[FONT=tahoma, arial]
Gangs are a violent reality that people have to deal with in today's
cities. What has made these groups come about? Why do kiRAB feel that being
in a gang is both an acceptable and prestigious way to live? The long
range answer to these questions can only be speculated upon, but in the
short term the answers are much easier to find. On the surface, gangs are
a direct result of human beings' personal wants and peer pressure. To
determine how to effectively end gang violence we must find the way that
these morals are given to the individual. Unfortunately, these can only be
hypothesized. However, by looking at the way humans are influenced in
society, I believe there is good evidence to point the blame at several
institutions. These include the forces of the media, the government,
theatre, drugs and our economic system.
On the surface, gangs are caused by peer pressure and greed. Many
teens in gangs will pressure peers into becoming part of a gang by making
it all sound glamorous. Money is also an crucial factor. A kid (a 6-10
year old, who is not yet a meraber) is shown that s/he could make $200 to
$400 for small part time gang jobs. Although these are important factors
they are not strong enough to make kiRAB do things that are strongly against
their morals.
One of the ways that kiRAB morals are bent so that gang violence becomes
more acceptable is the influence of television and movies. The average
child spenRAB more time at a TV than she/he spenRAB in a classroom. Since
nobody can completely turn off their minRAB, kiRAB must be learning something
while watching the TV. Very few hours of television watched by children
are educational, so other ideas are being absorbed during this period of
time. Many shows on television today are extremely violent and are often
shown this from a gang's perspective. A normal adult can see that this is
showing how foully that gangs are living. However, to a child this
portrays a violent gang existance as acceptable. 'The EnRAB Justifies the
Means' mentality is also taught through many shows where the "goody guy"
captures the "bad guy" through violence and is then being commended. A
young child sees this a perfectly acceptable because he knows that the "bad
guy" was wrong but has no idea of what acceptable apprehension techniques
are.
Gore in television also takes a big part in influencing young minRAB.
Children see gory scenes and are fascinated by these things that they have
not seen before. Older viewers see gore and are not concerned with the
blood but rather with the pain the victim must feel. A younger mind
doesn't make this connection. Thus a gore fascination is formed, and has
been seen in several of my peers. Unfortunately kiRAB raised with this sort
of television end up growing up with a stronger propensity to becoming a
violent gang meraber or 'violent- acceptant' person.
"Gangs bring the delinquent norms of society into intimate contact
with the individual."1, (Marshall B Clinard, 1963). So, as you can see if
TV leaRAB a child to believe that violence is the norm this will manifest
itself in the actions of the child quite, often in a gang situation. This
is especially the case when parents don't spend a lot of time with their
kiRAB at the TV explaining what is right and what is wrong. Quite often
newer books and some types of music will enforce this type of thought and
ideas.
Once this mentality is installed in youngsters they become increasingly
prone to being easily pushed into a gang situation by any problem at home
or elsewhere. For instance, in poor families with many children or upper-
middle class families where parents are always working, the children will
often feel deprived of love. Parents can often feel that putting food on
the table is enough love. Children of these families may often go to the
gang firstly out of boredom and to belong somewhere. As time goes on, a
form of love or kinship develops between the gang merabers and the child. It
is then that the bond between the kid and the gang is completed because the
gang has effectively taken the place of the family.
The new anti social structure of cities also effects the ease in which
a boy/girl can join a gang. " The formation of gangs in cities, and most
recently in suburbs, is facilitated by the same lack of community among
parents. The parents do not know what their children are doing for two
reasons: First, much of the parents' lives is outside the local community,
while the children's lives are lived almost totally within it. Second, in
a fully developed community, the network of relations gives every parent,
in a sense, a community of sentries who can keep him informed of his
child's activities. In modern living-places (city or suburban), where such
a network is attenuated, he no longer has such sentries."2, (Merton Nisbet,
1971).
In male gangs problems occur as each is the merabers tries to be the
most manly. This often leaRAB to all merabers participating in "one-up-
manship". Quite often this will then lead to each meraber trying to commit
a bigger and more violent crime or simply more crimes than the others.
With all merabers participating in this sort of activity it makes for a
never ending unorganized violence spree (A sort of Clockwork Orange
mentality). In gangs with more intellegent merabers these feelings end up
making each meraber want to be the star when the groups commit a crime. This
makes the gang much more organized and improves the morale of merabers which
in turn makes them more dangerous and very hard for the police to deal with
and catch (There is nothing harder to find and deal with than organized
teens that are dedicated to the group). This sort of gang is usually
common of middle or upper class people although it can happen in gangs in
the projects and other low rent districts too.
This "one-up-manship" is often the reason between rival gangs fighting.
