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Why People Join Gangs Essay

1228 Words5 Pages

As a result of my study on gangs, I have discovered that the reasons people join gangs are because they have an addiction to drugs, have uncontrollable emotions, face experiences with failure and have unhealthy relationships. I agree with these causes of why people join gangs and also believe those causes can be prevented. By making good decisions, I believe people would not join a gang. Other people might say that becoming involved with gangs cannot be controlled due to family and ethnic cultures endorsing it, but this is unreasonable because of all the preventions to the causes. The addiction to drugs is a cause of joining gangs, because once a person gets hooked they will take any necessary means to receive these drugs. If a teenager is exposed to drugs early on in life they are more likely going to get involved with gangs later on. In “Opposing Viewpoints” it states”, “Early marijuana use, was a predictor of gang activity later in life”(Berlatsky 1). Teenagers usually don’t have the money to get drugs and so by joining a gang they can be given the money or obtain the drugs at a …show more content…

All of these reasons have preventions that would help people not join a gang, which makes getting involved controllable. Other people might argue that you are unable to control getting involved in gangs because your cultural background and your neighborhood encourages you to. This is unreasonable because there are programs that can help people get out of gangs. Parents should also be informed of the dangers of joining gangs and teens should have the option to get help instead of being forced to join. Anyone can control getting involved with gangs because there are many preventions to the causes. There shouldn’t be any excuses when there are resources

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They were drawn into the gang life because people in gangs offered not only protection but a family, and power they wanted. It gives kids a sense of belonging and control over their own life. It is necessary tool to survive that is why many kids join the gangs. Throughout this book he explained that there is no functional system of these kids that have nothing better to do with their time. This affects kid’s way to get to the American

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The brain is more sensitive to the influence of drugs and alcohol. Most likely today gangs are used and sell drugs and it might be easier for them to make powerful businesses to make a big profit, including weapons, and stolen property. Teen gang violence affects the neighborhood, middle school, high school, and the community. Which causes them to miss behave and act upon a gang. Gang should be terminated

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Members continue doing these acts because of the advantages they get. These advantages can range from “financial opportunity, identity status, peer pressure or just looking for fun and excitement”(pg. 40 Eghigian, Petrenko). Gangs do not want to be stopped, “ When prohibition was over they opened illegal gambling clubs and organized prostitution to make up for the loss of income from liquor. In time they began selling drugs”(pg.42 Bardem,

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There is a number of reasons that range from simple to complex, on why teenagers join gangs, and we can help by finding solutions to their specific problem before they choose to join one. To help someone get out of a gang, we as a society need to show there’s more out there in the world that they could do that will make a positive impact. Teenagers have different reasons to join gangs depending on their life situation. Everyone in the “Greasers” in The Outsiders had different reasons to be part of the gang. “We were used to seeing Johnny banged up-

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Poverty and segregation are two of the leading factors to the uprising of gangs and gang violence. Gangs not only affect the communities, but the people who live there, and mainly the youth, whose only way out is to join a gang.

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Also ”gangs offer protection and governance in places where established institutions fail, and that it makes sense for prisoners to join them,” (Skarbek). This is the main reason people join gangs they are forced to in order to insure their safety. The reason the leaders of the gang allow people to join and keep the safe is explained here ”Gangs can trade far more effectively than lone inmates. Prisoners listen when they threaten violence; members can ease trade from the outside after their release. Consumers, in this case buyers of drugs, benefit too.

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Teens need someone to rely on, they want to know that someone has their back. Gangs offer that, they give the family that some teens don't have. Some people think that gangs are not a good substitute family. Some people think that gangs are to violent to give the proper love and affection that teens search for. They think that gangs just

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Overall, criminological theories have tried to explain the formation and the prevalence of gangs and two primary theories emerged. The first was that of Cohen (1955) and his ‘underclass theory’ which emphasised the strain in low income areas and secondly was Miller (1958) and ‘subcultural theory’ which focuses on poverty areas as generating delinquent behaviour. Whilst these theories can still be applied today to explain the formation of gangs, what makes them problematic is that they do not explain why gangs continue to change and alter their behaviour. Furthermore, these approaches do not consider that gang formation is necessarily determined by a range of factors other than the experience of strain. I think that overall whilst the motivation of gangs hasn’t changed as they all desire money, power and respect, the means by which gang members commit their crimes has changed.

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