Mona Ruiz was raised in the middle class neighborhoods of central Santa Ana in a household of two parents, and seven siblings. Although Ruiz had family members affiliated with gangs, her father despised gang members. Both of them would have talks about how proud he’d be if she furthered her education and became a police officer. He had said to her and her sisters, “gangs promise only shame and danger for a young girl.” (Ruiz 27).
For many youths, gang life is all they know. Many gang members have other family members who are involved in gangs already. In Lauger’s (2012) ethnography of the DFW boyz, he found
During his time studying these boys, he found that most cases of conflict were resolved without the use of weapon(s), but rather with “harsh conversation”. This observation highly contradicts the typical view of gang members who are commonly stereotyped by their local community and justice system in Oakland. Rios describes how the boys “Conversations often involved references to guns as analogies for resolving conflict and demonstrating manhood”. The fact that most conflicts are dealt with in non-violent ways, highlights the negative role
The narrative (auto)biographical podcast “Harper High School, Part One” by This American Life vocalizes the story of staff, students, and parents at the high school and the neighborhood of Englewood through three different acts. In the first act, it is delineated that Englewood is overrun with an abundance of gangs that are affiliated with their respective streets. However, there is no initiation to get into a gang, instead, students are automatically considered part of a gang based on where they live. “Rules” are created as a result of the violence amongst the gangs and in the general community. As a continuation, the second act deals with a social worker, Crystal Smith, and a student named Devonte who accidentally fired a gun, which killed
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.
Ameena Matthews, Ricardo “Cobe” Williams, and Eddie Bocanegra display the courage to express agape love for their communities. People living in these distressed communities on the Southside of Chicago have the mentality that when they have a grievance with someone, that grievance justifies the violence they commit against another individual. During the documentary, someone mentioned that violence is an infectious disease that consumes people; the behavior is bad, not the people. Also, violence is seen as the only way to reclaim credibility; they rather face death instead of dishonor. However, violence interrupters encourage those who seek vengeance to find it in their hearts to forgive and empower them to have the courage to love.
‘Crips and Bloods: Made in America’, directed by Stacy Peralta, is a documentary that delves into the development and longevity of two of the most prominent gangs in the United States, the Crips and the Bloods. The documentary is a visual representation of the oppression and racism Black communities, particularly in the Los Angeles area, faced. It examines several external institutions in our society and how those institutions helped create the long-lasting internal hatred that exists in these communities. Several sociological concepts and terms can help us to further analyze and understand why these gangs had such impact in these communities.
Pacoima is a city with five or six active gangs. Here, the low-income neighborhood carries a sense of fear and despair that permeate the air. In the summer of 2016, after having mustered the right confidence, I took on a summer job at Hubert H. Humphrey Recreation Center - home to one of the city’s most deadliest gang, the Humphrey Boys. Ironically, that summer would be the park community’s turning point, hosting the safest, most loving, and consistent 2016 Summer Night Lights (SNL). At first, the despair stuck with me, and the job terrified me.
In the world we live in today, people who have been sucked into the world of gangs and violence have become pariahs in society. The moving biography of Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart, captures the extent of gang violence though memoirs of numerous ex-gang and gang members. Boyle’s mission is to help these people with his endless compassion, fostering a sense of kinship, and helping them find self-love, ultimately forming a community unlike any other. The entire book revolves around compassion. When asked what compassion is, one of Father Greg’s students replied, “Compassion ...IS...
Thomas describes how these gangs affect the youth in the community. Young people are drawn to gang life to cope with their surrounding environment. Young people are enticed by gang life to cope with the lack of opportunities to gain financial security
Because of this, it represents that people who join gangs join because of the injustice they may feel they are facing. Because they were growing in “popularity”, Al Capone and his men decided that they should continue with their business, “in his private war against others who also wanted to bootleg liquor, he organized a gang of 1,000 men who “ran” Chicago. In the years 1926 and 1927 Capone’s gangsters were responsible for about 130 murders- most of them were connected to the illegal business of liquor” (pg.42 Barden, Ronardo). They could not help themselves from their illegal actions. This is relevant to today's gangs, because gang members work for one person or persons and they commit crimes that the main gang leader wants them to do or does as well.
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.
For countless families, this violence instilled immense fear in their hearts. Fear took over the lives of many people, but I decided that this situation would not stop me from living a normal life. When people asked me why I was still living in such a deadly city, I would simply respond that I loved my hometown. The city was going through a tough period, but it was up to its people to keep the city alive. We had to work as a community to rebuild what had been lost through violence.
Luke Mills Mrs. Fisher English IV 27 March 2024 A New Old Problem Picture bad-hearted people being thrown into the real world only to end up in a corrupt side of society and be a part of the two percent of Americans that are involved in gangs. Many of the above individuals have been involved in a gang or even experienced gang-affiliated violence. Gang violence has been around for as long as we have walked this earth, and has had a significant influence on how society is run. Gang violence has rooted itself in history and conflicts with the Christian worldview by pressuring people to join gangs, changing the American mindset for the worse, and forcing America to turn farther away from their ultimate goal of making the country great by helping others with family
In the 1990s, gang violence was on the rise, where it was dominantly founded in youths. Anderson, Dyson, and Lee (1996) argued that when a group of African American youths join together and commits delinquent acts and crime, they already categorized as gangs to the American public. This affect and many other affects is what creates an increase in gang violence. Those other factors are socioeconomic status, history, race, gendered, and geographic background. They play a huge role on the creation and formation of gangs.
