StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Gangs Have Become More Sophisticated - Thesis Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "Gangs Have Become More Sophisticated" states that gangs provide protection for members. Young people join gangs so that they can enjoy the security provided by the gangs. Peer pressure also plays a role in youths getting attracted to gangs…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER95.6% of users find it useful
Gangs Have Become More Sophisticated
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Gangs Have Become More Sophisticated"

Individuals who join gangs presume that they are of no use to their families and perceive themselves to be useless. The pull factor of the gangs is that they act as a family unit and have a maintained system of ranking. (Egley, Cheryl, Miller, & Klein, 2005). This paper will look at reasons for gang formation, the people who are attracted to the gangs, and reasons for their attraction to gangs.

Becoming involved in a gang and participating in its activities develops over time. The process of joining gangs is facilitated by the individual and life path and social and familial encounters of a young individual. Several studies show that risk factors linked with individual participation in a gang and its related activities appear before a young person joins a gang. For instance, young people who are the most behaviorally and socially unstable during their childhood are the most likely to become gang members and maintain their position in gangs for a long (O'Deane, 2010). If there are no adequate measures to deal with gang membership and associated events, early disturbing life activities and consequent criminal involvement will increase the line toward continued criminal behavior.

In addition, it seems that not only joining gangs but also long period membership in gangs is linked with an increased risk of criminal behavior. Identifying a risk factor associated with young people's involvement in gangs helps to establish how and where to concentrate efforts on prevention. It is evident that the more risky aspects a young person encounters, the more he or she will become a member of a gang. Research also highlights that the existence of risk factors in many categories enhances the chances of a person engaging in gang activities. Also, it is essential to investigate gang culture, lifestyle, and cohesion. In some areas, the rise in gang crimes and violence may be attributed to drug and alcohol abuse, lack of education, rising youth population, poverty, a sense of exclusion, and poor parenting skills (O'Deane, 2010).

Gangs form and survive because of young people in several cultures, families, or environments whose desires are not met and the gangs fill the space. A gang is also a highly efficient system of support where every gang member can corporate with one another. For the young members, gangs make available indispensable resources required to survive. Also, gangs form when people are socially discriminated against, when there is no family presence and in the absence of senior role models, and also when an individual is overpowered or powerless. In addition to this, young individuals form gangs when they lack security, when they become delinquents, when they are abused, when they feel they lack self-worth, and when they fail in school (Webb, 1990). A gang is also formed to offer a means for the youth to convey their aggression and anger.

Young people, mainly teenagers or slightly older individuals are attracted to gangs for several reasons. They include attention, family tradition, and protection, lack of knowledge of the involved dangers, financial benefit, and peer pressure. In most instances, the youth are not persuaded against being involved in gang activities by their parents. Frequently, parents are not aware that their kids are involved in gang-related events. The youth are attracted to gangs because they admire the power and respect attached to the gangs. A gang is also engaged in activities that generate large amounts of money. This attracts the youth because they want to become rich in a quick way (Hagedorn, 2008).
Peers who are already members of gangs inform their counterparts of the benefits of joining gangs. This appeals to them and makes them join gangs (Taylor, 2011). In some instances, young people are attracted to become gang members because they are brought up in areas where gangs are perceived to be a way of life. More often than not, young people experience these factors in their existence and believe that becoming gang members is the only way of overcoming their problems and acquiring success and status.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Gangs' philosophy Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
Gangs' philosophy Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/sociology/1401119-gangs-philosophy
(Gangs' Philosophy Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
Gangs' Philosophy Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1401119-gangs-philosophy.
“Gangs' Philosophy Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1401119-gangs-philosophy.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Gangs Have Become More Sophisticated

The Social Phenomenon of Violence in El Salvador

Ricardo Meneses who is a former director of police has observed that gangs are becoming more sophisticated by using minors to commit crimes since the minors cannot be convicted as adults.... gangs have established strong links with organized crime and gang competition has moved from the competition for territories to the competition for drug trafficking.... he gangs have established websites which they use for communication purposes hence sophisticating their criminal activities....
11 Pages (2750 words) Research Paper

Irish Mob Violence in Boston: In Search of a Solution

From the pirates who terrorized the important trade routes of the previous days, to the highwaymen who haunted the lonely, nocturnal highways, organized crime has a history that is as old, as eventful, as significant and probably in certain ways more interesting than mainstream chronological history.... A common phenomenon that is observed when it comes to organized criminal groups is the way it is more popular among immigrant groups, which is clearly visible with its distrust in the police and the national security system....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

The Mara Salvatrucha Gang

Because of their ties to their former homeland, they have access to sophisticated military weapons, making firearms trafficking one of their main criminal enterprises.... Composed of mostly Salvadorans and other Central Americans, many of them undocumented, the gang has a uniquely international profile, with an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 members in 33 states in the United States (out of more than 700,000 gang members overall), and tens of thousands more in Central America....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

The Transnational Gang Threat in America

The 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment released by the National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) and the National Drug Intelligence Center reported that the gang threat is no longer confined to the streets and in fact has already been magnified as gangs migrate from urban areas to suburban and local communities, expanding their coverage to become regional and national in scope.... This is in the In recent years, concerns have been raised – both from the media and the US authorities themselves – with regards to the violent crimes committed by transnational gangs that have escalated dramatically in recent years....
16 Pages (4000 words) Research Paper

The History of the Italian Mafia in America

America and Italy have had close historical links for centuries.... Italian shows such as the 'Sopranos' have delighted American audiences for years.... Out of the 4 Italian Mafia groups, three had, and still have, relatively low profiles in the United States....
22 Pages (5500 words) Research Paper

The Influence of Youth Gangs

To begin a discussion on gangs and gang membership it is helpful to clear up some of the more common misconceptions and myths that surround gangs.... The author states that recent decades have seen a significant rise in youth murder, shootings, violence, and drug activity.... Yet, many of the childs decisions to engage in extreme anti-social behavior have their foundation outside the childs upbringing, socio-economic status, or physical environment....
6 Pages (1500 words) Assignment

The Manifestation of Gangs

These group behaviors can be lowlily organized while others can be quite sophisticated to be termed as organized criminal gangs with organized crime networks as the case is with big cities in the US.... To add insult to injury statistics show that the manifestation of gangs has increased over the past decade more so in the late 2000s.... Increased prevalence of gang activities is more in urban areas than in rural counties where some level of decline has been recorded over the same period....
6 Pages (1500 words) Coursework

Gangs and Associated Violence

By 1990, more than 700,000 Salvadorans had settled in California, Washington DC, New York, and parts of Maryland; hence they formed their gangs, which joined the already existing units in those places.... This paper ''gangs and Associated Violence '' tells that gangs and associated violence are the most sociological phenomena of power after the peace Accords of 1992, which ended the civil war.... Question three: Origin of gangs in El Salvador ...
11 Pages (2750 words) Report
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us