GANGSTERISM AND YOUTH

 GANGSTERISM AND YOUTH

A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen. In the United Kingdom the word is still often used in this sense, but it later underwent pejoration. The word gang often carries a negative connotation; however, within a gang which defines itself in opposition to mainstream norms, members may adopt the phrase as a statement of identity or defiance.[1]

There are two types of gangs; street gangs and organised gangs. Street gangs are small-loosely gangs made up of youngsters, who encourage on street corners, smoke drugs and drink alcohol. They also intimidate passers-by. They resort to robbing and stealing to support their drug and alcohol habits. Larger gangs on other hand are more problematic and dangerous and are responsible for violent crimes like murders. These gangs are well organised and all the gangsters in that gang follow unwritten rules and if they break them they are punished with death. Most people are roped into gangsterism at an early age, from the ages of ten to sixteen years. Many males are drawn into the gang arena by the attraction of money, power and glamour with which they associate gangsterism. They dream of the flashy cars, massive gold jewellery, immense amounts of money, and the power to control a whole town – as their ultimate goal. In reality, however, it is far from being what they thought it would be. Yet, as youngsters, they do not see further than their own ignorance. From the moment they join a gang, their lives become an orgy of murders, robberies, rapes and drunkenness that they would sometimes not understand or have wanted. [2]

Now a day’s many young teenagers are grow up without values. It is not uncommon to hear of teenagers getting into trouble. Smaller gangs, usually made up of youngsters, are also normally swallowed up by larger, more prominent gangs who then use the youngsters to commit the crimes for them. The decline of values among american youth is a problem .The decline of values among youth have increase in crime and violence, sexual activities and drug abuse. Periods of development The Imprint Period Up to the age of seven, we are like sponges, absorbing everything around us and accepting much of it as true, especially when it comes from our parents. The confusion and blind belief of this period can also lead to the early formation of trauma and other deep problems. The critical thing here is to learn a sense of right and wrong, good and bad. This is a human construction which we nevertheless often assume would exist even if we were not here (which is an indication of how deeply imprinted it has become).[3]

The Modelling Period Between the ages of eight and thirteen, we copy people, often our parents, but also other people. Rather than blind acceptance, we are trying on things like suit of clothes, to see how they feel. We may be much impressed with religion or our teachers. You may remember being particularly influenced by junior school teachers who seemed so knowledgeable--maybe even more so than your parents. The Socialization Period between 13 and 21, we are very largely influenced by our peers. As we develop as individuals and look for ways to get away from the earlier programming, we naturally turn to people who seem more like us. Other influences at these ages include the media, especially those parts which seem to resonate with our values of our peer groups. It's tough to have high moral values, but some people get there.[4]

Children are susceptible to learning violent ideals through their high level of exposure to North American television programming.   Parents have come to rely on the use of television as a babysitting service and therefore have increased the influence of television on the fragile, easily manipulated minds of their children.   On average, a typical Canadian child will watch about 22 hours of television per week.   Over their adolescent lives, this adds up to more time spent watching television than time spent at school, playing sports or communicating with parents and friends. It is not the amount of television viewed that has created this problem, but rather it is the content of North American television that has spiralled out of control and that has warped the minds of countless children.   The correlation between aggressive behaviour and television viewing is accounted for by the violent content of modern television shows. Many types of gangs make up the general structure of an organized group. There are street gangs, which are people with similar backgrounds and motivations. The term “street gang” is commonly used interchangeably with “youth gang,” referring to neighbourhood or street-based youth groups that meet “gang” criteria. Miller (1992) defines a street gang as “a self-formed association of peers, united by mutual interests, with identifiable leadership and internal organization, who act collectively or as individuals to achieve specific purposes, including the conduct of illegal activity and control of a particular territory, facility, or enterprise."[5]

