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Gangs are a violent reality that people have to deal with in
today's cities. What has made these groups come about? Why do kids 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 member) 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 kids do things
that are strongly against their morals.
One of the ways that kids morals are bent so that gang violence
becomes more acceptable is the influence of television and movies. The
average child spends more time at a TV than she/he spends in a
classroom. Since nobody can completely turn off their minds, kids 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 Ends 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
minds. 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 kids raised
with this sort of television end up growing up with a stronger
propensity to becoming a violent gang member 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 leads 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 kids 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 members 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 members tries to be the
most manly. This often leads to all members participating in
"one-up-manship". Quite often this will then lead to each member trying
to commit a bigger and more violent crime or simply more crimes than
the others. With all members 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 members
these feelings end up making each member want to be the star when the
groups commit a crime. This makes the gang much more organized and
improves the morale of members 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
neighborhood. 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 kids. 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 kids think that the gang will keep them safe is from propoganda
from the gangs. Gang members will say that no one will get hurt and
make a public show of revenge if a member 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.
Footnotes
- Marshall B. Clinard, Sociology of Deviant Behavior. University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, 1963, Page 179.
- Merton Nisbet, Contempory Social Problems. Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, 1971, Page 588.
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