Lack of alternatives. Few job opportunities, no positive recreational choices, or lack of effective responses to peer pressure can create a climate favouring gang membership. Few recreational opportunities. Many teens and youngsters do not have any interests outside of school.
Joining a gang provides friends with whom they can share their free time. Need for money. The monetary allure of gang membership is difficult to counteract. Gang members share profits from drug trafficking and other illegal activities. To a teen, money translates into social status. Many people are without jobs or a source of income.
Becoming a gang member can provide a teen with an opportunity to make large amounts money quickly, because many gangs are involved in the illegal sale of drugs and firearms. Lack of educational opportunities. Many kids feel that time spent in school is wasted. Joining a gang becomes an alternative to studying or attending school.
Use of intimidation and violence. To coerce others to join their gang, members may recruit through scare tactics. People are then forced into membership to protect themselves or their families from the local gang or the local gang's rivals. Need for survival. It is understood that one gang member helps the other. In the gang sub-culture, a member could be disciplined for this. Most street gangs have no formal leadership structure.
Often, the most active or the most violent gang members lead the gang. Some street gangs have an identified person who is in charge. Gang members in these types of gangs follow orders to complete a crime. Other gangs use titles similar to the rank structure of the U. These gangs operate with a para-military style of leadership. A few street gangs even require written reports after the commission of a crime. To join a gang a potential member has to prove that he or she is worthy of membership.
It is another way to pass a first test of loyalty. There are other ways to join a gang. A new member could be sponsored by an existing member. This new member could be a family member, or someone who is well known by the rest of the gang. New gang members can also commit crime to show their loyalty and willingness to back up the gang. The crimes can range from shoplifting beer, to graffiti vandalism to murder.
If several people start their own gang, they are considered the original members or original gangsters. Mother or father or both, along with siblings, all belong to the same gang.
New female gang members can complete any or all of the previously mentioned initiation rituals. Any number of male gang members of the same gang can be sex partners for the new female member. The number of male partners can be as high as 14 or Female gang members who are sexed-in sometimes are treated differently than those females who are jumped-in. Some gangs even videotape these initiation rituals. Gathering accurate statistics on gangs and gang membership is difficult for a number of reasons.
Gangs obviously don't keep official records of their membership. Some people hang out with gang members, but aren't actually in a gang themselves. If someone "runs with" a gang, but hasn't been initiated yet, is that person a member? Who do you count when compiling your statistics? It's also important to consider the source of the data.
If a police officer asks a gang member, "Are you in a gang? Some youths may claim gang membership around other teens to seem tough, and gangs might inflate membership numbers to make their gang seem more powerful.
Police departments don't always report gang statistics accurately, either. Federal grants for fighting gang violence can give departments incentive to exaggerate gang numbers, while some departments deny having any gang problems at all to appease the public. They estimated that 49 percent of gang members were Hispanic, 37 percent were black, 8 percent white, 5 percent Asian and 1 percent had another ethnicity. They also found that gang membership is not as prevalent among youth as some fear — between 1 and 2 percent of children ages 10 to 17 were gang members, although the percentage spikes when only "at-risk" youth are counted.
Those that did join gangs didn't stay long, with the majority remaining in the gang for less than a year. There are many possible reasons for someone to join a gang, but four primary reasons seem to describe those of most gang members:.
Drug use is an underlying factor in all of these reasons. Not only does the sale of illegal drugs drive the profits of street gangs, they also create many of the conditions that lead to gang membership.
Criminal gangs have certainly been around as long as crime itself — it doesn't take a criminal mastermind to realize there is strength in numbers. The urbanization that accompanied the Industrial Revolution gave rise to the modern street gang.
New York City was the epicenter of gang activity in America in the 19th century. Poor sections of the city, such as the Five Points, provided a fertile ground for gangs with strong ethnic identities, usually Irish. Gangs based on Polish, Italian or other ethnicities were also common. The Forty Thieves, Shirt Tails and Plug Uglies fought over territory, robbed and mugged people and sometimes united to fight against gangs from other areas of the city, such as the waterfront and the Bowery district.
Gang activity gradually increased in the 20th century. Through the s and 60s, most gangs were in large cities, although nearby towns and suburbs might have hosted offshoot gangs if they were connected via major highways. Gangs with European ethnicity had all but disappeared, and gangs became almost exclusively black or Hispanic in their membership [ ref ].
In the s and '80s, narcotic drugs became more prevalent on the streets. Firearms also became easier to buy illegally. This combination made joining a street gang both more lucrative and more violent. Overall, gang activity peaked in the mids [ref]. Some of the most notorious gangs in the United States are the Crips and the Bloods. The Crips began in Los Angeles in the late 60s, partially in response to the activities of other gangs in their East L.
As the gang grew in power, smaller gangs joined them until Crips-affiliated gangs dominated the city. The Bloods formed in response, as the smaller non-Crip gangs sought their own power base. The Crip-Blood rivalry is vicious and never-ending, but internal strife between different "sets" within each gang has probably resulted in more murders that the feud itself [ ref ].
Today, both gangs have "franchise" gangs operating out of cities across the country. Starting out as smaller gangs, each attracted members, established control over large sections of the city and developed a fierce rivalry. The Lords and the Disciples are part of larger gang coalitions known as the People Nation and the Folk Nation, respectively. The influence of both gangs has spread to nearby cities. The brutal truth of gang life is that the only way most gang members leave the gang is in a body bag.
Some do manage to move on to a better, peaceful life. It might be because they reach a level of maturity that allows them to see the dangers of gang life in a different light. If they have family or get a good job and a home, they want to protect those things.
There are three major types of street gangs, each defined by factors such as prerequisites for inclusion, location or gang activities:.
Most gang members are exposed to gangs at a young age. The money and respect that older gang members earn impresses them.
They may begin hanging around gang members, finding out who is important and learning what the gang does. This can happen as early as age 10 or Gangs intentionally recruit children and use them to carry weapons and drugs or commit other crimes because they tend to attract less attention from police. If caught they serve shorter sentences in juvenile detention centers than an adult gang member would serve in prison.
When a new member joins a gang, he must usually go through an initiation. Initiations don't usually involve elaborate ceremonies or formalities, but the initiate will have to endure certain rites.
The most common is "jumping in," a beating issued by all the gang members. Gangs that accept female gang members sometimes rape them as their initiation. Instead of a "jumping in," or sometimes following it, the new gang member must participate in a mission. This can be anything from stealing a car to engaging in a firefight with a rival gang.
Some gangs don't consider anyone a full member until they have shot or killed someone. Getting a tattoo with gang symbols may be another part of the initiation. Daily gang life is generally not very exciting. Gang members sleep late, sit around the neighborhood, drink and do drugs and possibly go to a meeting place in the evening, such as a pool hall or roller rink.
They may work a street corner selling drugs or commit petty crimes like vandalism or theft. The notion of respect drives gang life almost completely, and for many gang members, gaining respect means committing violent crimes.
While it is relatively rare compared to their other activities, gangs do assault, shoot and assassinate people for money, turf, pride or revenge.
0コメント