Understanding the structure of gangs is a critical skill to defining the types of strategies that are most effective with dealing with them, from the at-risk youth to the gang leaders. Not all individuals who display the outward signs of gang membership are actually involved in criminal activities. An individual's age, physical structure, ability to fight, willingness to use violence, and arrest record are often principal factors in determining where an individual stands in the gang hierarchy; now money derived from criminal activity and ability to provide for the gang also impacts the individual’s status within the gang. The structure of gangs varies depending primarily on size which can range in size from five or ten to several thousand. Many of the larger gangs break up into smaller groups, cliques or sub-sets. The cliques typically bring more territory to a gang as they expand and recruit new members. Most gangs operate informally with leadership falling to whoever takes control; others have distinct leadership and are highly structured, much like a business or corporation. Gang violence refers to mostly those illegal and non-political acts of violence perpetrated by gangs against innocent people, property, or other gangs. Throughout history, such acts have been committed by gangs at all levels of organization. Nearly every major city was ravaged by gang violence at some point in its history. Modern gangs introduced new acts of violence, which may also function as a rite of passage for new gang members. In America, gangs formed before the War of Independence. It has been recently estimated that there are more than 24,500 gangs and over 772,500 gang members in the U.S. According to Huff (1998), the general age range of youth gang members is between the ages of 14-24. Hispanics and African Americans are more likely than other ethnic groups to be gang members (Spergel, 1990). Male gang members engage in more crime than their counterpart female gang members (Messner, 1985). Some general characteristics of gang members include single-parent family background, high need of social acceptance, lack of positive role models at home or school, low academic performance, high incidence of school dropout, lower socioeconomic status, chronic unemployment, lack of access to community recreational facilities, little exposure to religion, and poor school performance training. Gang membership is much higher in urban neighborhoods that are economically and socially depressed (Johnstone, 1983). Jankowski (1990) also noted that youth may join a gang for material reasons, recreation, a hide out or avoid legal problem, physical protection, and to gain autonomy from authority figures (Jankowski, 1990). Gang members come from an array of economic backgrounds. Just like there are different types of gangs there are different types of gang members that come in different forms that are different in age, race, ethnicity, gender, and setting. Joining a gang is usually a process involving a number of factors. In some cases, however, the decision to join a gang is based on what youth consider to be in their best interests. Some might argue that youth may not have a choice in joining a gang, as one recruitment strategy is coercion. For some ethnic groups, a father, grandfather, or other relatives have been gang members. In other words, for some youth there intergenerational gang membership exists. [6]

In dealing with the issue of youth gang membership, it is important to determine the manner in which we can prevent our youth from joining gangs. In order to do so, it is imperative to define the early determinates of gang membership. Before explaining the early determinates, researchers need to make a clear distinction between gangs and groups that pose as gangs, "wannabees," or youths who selfidentify as gang members. The current study analyzes the relationship between gang membership and socio-demographic characteristics, neighbourhood disorganization theory, social strain theory, social bond theory, differential association theory, and self-control theory in order to provide insight into the etiology of gang membership. It is hypothesized that self-reported gang membership is positively associated with criminal activity, residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, scoring on the social strain index, the possession of deviant definitions, and deficiencies in social bonds as compared to their counterpart non-gang members.[7]

The effect is that the murder. Tendencies in their mind can't be controlled. they overthrow those on top of them with the most extreme violence possible in necessary situations. real street hogs are at surface very friendly and somewhat charming this is because of they're powerful hold on other lives. when they're hate is activated they become what can be described as extremely hostile but not without a sense of complete control over their own mind states and everything happening around them. with this mentality comes belief's such as death before dishonour and bomb first. these are installed in the youth's mind and can only be installed if this particular road is taken by the mind. homicide is their lulu-by, they hang in packs and all individually pursue this idealism in order to survive all conflict possible in the world. also if they do not 'put in work' they will most likely be beaten by their own crew. they are considered boss players, they gratitude themselves by the downfall of others which isn't and hard for adolescents to perfect due to their quick reactions and in this case very susceptible mind state to interestingly enough, revolutionary aspects. any adolescent thug/gangster that isn't doing this will eventually end up being murdered when in street conflict with these individuals described which is almost always over the issue of money.[8]

