614 Words | 3 Pages

These themes intersect with concepts such as urbanization,

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387 Words | 2 Pages

Since the beginning of time there have always been clicks and groups that were made up of people who had the same goals in mind or same interests. However, nowadays gangs consist mostly of people who commit the same type of crimes together that involve drug charges or murders. Gangs noticeably started getting their “bad image” beginning with a man named Al Capone. The rebellion started with the prohibition era. Al Capone was the most powerful gangster in Chicago during this era.

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998 Words | 4 Pages

In the United States, every year there are around 2,000 gang-related homicides and in the realistic fiction novel, The Outsiders, by S.E Hinton, it explores the issues of gang violence, and teenagers in gangs. Around 40% of all members in gangs are teenagers, who are getting involved in some dangerous things very early in life. In the novel The Outsiders, the “Greasers” which is a gang of all teenagers, fight other gangs and commit serious crimes such as murder. We as a society need to pinpoint why teenagers join gangs and stop them beforehand. We also need to help people get out of gangs if they are already in one.

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833 Words | 4 Pages

In Chicago, and all over the nation, the effects of gang activity have been displayed, specifically in low income and poverty torn communities. Poverty is measured depending on a family’s annual income and determining if the amount falls below the poverty threshold for the family’s size. If the annual income does fall below the threshold, then the family and every individual in it is considered to be in poverty. Gang activity is more visible in the areas specifically in major cities similar to Chicago where poverty is a commonality in communities. although gangs might add structure in order where the government fails to do so in the projects and and similar low income communities the negative effects such as the distribution of drugs, violence,

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1288 Words | 6 Pages

Finally, the underclass theory by Jeffrey Fagan and others has been widely used to explain the origins of gangs. In the urban area filled with poverty and deprivation, it is argued that gangs are a normal response to an abnormal setting such as exclusions from the labor markets (Bartollas & Miller,

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Introduction Juvenile delinquency due to gang relation has increased drastically. Many people fail to realize that gangs have a considerable influence on the decisions juveniles are making. Adolescents are easily influenced by the members of the gangs and manipulated to commit certain crimes. As juveniles they are not mentally and emotionally mature to make such critical decisions, which in turn allow gang members to manipulate and control the youth they recruit. Juveniles become a part of gangs for several reasons, including, gaining protection, governmental, and social issues.

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1495 Words | 6 Pages

Due to gangs being in transgressing behavior it can be viewed as a social problem. However gang related activities could be based on how you define the term. George W. Knox, the creator of the National Gang Crime Research Center, believes that it depends on who defines the term. Such as a politician, a researcher or a government official. A social scientists definition is said to depict gangs as “denotable adolescent group of youngsters ”

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1457 Words | 6 Pages

Gang violence has been a problem in society for several of years and is a growing problem each and every day. The youth that is involved in gang violence will have numerous effects upon them that will come soon or later when associated with a group of thugs. Children and teenagers if they still go to school when accompanying a gang, they face the heightened risk of dropping out of school; teen parenthood; be victimized by another gang ; abuse drugs and alcohol; commit petty and violent

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1375 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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1228 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the 17th-century gangs have been causing havoc in people's life and destroying the society. The National Institute of Justice (2011) has defined a gang as "A group of collective members which create an atmosphere of intimidation among citizens. " Many of these gangs are well organized, using different forms of violence to control neighbourhoods and to conduct their illegal activities. The National Gang Threat Assessment (2011) reports that “Gangs are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions.” Street Gangs have caused incidences of violence that is confined in the inner city of many countries.

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762 Words | 4 Pages

Gang effects on the community: Gangs has their own culture and characteristics that includes their dress codes, identifying symbols, language, graffiti, drugs use &trafficking, use of other narcotics, and involvement in other illegal activities. However the nature and characteristics of gangs differ from community to community. Gangs however are found to be more prevalent in high crime areas and are also responsible for the majority of crimes committed. However to understand the function of gangs within the community we have to delve once more into the definition which is characterized as an identifiable group of people who: are generally perceived as a distinct aggregation by others recognize themselves as an street identifiable group (almost invariably with a group name) have been involved in a sufficient number of delinquent incidents to call forth a consistent negative response from neighborhood residents and/or law enforcement agencies.

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