...01/13/2011 Juvenile Gangs My bias opinion on youth gangs is the same as I view planting a seed. If you plant a seed in bad soil most likely you’ll grow a defected or bad plant. I say that to say this “if a child is raised in an unstructured household most of the time that child will take his home training outside the home. Then we also have our young kids joining gangs that come from good homes, but can’t escape their negative environments once they walk outside their front door. Also some of the youths get involved in gangs looking for something to call a family; these are mostly our kids coming from foster homes, adoption agencies and so forth. Personally I feel the majority of the kids involved in gangs are lost and out trying to find themselves. Then we have younger kids who are labeled gang members, but are far from it. These kids usually grow up together and have strong bonds with one another; they occasionally dress alike, hang together, and claim to belong to a certain neighborhood only by personal childhood reasons. But the local authorities see things different, they feel as if you wear certain colors, hang in certain areas with 3 or more kids claiming to belong to anything other than a sports team are considered gang related. To the rise of drug use amongst teens is also a major contribution to the growing number of youth kids joining gangs. Being that drugs from marijuana, to heroin has become so easy to get a hold of the kids are experimenting more freely now...
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...Trenton Gang Violence on the Decline Myth or Fact In conducting my research on gangs in Trenton, New Jersey and whether or not their presence and the perception that violence is on the decline; either myth or fact appeared contradicted at best, similar to how our researchers in the context of our reading toggled with the definition of gangs. The scope and methodology of my research consisted of the following approach: Interviews: I spoke with a detective and long time friend B. Mathis on the phone of the Trenton police department on approximately December 17, 2009 regarding his take on how his law enforcement teams were dealing with combating the war on gangs in Trenton. I spoke with Z. Chester, Trenton Central High School classmate on December 17, 2009 who is now running for City Council from whom I wanted to obtain a political view point on the gang progress or decline in Trenton. I conducted a similar interview with a distant friend T. Mack, who is now running for Mayor in Trenton on the same political views on gang violence and potential decline within the city. I had arranged, but was unable to speak with a former security guard of Trenton Central High and Junior High School #1 by the name of B. White about his perception of gang activity in comparison from middle school to high school and some of his experiences as he attempted to uphold discipline in the capacity of his role as a security guard. Lastly, I gathered some small, but factual information from...
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...Gangs By: Kanan Suleymanov A gang is a very complex group of people made by certain people in order to obtain money and power. It maybe hard to believe and one may think how is a gang even remotely complex? A gang is far from being simple and easy to establish it takes a lot of man power and intelligence. It is considered somewhat like a business an illegal one of course but a business never the less. In the dictionary a gang is defined as a group of people through organization, formation and establishment of an assemblage they all share a common identity. In the industrial age, which is the 1800s the word gang did not denote to a negative connotation but it actually referred to a group of workmen. In Britain the word is still used today as the original meaning but it later underwent what is known as Semantic Change. People always wonder why do others join gangs? Why would they just ruin there lives devoting it to crime and all these other terrible things that come along with problems within the gang? Some reason might be money, identity, discipline, recognition, love, belonging, and peer pressure. Others really have no choice. Imagine you’re a little kid living in the urban world, you know your family cannot provide for you the care that you want and the basic needs a child needs. The reason being for this is because they do not have enough money what would you turn to? You would of course go into the one thing that you may think is really easy and a fast way...
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...Gangs within the System Prison is a system that was made to make inmates better. Since the start of prisons, gangs have become a big part. Gangs fight in order to dominate and run everything. It is a constant battle between them. Who you are affiliated with says a lot. Gangs in prison are more than just a group of men killing each other , It is more family oriented . Prison gangs were originally formed by inmates as a means to protect themselves from other inmates. Throughout the years, prison gangs have evolved from a group that provides protection to its members, to criminal entities involved in prostitution, assaults, drugs and murder. Prison gangs continue to thrive because prosecuting them has, historically, been difficult due to the fact that many members are already serving life sentences with no possibility of parole. Most inmates use gangs as protection because once you go to prison your “Out of Bars” life is gone so you do not have anyone to protect you. This is why people join gangs in prison for the protection. When you first get into jail you are technically a “Newbe” because no one knows who you are or what you are capable. This creates the idea of “Moving Up the Ladder” this is when you create a resume of doing things such as killing selling and earning respect to become of high statue. Inmates have to put in “work” to move up. When they first arrive, the inmate has to gain respect from everyone else. In the documentary you see Bulldog talks about how...