Usually, gangs have gained the most control in poorer, urban communities and the Third World in response to unemployment and other services. Social disorganization, the disintegration of societal institutions such as family, school, and the public safety net enable groups of peers to form gangs. According to surveys conducted internationally by the World Bank for their World Development Report 2011, by far the most common reason people suggest as a motive for joining gangs is unemployment. The Internet is one of the most significant mediums used by gangs to communicate in terms of the size of the audience they can reach with minimal effort and reduced risk. The Internet provides a forum for recruitment activities, typically provoking rival gangs through derogatory postings, and to glorify their gang and themselves. Gangs are using the Internet to communicate with each other, facilitate criminal activity, spread their message and culture around the nation. As Internet pages like MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, AIM, and Facebook become more popular, law enforcement works to understand how to conduct investigations related to gang activity in an online or cyber environment. In most cases the police can and will get the information they need, however this requires police officers and federal agents to make formal legal requests for information in a timely manner, which typically requires a search warrant or subpoena to compel the service providers to supply the needed information. Just about every gang member has personal web page or some type of social networking internet account or chat room where they post photos and videos and talk openly about their gang exploits. The majority of the service providers that gang members use are free social networking sites that allow users to create their own profile pages, which can include lists of their favourite musicians, books and movies, photos of themselves and friends, and links to related web pages. Many of these services also permit users to send and receive private messages and talk in private chat rooms. Many times a police officer may stumble upon one of these pages, or an informant can get you into the local gang page, providing you a name and password to use to get in and explore, other times you do not have that option and will have to formally request the needed information. Most service providers have four basic types of information about its users that may be relevant to a criminal investigation; 1) basic identity/subscriber information supplied by the user in creating the account; 2) IP log-in information; 3) files stored in a user’s profile and 4) user sent and received message content. It is important to know the law, and understand what exactly we can get service providers to do and what their capabilities are. It is also important to understand how gang members use the Internet and how we as the police can use their desire to be recognized and respected in their sub-culture against them. We must prevent the problem of gangsterism from spreading. One of the preventive measures is we should give counselling sessions to these problematic students. We should also inculcate good moral values in the students. They should be taught on how to respects others regardless of the race, physical appearance of socio-economic background. Awareness campaigns should be organized to make youth better individuals. The final way to prevent gangsterism in school is through strict enforcement by the authorities.[9]

In conclusion, gangsterism are the main problems faced by today’s youth. The effects are bad. The society has to work hand-in-hand to help the government combat these problems.

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[1] Taylor, E. ‚Transformative Learning Theory.‛ In Third Update on Adult Learning Theory, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education No. 119. (Dublin: John Wiley and Sons, 2008) p 3.

[2] Burney, E. (2000) ‘Ruling Out Trouble: Anti-Social Behaviour and Housing Management’, The

Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 11(2): p 83.

[3] Taylor, E. ‚Transformative Learning Theory.‛ In Third Update on Adult Learning Theory, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education No. 119. (Dublin: John Wiley and Sons, 2008) p 5.

[4] Leggett, T. ‚Still Marginal: Crime in the Coloured Community.‛ South African Crime Quarterly 7 (2004):p 21-26.

[5] Taylor, E. ‚Transformative Learning Theory.‛ In Third Update on Adult Learning Theory, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education No. 119. (Dublin: John Wiley and Sons, 2008) p 68.

[6] Burney, E. (2000) ‘Ruling Out Trouble: Anti-Social Behaviour and Housing Management’, The

Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 11(2): p 204.

[7] Taylor, E. ‚Transformative Learning Theory.‛ In Third Update on Adult Learning Theory, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education No. 119. (Dublin: John Wiley and Sons, 2008) p 45.

[8] Taylor, E. ‚Transformative Learning Theory.‛ In Third Update on Adult Learning Theory, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education No. 119. (Dublin: John Wiley and Sons, 2008) p 90.

[9] Burney, E. (2000) ‘Ruling Out Trouble: Anti-Social Behaviour and Housing Management’, The

Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 11(2): p 268.