Changes In Modern Day Gangs

“Gangs have morphed from social organizations into full-fledged criminal enterprises” (Thomas, 2009, para 5). Gangs are highly sophisticated and more dangerous then ever. The number one reason to join a gang is money; and 95 percent of gangs profit comes from drug dealing

Chapter Four is entitled, “[The] Scope and Nature of the Current Gang Problem.” It focuses on recent trends in number of gangs, gang members and gang-related crimes in each city. In Inglewood, almost all the neighborhoods were claimed by at least one gang, with gang-unit officers agreeing that the city was facing a major gang problem. In Albuquerque, gangs were involved in drug trafficking and property offenses, with 7 out of 8 gang-unit officers believing the city had a major gang problem. In Las Vegas, migration from other cities was thought to be the primary cause of an increase in gang members. 50% of crime in Las Vegas is attributed to gangs, with most officers believing they had a moderate to major gang problem. In Phoenix, the gang problem is described as wave-like, with 70% of gang-unit officers thinking the city had a major gang problem. These statistics were backed up through interviews with officers and city records.

Gangs like to rob houses, steal things, kill people, all on purpose. They don’t always have a reason to do the things they do, the just do it. The gangs of long ago had reasons. Another difference would be the way the gangs dressed. Long ago, rich gangs wore plaid or striped shirts and always looked nice.

Abstract: This review studies in depth research done on street gangs. Social issues have social scientists turning away from including this in their research around this time. Sociological views have been changed dramatically in the past 40 years due to gender and racial studies. Also, women have started to join gangs since America has been changed with woman equality laws passing.

Gangs was the evolution for power, strength, dignity and showing no remorse or weakness it was a golden ticket to get respected and be heard some will say it’s a social movement that focused on justice and other will say it’s bunch of thugs who are endangering the communities. However the gangs were consider a movement and wanted justice from a political standpoint.

Street gangs in this country can probably be traced back to the first wave of Europeans who migrated to the colonies for a better life for themselves and their families. Many of the first gangs were formed as a means of self protection, with the thinking that there is simply strength in numbers. The missions of gangs in today’s society have grown and emerged to include many violent criminal avenues, including drug trafficking, prostitution, money laundering, and extortion but the original thinking that there is strength in numbers remains true. Criminology experts believe that the number of teens involved in gangs or gang activity may be as high as 1 in every 5 people in most urban areas. Those number jump to 1 in every 3 people in

Despite the discrete and sly manner of gangs, their presence and acts have affected and continue to affect the U.S in many aspects. Since their early beginnings in the 1780s, shortly after the Revolutionary War, gangs have had control and power in many areas of the U.S. When gangs were still a new idea in the U.S most had real jobs and few were involved in serious crimes (Wolff 6). It wasn’t until the nineteenth century, a time where the U.S economy was in a rut and people were fighting for jobs, until these gangs became a problem. Most of these gang formations sprung from European immigrants who came to America and were pushed aside. This led to them having to struggle with finding jobs, which in turn gave

In the early twentieth century, the term “gang” was associated with groups in socially disorganized and deteriorated inner-city neighborhoods: It was applied to juveniles who engaged in a variety of delinquencies, ranging from truancy, street brawls, and beer running to race riots, robberies, and other serious crimes (Regoli, Hewitt, DeLisi, 2011). There were several gangs within the United States, which included street gangs, prison gangs, motorcycle gangs, and organized crime gangs that still exist today. The word “gang” is derived from the word “gonge,” which is a term that means a journey. Frederic Thrasher who was called the “Father of Gang Research”, who defined the word gang as kids in the streets back in the 1920s.

Drug routes are associated and may have originated with U.S. gangs in an effort for drug cartels to amp up and focus on their production, leaving the logistics to the gangs. The drug cartels have chosen to align with U.S. gangs based on similar philosophies of honor, allegiance, and loyalty combined with similar business practices and levels of hierarchy. The largest U.S. gangs are structured similarly to giant corporations that succeed with levels of management teams with the ultimate goal of profit, U.S. gangs are no different as they often legitimize themselves as profitable business. Asian gangs are common in California and on the east coast but locating scholarly articles about their operations is a daunting task that required a personal interview with a former gang member.

The story takes place New York's West Side district, where two rival gang want to take over the control of the area. The tension among the Jets, a second-generation American teen gang, and the Puerto Rican emigrant youth gang, the Sharks was increasing. The daily confrontations lead to the eruption of a war between the two gangs.

Gang involvement and its associated violent crime have become a rapidly growing problem for the United States. Generally, gangs consist of young people of the same ethnic, racial, and economic background. Usually of a low socio-economic status, these gangs engage in illegal money making activities and intimidate their neighborhoods and rival gangs with violent crimes and victimization. Gang members exemplify a high value for group loyalty and sacrifice.

The United States is infested with street gangs, from rural towns to inner-cities, that perpetuate violence and criminal activity. There are four gangs that have gained nation status--Crips, Bloods, People Nation, and Folk Nation. American’s strain on African Americans and Latinos creates oppression and has led to the creation of these gangs. Minorities are predominantly in the lower class, stratified by inequality in the workplace, schools, and social groups. Vince Staples, a former Crip, details how society created his childhood and forced him into a gang. These gangs are heavily involved with drug and weapons trafficking, their main source of income, and use violence to intimidate and protect their turf and sales.

Gangs originated naturally during the adolescent years of a child. They started from small play groups that eventually found themselves in conflict with other small groups of youth. Due to the conflict between the two small groups of youth it became a part of a child’s mind set to come together as a gang and protect their rights and satisfy the needs that their environment and families couldn’t provide. There are about 24,500 gangs in the U.S and out of those gangs 40% of them are juveniles (Hess, Orthmann, Wright, 2013). There are numerous reason why a child would join a gang, and the

“According to statistics from the National Youth Gang Center, more than 24,500 gangs, consisting of more than 770,000 members, exist in about 3,300 cities in the U.S.” (Rank 1). Although it is not illegal to be a member of a gang, it should be noted many gangs participate in illegal activity for funding and will use the money as a way to entice new membership. The “money begins flowing, and with that comes all of the things associated with material wealth that is usually beyond the reach of these adolescents without the criminal activity of being involved in a gang” (Nawojczyk 3).

A gang is a loosely organized group of individual people who join forces for social reasons. Or anti-social reasons depending on how one looks at it. A person may join a gang for numerous reasons. These reasons include the need for “identity, discipline, recognition, love, money, and belonging.” 5 “Today there are approximately 274 Blood and Crip gangs in Los Angeles County alone.” 1 The gangs that are often in the news are usually made up of African-Americans. “African-Americans first formed street gangs in the late 1920s and early 1930s on the east side of Los Angeles near Central and Vernon Avenues. They were also forming in the downtown area of Los Angeles around the same time.” 4