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...The Destructors, by Graham Green, has a meaningless purpose for the destructive actions that a group of teenage gang members took on throughout this story. The story gives great details about an immature teenage gang group who destroys for no reason, based on their insecure and psychologically disturbed minds. This story has a meaningless purpose of destruction, character conflict amongst self and others based on bribery. During the gang members' social time, a senseless conflict arose between the teenage members and Mr. Thomas (aka Old Misery). The gang felt that Mr. Old Misery tried to bribe them off his property. The gang members did not appreciate Old Misery's bribery. Even though the teenagers were upset about the bribery, constantly bouncing balls around Mr. Thomas' house to annoy him was meaningless. The gang members led this on to a more serious and complicated incident. Being involved in a gang requires multiple criminal acts for every gang member to commit. Gangs commit crime for money, retaliation, respect, and to recruit members for the gang. Even though this crime may seem as an act for some form of respect, there is no proof from Old Misery trying to bribe them off of his property. According to this story, the criminal act upon Mr. Thomas could have been avoided. The gang members took their obnoxious acts from bouncing their balls to destroying Mr. Thomas home. Destroying someone’s home is extremely unacceptable under any conditions, and it is just bad unnecessary...
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...Every single day, another person joins a gang and every single day many people do not bother to figure out what pushes them to do so. Most gang members tend to be adolescents. Originally, gang activity only existed in cities but are now also in the smaller towns. There are over 300,000 young adults in gangs in the United States. There are also more that are not accounted for. Young adults join gangs for many different reasons. They join not realizing what the group actually does. Many adults and parents do not approve nor understand why children join these groups. Adolescents seek help and acceptance from gangs because of the social, economic, and cultural influences in their community. One major social factor that influence adolescents into...
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...Canada in 2012 due to gang related homicides. In the short story “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” by Evan Hunter, the protagonist Andy learns how bad choices can affect someone. Also, Andy enjoys being in a gang but he should not put it before his future. The protagonist made choices that were going to haunt him forever. Furthermore, realizing the past self centered teen he had been, Andy tries to care for someone else other than himself for once. The life of a teen is characterized by the choices made throughout their life. What one enjoys doing should not be put in front of duties. Andy displays himself as a brave gang member and he eventually realizes that he is endangering loved...
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...prostitution has always been legal in Canada, the facts surrounding it are currently illegal, whereas prostitution is completely illegal in most parts of Europe. Deviance is another subjective matter which is subject but not limited to criminal behavior. As a matter of fact, it is also relative to time and place; certain actions or conducts can be seen as being deviant depending where and when it occurs. For example, being nude is perfectly tolerable by society...
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...spike is a rise of gangs and gang culture. St. Louis is home to one of America's most active and aggressive gang cultures, helping make it one of the most violent U.S. cities. In parts of North St. Louis and North St. Louis County gangs wage turf wars that, in some cases, run block to block. The impact this has on people living in these neighborhoods is overwhelming. Webster’s dictionary defines violence as exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse. It is also defined as intense, turbulent, or furious and often destructive action or force. Within the Saint Louis community, our #1 problem in my personal opinion would be violence. Nowadays it is not only violence, but gang-violence and its impact on our future generations. Our future lies in the hands of those who feel that they cannot express themselves without showing some sort of aggression or agitation. This problem must be tackled within the matter of urgency and commitment towards those who have no knowledge or respect for what they take part in. Gangs are defined as group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. Over the years in urban area of Saint Louis, gangs have lost their true identity. It was formulated for protection of the community, in a sense of uplifting one and another. Towards the mid 80’s it has transformed into a battle of the finest and is done on a “just because” status. Youth gangs are variously defined...
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...appealing, small town. Longview may seem beautiful from the outside in, but there is a continuous problem with gang influences. This would be something you expect from bigger cities such as, Houston or Dallas. I was once held at gunpoint, to this day my mother does not know about it. There are plenty of young people who live here who are terrified to talk about their personal experiences with gang members. In Longview, gang intimidation starts with younger children, but will Longview ever address the conflict? The answer to this question is no! Longview's top priorities are mainly on education and employment. It is never primarily focused on children or gangs. Gang members constantly try and increase the amount of members within the gang, but it becomes a dangerous act towards community. According to the Violence Prevention Institute, the process of gang recruitment is...
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...crime rate has improved remarkably. Philadelphia wasn’t a very positive place to live about 10 years ago, during the years 2004-2008; there was a dramatic spike in gun related crimes. I experienced this firsthand, along with a lot of my friends. I remember hearing plenty members of the community talk about it with my parents and being concerned because I had to walk through the toughest parts of South Philadelphia each day on my way to and from school. But what really scared me were the summer nights when I couldn’t stay out too late for fear of being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. A casual stroll to the neighborhood drug store could turn deadly if you didn’t walk with a quick pace, or if you felt the need to linger around a crowded corner too long. “Please try not to take too long heading to the store Noah”, my dad would say, almost begging me, out of fear of what could happen. I became all too familiar with the thick smell of gun smoke in the air while walking to school, and I was actually pretty excited when I would find bullet casings when walking home. Growing up in that kind of neighborhood, it was pretty easy for kids my age to view gangs as a kind of family and look up to them. Gangs would have you believe that they loved the neighborhood, and they were there for you. A lot of older kids in the neighborhood who were then, about the same age I am now, would join gangs because their real family situation was dysfunctional. There were also other...