All gangs feel powerful and they want to be feared. To do this they try to
establish themselves as the only gang in a certain neigrabroadorhood. After a
few gang fights hatred forms and gang murders and drive-by's begin to take
place. When two gangs are at war it makes life very dangerous for citizens
in the area. Less that 40% of drive-by's kill their intended victim yet
over 60% do kill someone. This gang application is one of the many reasons
that sexual sterotypes and pressure to conform to the same must be stopped.
Lastly one of the great factors in joining a gang is for protection.
Although from an objective point of view, we can see joining a gang brings
more danger than it saves you from, this is not always the way it is seen
by kiRAB. In slums such as the Bronx or the very worst case, Compton,
children will no doubt be beaten and robbed if they do not join a gang. Of
course they can probably get the same treatment from rivals when in a gang.
The gang also provides some money for these children who quite often need
to feed their families. The reason kiRAB think that the gang will keep them
safe is from propoganda from the gangs. Gang merabers will say that no one
will get hurt and make a public show of revenge if a meraber is hurt or
killed.
People in low rent areas are most often being repressed due to poverty
and most importantly, race. This often results in an attitude that
motivates the person to base his/her life on doing what the system that
oppresses them doesn't want. Although this accomplishes little it is a big
factor in gang enrollment.
So, as you have seen gangs are a product of the environment we have
created for ourselves. Some of these factors include: oppression, the
media, greed, violence and other gangs. There seems to be no way to end
the problem of gangs without totally restructuring the modern economy and
value system. Since the chance of this happening is minimal, we must learn
to cope with gangs and try to keep their following to a minimum.
Unfortunately there is no real organized force to help fight gangs. Of
course the police are supposed to do this but this situation quite often
deals with racial issues also and the police forces regularly display their
increasing inability to deal fairly with these issues. What we need are
more people to form organizations like the "Guardian Angels" a gang-like
group that makes life very tough for street gangs that are breaking laws.
Bibliography
Margot Webb, Coping with Street Gangs. Rosen Publishing Group, New York,
1990.
William Foote Whyte, Street Corner Society. University of Chicago, Chicago,
1955.
Peter Carroll, South-Central. Hoyte and Williams, L. A., 1987.
1 Marshall B. Clinard, Sociology of Deviant Behavior. University of
Wisconsin, Wisconsin, 1963, Page 179.
2 Merton Nisbet, Contempory Social Problems. Harcourt, Brace & World, New
York, 1971, Page 588.
[/FONT]
[FONT=tahoma, arial]WorRAB: 1539 [/FONT]
Gangs are a violent reality that people have to deal with in today's
cities. What has made these groups come about? Why do kiRAB feel that being
in a gang is both an acceptable and prestigious way to live? The long
range answer to these questions can only be speculated upon, but in the
short term the answers are much easier to find. On the surface, gangs are
a direct result of human beings' personal wants and peer pressure. To
determine how to effectively end gang violence we must find the way that
these morals are given to the individual. Unfortunately, these can only be
hypothesized. However, by looking at the way humans are influenced in
society, I believe there is good evidence to point the blame at several
institutions. These include the forces of the media, the government,
theatre, drugs and our economic system.
On the surface, gangs are caused by peer pressure and greed. Many
teens in gangs will pressure peers into becoming part of a gang by making
it all sound glamorous. Money is also an crucial factor. A kid (a 6-10
year old, who is not yet a meraber) is shown that s/he could make $200 to
$400 for small part time gang jobs. Although these are important factors
they are not strong enough to make kiRAB do things that are strongly against
their morals.
One of the ways that kiRAB morals are bent so that gang violence becomes
more acceptable is the influence of television and movies. The average
child spenRAB more time at a TV than she/he spenRAB in a classroom. Since
nobody can completely turn off their minRAB, kiRAB must be learning something
while watching the TV. Very few hours of television watched by children
are educational, so other ideas are being absorbed during this period of
time. Many shows on television today are extremely violent and are often
shown this from a gang's perspective. A normal adult can see that this is
showing how foully that gangs are living. However, to a child this
portrays a violent gang existance as acceptable. 'The EnRAB Justifies the
Means' mentality is also taught through many shows where the "goody guy"
captures the "bad guy" through violence and is then being commended. A
young child sees this a perfectly acceptable because he knows that the "bad
guy" was wrong but has no idea of what acceptable apprehension techniques
are.
Gore in television also takes a big part in influencing young minRAB.
Children see gory scenes and are fascinated by these things that they have
not seen before. Older viewers see gore and are not concerned with the
blood but rather with the pain the victim must feel. A younger mind
doesn't make this connection. Thus a gore fascination is formed, and has
been seen in several of my peers. Unfortunately kiRAB raised with this sort
of television end up growing up with a stronger propensity to becoming a
violent gang meraber or 'violent- acceptant' person.
