Violent Delinquent Gangs

Gang activity is getting more and more violent each day. The older gang members have been known to start recruiting younger members to join their gangs. What is the reason? According to Jacqueline Caster’s article “A Novel Approach to Stem Gang Recruitment of Minors” she states that, “For adult gang members, there is an incentive to use juveniles to carry out crimes because they are malleable, easy to recruit, and can be paid less. There is also the belief that, as a juvenile, the punishment if caught will always be significantly less than that of an adult”. We need to protect our youth from gangs because once they are in the gang they are in it for life, end up getting killed, or are in prison. This is a lose-lose situation for our youth who live in low-income, gang infested areas. They have two choices to join a gang commit crime and possibly end up dead or in jail, or not join a gang and get beat up and bullied by them. According to Gang Statistics it states that, “9 out of 10 boys in detention have some kind of gang affiliation”. This means that 90 percent of juvenlies behind bars are in a gang. The statistics are alarming and even though some of the juvenile gang members are already in jail we can do something to help them out instead of thinking out of sight out of mind.

There are many factors that lead to gang involvement but the main factors according to gang statistics are, “Learning disabilities, emotional disorders: 60% - 78% of Incarcerated gang members - male and female - have emotional and learning disabilities, no involvement in positive activities outside of school, and low income”. We need to make sure that when these youth are in grade school they are getting the attention needed, especially the kids who have learning, and emotional disabilities. Unfortunately in these low income communities the people are more interested in catching criminals and gang members and putting them behind bars. It would be money well spent if it went towards educating these gang members and their families so that we nip this problem in the bud at the youngest age possible. The gangs are starting to recruit kids as young as ten years old maybe even younger. By the age of ten a child is in fourth or fifth grade which means the education systems has very little time to get to them before they get sucked into the gang life.

In order to make sure that thee youths who are at high risk of joining gangs does not fall into this lifestyle we need to make sure we educate them about how risky that life can be. In Jakada Imani’s article “It’s time to take a new approach to violence” he talks about the fact that seeing shootings on a daily basis is a very traumatic experience yet there isn’t anyone there to make sure they are ok and offer a counselor in case they are emotionally messed up. The new approach that Imani states in his article are good ideas that can help these kids recover from all of the violence they see. It is one step closer to helping youth stray away not only from gangs but also the “cycle of violence”.

Another approach, that I thought of, can be used with the youths of high risk gang activity is focusing on the fact that all these children know is the bad neighborhood that they live in. They think that this is where they are going to spend the rest of their lives in this town, so joining a gang does not seem so bad. Some of these kids have never left the city that they have grown up in and seen the beach or let alone travelled anywhere else. Schools and even afterschool programs should set up monthly field trips to a beach, an art museum, the nearest college, a science museum, a history museum etc. Depending on what cities the programs are in will possibly change what kind of field trip they can go on. For example living right here in Sacramento the capital of California schools can take a field trip to the state capital or even the various courts that are stationed downtown. Watching a criminal court case and getting a tour of the courtrooms can be a good incentive for these kids to not want to end up in the position that the people are in facing jail time. Basically all the ideas to help youths to not join gangs and become a statistic is to inform them, guide them, and show them that there are other things in life to pursue other than joining a gang.

Works Cited

http://www.helpinggangyouth.com/statistics.html

Caster, Jacqueline “A Novel Approach to Stem Gang Recruitment of Minors” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacqueline-caster/a-novel-approach-to-stem_b_682046.html

Imani, Jakada “It’s Time for a New Approach to Violence” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jakada-imani/its-time-for-a-new-approach_b_915527.html

Growing up on the "other side" of town

Depending on where kids grow up plays a big factor in the kind of teenager and adult they become. Most children of affluent neighborhoods have the money to go to good schools, have more opportunities, and their parents can spend more time with them. Children of poor neighborhoods do not have that luxury because they go to the public schools close to their homes and their parent/’s are working all the time to provide for the family so they don’t get to spend quality time with them. In reality these children are raising themselves with the help of the streets as well. We need to focus more on those children who grow up in poverty because we seem to forget about them and let the system take care of them.

