Teens today will do almost anything to fit in or be cool. Peer pressure is a huge part of teens doing drugs. Teens think it is cool to rebel against authority. If a certain crowd is doing something illegal others will follow to try to fit in. Even if a teen has never considered doing drugs they might do it just to fit in with their friends.
Many people are afraid to walk down their streets these days and parents whose kids join gangs often do not know how to handle this situation or how to help them out of this lifestyle. Many of the young teenagers joining a gang end up in prison destroying their futures. As many gangs perform violent crimes that affect a lot of people, it is important to understand the causes of why they form, why kids are eager to join them and what can be done to prevent them from doing this. The functionalist perspective is a good angle to look at this problem and shows how the breakdowns of various social institutions are leading to gangs and why kids join them. This perspective holds that problems of social institutions
In nearly every case of gang allegiance, the individual seeks gang membership because he is unable to find these rewards elsewhere. Additionally, there are a variety of cultural factors contributing to gang membership, both within individual communities and society in general. The failure of the police force and judicial system to adequately deter drug trafficking is a primary reason that gangs exist. Poverty, unemployment, fatherless households, and the insidious breakdown of the family structure are all contributing factors to the proliferation of gangs. It is argued in this paper that gang membership is a logical response by young individuals to socio-economic factors beyond their control.
However, the term gang is a complex and confusing word which does not have explicit and accurate definition Bullock and Tilley (2008) assert that gangs or bunch of hooligan youth group is any durable street-oriented youth group whose involvement in illegal, criminal and anti-social behavior is part of their identity. In addition, gang is an organized group of criminals and hoodlum carrying out dangerous activities such as armed robbery, stealing of properties, involved in prostitution and other anti-social behaviors that cause severe threat to society (De La Rue, 2014). More so, research and study shows that social structure make young people to join gangs as results of frustration, some poor people resort to several adaptations, including gangsters’ deviance and criminals behaviors (Alleyne and Wood, 2010). Moreover, Vigil (2003) suggests that neighborhood is another indispensable factor that motivates young people to become gang members. According to Densely (2012) neighborhood contributes a greater role in persuading and trigger off young people joining gangs in the contemporary society by initiating friends and fellow citizens to participate in gang’s activity through the influence of neighborhood relationship.
Depression is a mental disorder that affects an individuals’ mood and behavior. Depression is mostly common in the teenage society; it causes teens to feel unhappy and hopeless. Depression affects all areas of teen’s lives including home, school performance, and social life. Many teens are quietly suffering from depression due to relationship problems, peer pressure, and self-esteem issues. Relationships in teen lives could have a positive or negative outcome due to the fact that, teens based their whole lives around their relationships.
Unfortunately it seems there is more our society can do to help prevent this trend. Drugs are a growing problem with teenagers in our society because parents and the community do not provide enough drug education. Conclusion This trend is in a spiral whirlwind out of control within our youth in society. There are so many educational plans and information to educate the students, parents, school administrators and society as a whole. With the danger explained in detail to teenagers and also teaching how to stand up to peer pressure, this will provide extra assurance and confidence within the teenagers to stand up for their belief in not participating in drugs.
Sometimes when parents’ divorce, kids may feel guilty and blame their selves for other things the rest of their lives. Physical or Emotional Neglect – When you have memories such as someone hitting you, or telling you that you are not good enough, you may think that and not value yourself ever again. Low Self-Esteem – Most people are insecure. But nowadays almost no one is confident, especially teenagers. Some kids never recover from low self-esteem and think they will never be good enough for anyone or
Gangs in Society Gangs are a major problem in today’s society. Gangs such as MS, a criminal gang originated by Salvadoran immigrants, take place in our neighborhoods and corrupt the young children who are easily influenced by the violent behavior as well. Many gangs threaten the safety of everyone in their neighborhood. Innocent people living in gang war towns live in constant fear of death. However, for children who have no one to look up to and no future to look forward to, gangs can become their new family.
Teenagers should not be issued credit cards as they are unable to fulfill their finanial responsibilities due to the fact they first need a solid education and strong credit history, and that teenagers turn to reckless spending that drains their economic resources. Credit card companies target teenagers as many believe that credits cards teach them about financial responsibility; however, the fact is that credit cards often increase teenagers' likelihood of being financially irresponsible. The teenage reality revolves around behaving irrationally for the sake of maximizing one's personal pleasure. This fact illustrates that teenagers frequently ignore their personal responsibilities as they are too preoccupied with having fun. The recent national economic collapse illustrates that reckless behavior was the cause of many problems due to how a large majority of people failed to pay their debts.
The Effect of the Family Membership in a street gang has an extremely detrimental effect on the lives of the young males who join them. Gang members “engage in more violent crimes and have more police contact than non-gang members” (Craig et al. 54) and are also more likely to engage in binge drinking and the use and sale of other drugs (Hawkins, Hill and Lui 1). Gang members also have a negative impact on their communities because of their proclivity towards crime. There are a lot of factors that can push someone towards gang membership, but the extremely young age of many gang members asks us what role does the young boy’s family play in his path to gang membership?