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.
Although most gangs are viewed as a kind of plague to society, some of them don’t see themselves that way. There are many that actually try and give back to their community in positive way but the problem is that the bad outweighs the good in everyone else’s mind. There is a large lack of social skills with gang members because they don’t know how to interact with people outside of their gang and get a positive reaction. Most people outside of their gang are not going to understand why they act the way they act, or do the things they do so there is going to be a communication barrier there. If the members of gangs were more understood in society then they probably wouldn’t be in one to begin with.
Another possible answer comes from a facilitation model (Thornberry et al., 1993) in which the norms and the group processes within the gang encourage involvement in violence and other delinquency. If norms within gangs are favorable toward violence and delinquency, members would be expected to adhere to those norms and commit delinquent acts while they were a part of the group. "Once a person enters a group, reciprocal processes lead to further commonalties in activities, including deviant ones. There is a transmission of values and, for some networks, a contagion of social problems" (Cairns and Cairns, 1991:273). A third possibility is that both processes are in effect, operating in an enhancement model, as suggested by Cairns and Cairns (1991), Esbensen and Huizinga (1993), and Hill et al.
It allows the police departments to take proactive law enforcement action normally before the gang gets an organized structure. The gang can or may range from a loose knit group of individuals who hang around together and commit crimes together, to a formal organization with a leader or ruling council, gang colors, gang identifiers could be such as tattoos, and a gang name. In the textbook on page 145, “Islands in the Street: Urban Gangs in the United States, it says that the functions that gangs fulfill or motives for joining a gang is to possible to escape a broken home, but many members that join still interact with their families. So that must not be the only reason in some cases of why people join gangs. It also say its because of money, drugs, woman, to commit a crime, and for protection because its better than the police.
These new gang chapters sometimes become rivals to the original gang (Major Prison Gangs). Prison gangs are responsible for a wide varity of illegal activities. Along with offering protection to its gang members, prison gangs handle the drug, tobacco, and alcohol trafficking inside the prison. They are able and often bribe or scare other inmates and staff to “look the other way” as they commit their crimes. Larger prison gangs can even influence organized crime outside of prison.
Some times families do not have the best circumstances in living, such as being in rough areas, not having stable jobs, and struggling to afford food and other needs. Another reason kids join gangs, is because they see the “cash flow” that comes along with selling the drugs and holding up gas stations and other stores. According to nationalconcernedofficers.com, when they speak about money, they say: “Many youth join
At the end of the day, social disorganization meets the measures of organized crime, it is totally not for the usual beliefs and set values by the public through the predominant law liberated for the safety of individual’s right or freedom. Unlawful behavior is commonly exist within the environment of social disorganization and finally street gangs possibly will develop as groups that will possibly have fundamental have connections with corrupt officers leading to their economic, social and governmental power. Because of those fundamental ins and outs, without a doubt the social disorganization for example in the circumstance of gang culture ultimately meets the standards for organized crime. In reality, it is evolution significantly completes the accomplishment of those measures. As argued, social disorganization and organized crime possibly will result in having similar economic, political and social objectives.
Why juveniles join gangs? By: Moni Williams Abstract Juveniles sometimes have trouble finding who they are where they belong in the world. Juveniles join gangs for a number of reasons. All juveniles have their own reasons for joining a gang. Juveniles look for people and groups of people who same their same morals and values of life.
The gangs still operate in full force, despite the restrictions on where the gang leaders are location-wise. The communication with the outside gang members still remain, and “hits” are still made to those that cause a threat to the gang and its members. The video regarding the Pelican Bay State Prison support the idea of social structure theory due to representing an environment that creates a negative reaction in its prisoners. The prisoners of Pelican Bay all begin to engage in criminal behavior and adapt to their surroundings. In this situation, social structure is the most logical explanation for the behavior of the inmates and the remaining criminal behavior.
Cassandra Passero Soc 491 11-25-2013 Assignment 3 1. What have been some common problems in the past regarding gang reduction programs? The first issue is the fact that we have too many definitions of what a gang is and it is difficult to keep track of what is and isn’t considered a gang. This makes its very hard to set up programs at the national level. The next issue is false data in gang activity decreasing.