A child who grows up in a poverty stricken neighborhood sees a lot of bad things happen than children who grow up in more affluent neighborhoods very rarely see. For example: robberies, shootings, murders, drug abuse/dealing, domestic violence, and arrests. I am not inferring that well off kids do not see this but impoverished kids see it almost on a daily basis. Seeing acts of violence like this have a really big impact on a child’s life. Maybe not at first but the more they see it and grow up with it they begin think it is normal and become desensitized to the violence that will most likely become the same violence in that teenagers life. According to Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice and Law by Larry J. Siegel and Brandon C. Welsh researched adolescent poverty and state that, “Poverty hits kids 18 and under the hardest: More than 15 million adolescents and children now live in poverty…these children are deprived of the life opportunities available to kids growing up in affluent households” (6). Looking at those numbers of children in poverty is sad and alarming. Since children only make up “24 percent of the total population but make up 35 percent of people in poverty” (6) it really puts in perspective how underprivileged and under cared for many children are. The government or someone needs to see these statistics and say enough is enough and help these kids. It may not seem like that big of a problem but it really is. A child should not have to experience such extreme poverty, and it affects them as a person in the future. These children loving in poverty most of the time end up being the homeless person sleeping on the sidewalk, or become a criminal. Most of the time they become the really violent criminal.

Teens are already risk-takers as it is, but thrown in “little or no adult supervision and increasing independence these teens are more likely to be involved in risk-taking behaviors” says Susan Wile Schwarz “Adolescent Violence and Unintentional Injury”. Another factor that fuels teenage violence is the environment that they live in. For affluent teens they receive above and beyond the basic needs of growing up which is a stable family life, money, parental supervision, and opportunities. A teen of poverty sees that a well off teen gets what the want, and they become upset and ask themselves why don’t I have a better education, more money to buy things with, or parents who have enough time to spend with me? The teenager feels it is unfair and takes matter into their own hands so that they can acquire these monetary things. They begin to deal drugs and join gangs. They deal drugs to attain money and they join gangs for safety and a mock family. To these troubled teens a gang offers false hope and acts as a parent who “guides” them and “teaches” them about life. The deeper these teens get involved in dealing and gangs the more lost and violent they become. For these teenagers who grow up in poverty life seems hopeless and becoming a part of a gang and being violent is the only way, but there are other ways and programs to help them.

According to Susan Schwarz the most helpful prevention programs are after school extracurricular programs. Programs such as athletic teams, boys and girls of America, clubs, basically any kind of activity to keep teenagers busy after school so they don’t get involved in violence and crime. With an athletic team the teen can get out all their aggression and energy there. Other programs can help them with their homework and someone to look up to. Mentors are also a good way for them to stay out of trouble and have a young adult guide, help, listen and offer advice. A mentor is someone that the teenager can count on and is consistently there for them. A wise professor of mine Professor Gary Lowe said, “Children don’t necessarily need love, but consistency”. A mentor offers that stability and consistency for them and makes the teen feel like they are not in this alone but have someone to lean on and not just people always telling them what to do and how they are bad.

Although not all children who live in poverty become violent their chances of becoming violent later on in their life are higher than that of a child who grows up in a more affluent family. To make sure that the children growing up in poverty are not forgotten about we need to make sure that we keep providing after school programs, money towards educating parents and kids on decision making, and drugs. And lastly these teens need an adult/mentor to look up to and guide them through school listen to them and show them that they can rise up through their unfortunate situation.

Works Cited

http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_890.pdf

Siegel, Larry J., Welsh, Brandon C., Juvenile Delinquency, Theory, Practice and Law. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning 2012, Belmont, CA.

Gary Lowe, Professor of Criminal Justice, California State University of Sacramento