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...greatest place on this earth to live and raise a family. One of the so called rights’ of passage to anyone living in modern times is to keep up with the current trends that may be going on. One of the main trends in America today is way to get back and forth from one place to another. No matter how people choose to travel. Owning their own car is one of the main trends we see no matter where we go. Although the reasons for getting a car may vary from person to person. No matter what their reasons may be they still have to show up at a local dealer and negotiate in some form or fashion. The purpose of this essay is to give my opinion on a negotiation strategy utilized by a character named Michelle. In this brief essay I will talk about the behavior I assume would be coming from a local car salesman. Finally I will summarize by giving the characteristics of the opening offer, reservation price, tactics, tradeoffs and discussions of a Plan B if the original plan becomes untenable. Distributive Bargaining With so many people getting jobs today and needing a way to get back and forth to get to work a way to pick their family and friends up or to just get from here to there. At some point in time they all have to go to a local care salesman and start the negotiation process to get the car they either wanted or the car they needed. Once they got to the salesman no matter what the outcome of the sale. The salesman had it in his or her mind that they wanted to get as much...
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...Prison Gangs Prison Gangs According to (Wikipedia) a prison gang is a term used to identify any type of gang activity in prisons and correctional facilities. The difference between prison gangs and street gangs has become unclear because gang members are in and out of the prison system according to the (Street Gangs and Interventions: Innovative Problem Solving with Network Analysis, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2005). Prison gangs offer more than just simple protection for the members in prison; many prison gangs are responsible for drug, tobacco and other contraband handling. Prison gangs often seek to intimidate other inmates and bribe or intimidate prison staff. Prison gangs are a large influence of organized crime. Prison gangs are also known for laundering money from outside gangs while in prison. The forming of a prison gang is prohibited however; prison gangs are on a rise and without regard of the law prohibiting them. Many of the gang members are already in prison serving very long sentences; when another member is sentence they link up and look out for one another. There are multiple prison gangs in America such as the Aryan Brotherhood, the Nazi Low-riders, La Eme, those are just a few. (American Prison Gangs by Sharon White) According to this article prison gangs are in the Federal prison system and 32 state jurisdictions. There are 29 able to be identified and the prison guards know the member by names. Prison officials have identified 114...
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...is focused on demonstrating how certain street gangs that have been affiliated in criminal behaviour are also involved in terrorist activity, and how some criminals convert to a terrorist behaviour while they are doing their sentence in prison. They also put their focus on the effectiveness of the Patriotic Act and how this Act has helped to capture terrorists over a certain period of years. To this end, the authors’ analysis is dichotic, focusing on the pros and cons of the Patriotic Act and the potential danger to the rights of privacy of American citizens, and the association of the American gangs with terroristic activity. Yet ,Orvis and Rush’s analysis insufficiently addresses the complex psychological traits that are a key factor in the developing of the criminal mind in gang members and later on the conversion of these criminals to a terrorist- like behaviour. For instance , their discussion about the arrest of the Chicago street gang, El Rukn, fails to addresses the development of this criminal thinking and behaviour that led to their affiliation with terrorist activity, which is grounded deep in themselves .Moreover, the authors scratch only the surface of these individuals’ minds , and don’t go in depth of what psychological factors may have contributed to the state they are in. In a nut shell; how does the mind of an ordinary American gang banger convert into a terrorist- like mind? The convergence of a regular gang member behaviour to a terrorist behaviour is...
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...sociological situations play out due to how people differ and social circumstances differ. It is a way of thinking about things in society that have led to some sort of outcome, and understanding what causes led to that outcome. Things that shape these outcomes include (but are not limited to): social norms, what people want to achieve (their motives for doing something), and the social context in which they live (ex. - country, time period, people with whom they associate). Basically, as an aspect of sociological imagination, what people do is shaped by all these things that result in some sort of outcome. Second, sociological imagination can be also the ability to see things socially and how they interact and influence each other. To have a sociological imagination, a person must be able to pull away from the situation and think from an alternative point of view. It requires “thinking ourselves away from our daily routines and looking at them anew". The actions of people are much more important than the act itself; as a result, sociological imagination is the capacity to shift from one perspective to another. To illustrate, Mills believed in the power of the sociological imagination to connect "personal troubles to public issues." Cle Sloan is the director of the movie and a Blood former gang-member. Cle Sloan utilizes his sociological imagination to investigate L.A.’s gang problem when he...
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