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
Works Cited
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
What i beleive of gangs is that they do not recruit people or go looking for kids who they want too. What happens is that the kids who hang around in the community gangs are more likely to join the gang because of the visual that if they join the gang, they are going to be protected and fell as a family. THere are kids that like to leave a fast life which can be either using drugs, violence, or even the usage of drugs. Joining a gang is the best way to experience all of the activities that I mentioned. But there is always a negative side of this, which can be getting killed by other gangs or even spending your whole life in prison. In top of that, registered gang members if arrested always get 4 years in top of their sentence just because being a gang member.
ReplyDeleteI agree that any type of after school programs or field trips would benefit any child especially the children you are trying to keep out of gangs. I also think that the parents of these children have a difficult time in getting through to these children and something like the big brother big sister programs might help get the point across that gangs will only hurt your future and staying educated and out of trouble will create a better future for them. Instead of focusing so much on juvenile rehabilitation we as a country should use our resources to stop the crimes in the first place and your solution at the end of your blog seems like a great start.
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