The youth involved in gangs have been introduced to the racially discriminated environment because the hatred of other towns and the people that live there, not only because they are enemies but because of their craving of being superior, being better than another race. By being discriminated people feel sad, mad, or sometimes they might not care at all depending on their educational status. “Welcome back nigger” comments like these don’t bother uneducated gang members because the careless mind, focusing only on anything gang related which is what their life revolves. “In my younger years that wouldn’t have bothered me much. But with my new direction and expanded cautiousness, it struck me hard.” Education is the answer to a better understanding of things and a better
Gangs and Social Change/Martin Sanchez Jankowski Reading 11 in Chapter 5 Social Structural Theories. The article was by Martin Sanchez Jankowski which focuses on some of the recent researchers have observed gangs. Gangs are an organized group of criminals. He describes it two ways by the most recent research and they stated that gathering of individuals with a specific negative set of personal attributes or a group of individuals who act in a deviant and criminal manner. (Introduction to Criminology, pg.
There are many theories relating to deviance and crime with each theory illustrating a different aspect of the procedure by which people break rules and are classed as deviants or criminals. (New texts pg 138) which highlights the problems in defining crime or deviance. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CRIME AND DEVIANCE Many believe crime and deviance has developed on separate tracks over the years as criminologist serve only for legality, crime and crime-related phenomena. The study of deviance however serves for a wider range of behaviours that are not necessarily illegal for example suicide, alcoholism, homosexuality, mentally disordered behaviours. (Bader et al) The main difference between crime and deviance is deviant behaviour is when a social norm has been broken whereas a crime is where a formal and social norm is broken.
Cloward and Ohlin argue, that the majority of criminals involved in the drugs trade were unable to succeed within capitalism and were driven to an illegitimate means of obtaining wealth. Cloward and Ohlin further argued that as people were driven into this illegitimate structure they tended to join existing deviant subcultures i.e. the drug subculture as in the case of the drugs trade. The theory does well to explain many crimes of the working class as they are unable to succeed in a society driven by middle class values, however Cloward and Ohlin’s subcultural theory fails to explain the crimes of the powerful whom already have achieved economic wealth through legitimate means. Furthermore the theory
I think that probably not. Gangs are a natural response to lower class life and a status, generating nothing for boys who cannot realize their aspirations by legitimate means. Gangs, poverty, and minorities are almost parallel words. Are there any truly meaningful alternatives to gangs today for lower-class youths? Yes there are social programs that can help gang involved youth.
It is a known fact that having a high school diploma can determine whether or not an individual is able to gain some type of employment. The lack of education is one of the main issues that contribute to minorities’ incarceration rate. Hammond, (2000) believes, “there is a real crisis with high number of minority young males, who drop out of school and wind up incarcerated”. The lack of education ultimately results in low skills and lack of employment. According to the American Academy of Political & Social Science, “America’s prisons and jails have become repositories for high school dropouts, thereby obscuring the degree of disadvantage faced by black men in the contemporary United States and the relative competitiveness of the U.S. workforce”.
14). The initial reaction to this would be to say that gangs are awful and have no place in society and we should do away with them. This is probably true to an extent but what about the idea behind gangs. It gives youth a sense of purpose in a world that makes them feel like they don’t belong. Of course there could be more structure which would cause gangs to be less damaging to our culture but the original idea behind it is a good one.
They were deviants, not criminals. According to the three boys Ronny, Jr. and Jose, who committed non-violent crimes, it didn’t matter what they did; they were now thought of as criminals by family, friends, community etc. The way people look, talk, and act around them is different. They then embrace this title, and are more likely to have another arrest. According to Rios “in this era of mass incarceration, society has formed around the idea that young adults who commit small acts of deviance will eventually commit more severe acts and this leads to community members treating all deviants as criminals”.
The high likelihood of detection by the police, and the deterrent effects of punishment have been seen as forms of crime prevention. But the traditional criminal justice agencies have prevention as a sort of side effect or unintended consequence of their main aim of detection and punishment. And they are, as we have seen in previous lectures, not that efficient. Specific measures aimed at preventing crime have always been around in an everyday sense. Families, schools and communities disapprove of crime and this acts as a form of 'informal social control' People lock their doors and windows against burglars, and perhaps avoid badly lit areas, or certain parts of town, with the intention of reducing the likelihood of victimisation.
A video of the ruckus was posted to YouTube following the event, and cited numerous Birmingham gangs in its headline. Following reading the article, it is apparent that local gangs are utilizing the park as a venue to “handle business” or carry out grudges against rival gangs. The entire ideology surrounding gang culture is one of peer pressure. Juveniles are more often than not pressured into joining neighborhood gangs at an early age. In order to be considered a part of the gang, they must commit criminal acts that range from basic burglary to acts of violence.