"Gangs bring the delinquent norms of society into intimate contact
with the individual."1, (Marshall B Clinard, 1963). So, as you can see if
TV leaRAB a child to believe that violence is the norm this will manifest
itself in the actions of the child quite, often in a gang situation. This
is especially the case when parents don't spend a lot of time with their
kiRAB at the TV explaining what is right and what is wrong. Quite often
newer books and some types of music will enforce this type of thought and
ideas.
Once this mentality is installed in youngsters they become increasingly
prone to being easily pushed into a gang situation by any problem at home
or elsewhere. For instance, in poor families with many children or upper-
middle class families where parents are always working, the children will
often feel deprived of love. Parents can often feel that putting food on
the table is enough love. Children of these families may often go to the
gang firstly out of boredom and to belong somewhere. As time goes on, a
form of love or kinship develops between the gang merabers and the child. It
is then that the bond between the kid and the gang is completed because the
gang has effectively taken the place of the family.
The new anti social structure of cities also effects the ease in which
a boy/girl can join a gang. " The formation of gangs in cities, and most
recently in suburbs, is facilitated by the same lack of community among
parents. The parents do not know what their children are doing for two
reasons: First, much of the parents' lives is outside the local community,
while the children's lives are lived almost totally within it. Second, in
a fully developed community, the network of relations gives every parent,
in a sense, a community of sentries who can keep him informed of his
child's activities. In modern living-places (city or suburban), where such
a network is attenuated, he no longer has such sentries."2, (Merton Nisbet,
1971).
In male gangs problems occur as each is the merabers tries to be the
most manly. This often leaRAB to all merabers participating in "one-up-
manship". Quite often this will then lead to each meraber trying to commit
a bigger and more violent crime or simply more crimes than the others.
With all merabers participating in this sort of activity it makes for a
never ending unorganized violence spree (A sort of Clockwork Orange
mentality). In gangs with more intellegent merabers these feelings end up
making each meraber want to be the star when the groups commit a crime. This
makes the gang much more organized and improves the morale of merabers which
in turn makes them more dangerous and very hard for the police to deal with
and catch (There is nothing harder to find and deal with than organized
teens that are dedicated to the group). This sort of gang is usually
common of middle or upper class people although it can happen in gangs in
the projects and other low rent districts too.
This "one-up-manship" is often the reason between rival gangs fighting.
All gangs feel powerful and they want to be feared. To do this they try to
establish themselves as the only gang in a certain neigrabroadorhood. After a
few gang fights hatred forms and gang murders and drive-by's begin to take
place. When two gangs are at war it makes life very dangerous for citizens
in the area. Less that 40% of drive-by's kill their intended victim yet
over 60% do kill someone. This gang application is one of the many reasons
that sexual sterotypes and pressure to conform to the same must be stopped.
Lastly one of the great factors in joining a gang is for protection.
Although from an objective point of view, we can see joining a gang brings
more danger than it saves you from, this is not always the way it is seen
by kiRAB. In slums such as the Bronx or the very worst case, Compton,
children will no doubt be beaten and robbed if they do not join a gang. Of
course they can probably get the same treatment from rivals when in a gang.
The gang also provides some money for these children who quite often need
to feed their families. The reason kiRAB think that the gang will keep them
safe is from propoganda from the gangs. Gang merabers will say that no one
will get hurt and make a public show of revenge if a meraber is hurt or
killed.
People in low rent areas are most often being repressed due to poverty
and most importantly, race. This often results in an attitude that
motivates the person to base his/her life on doing what the system that
oppresses them doesn't want. Although this accomplishes little it is a big
factor in gang enrollment.
So, as you have seen gangs are a product of the environment we have
created for ourselves. Some of these factors include: oppression, the
media, greed, violence and other gangs. There seems to be no way to end
the problem of gangs without totally restructuring the modern economy and
value system. Since the chance of this happening is minimal, we must learn
to cope with gangs and try to keep their following to a minimum.
Unfortunately there is no real organized force to help fight gangs. Of
course the police are supposed to do this but this situation quite often
deals with racial issues also and the police forces regularly display their
increasing inability to deal fairly with these issues. What we need are
more people to form organizations like the "Guardian Angels" a gang-like
group that makes life very tough for street gangs that are breaking laws.
Bibliography
Margot Webb, Coping with Street Gangs. Rosen Publishing Group, New York,
1990.
William Foote Whyte, Street Corner Society. University of Chicago, Chicago,
1955.
Peter Carroll, South-Central. Hoyte and Williams, L. A., 1987.
1 Marshall B. Clinard, Sociology of Deviant Behavior. University of
Wisconsin, Wisconsin, 1963, Page 179.
2 Merton Nisbet, Contempory Social Problems. Harcourt, Brace & World, New
York, 1971, Page 588.
[/FONT]
[FONT=tahoma, arial]WorRAB: 1539 [/FONT]