He argued that nothing had changed from the 1950's; rather, media and public attention were diverted from gangs to the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and ensuing riots. Miller's (1992) study indicated that gangs had become more dangerous than ever in the 1970's. He attributed this to four major motives: honor, defense of local turf, control [of facilities], and gain [of money and goods]. In the 1970's, "gang crime was more lethal than any time in history; more people were shot, stabbed, and beaten to death in gang-related incidents than during any previous decade . .
There has been many a time in my life, as I’m sure there has been in everyone else’s, that being given the second chance has made the difference. But I do believe, however trite this may sound, that if you do an adult crime, you do adult time. Minors that commit certain serious crimes should be tried as adults. Some youths are even known to commit crimes without thought because they know they cannot be tried as adults. Violent, preventable crimes by minors have long plagued America’s larger cities but have scarcely been punished because of the age of the perpetrators.
Street crime has always received much more attention than corporate mostly due to the significant power differences between the criminals. The impact of such a disproportionate focus on street crime leads to the negative perceptions of minorities and lower-class individuals that only perpetuate the distortion of the true nature of crime in the United States. Both corporate and street crimes are but more mediums through which societal problems deriving from the class- and race- stratified nature of the United States can be seen. The heavily publicizing of street crime by the media are a few reasons why most Americans usually focus on street crime rather than on corporate crime. Other factors such as the exclusion of corporate crime in the United Crime Reports (UCR) published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that are based on data from local police agencies contribute to the less focus of corporate crime by Americans.
My personal believe from the African American perspective is that some people may have grown up around a life of crime where parents are gang members or they may think it is cool to be in gangs or being in a gang provides protection. Protection from what? Not exactly sure, but being in a gang gives many a false sense of belonging. Just like African Americans, Latinos are also known for joining gangs. For many, to fit in or be accepted in their “hood” could mean living a life of crime because that is the only way they know to survive.
Some people get trigger-happy when it comes to tense situations. Because of this, criminals are killed more often by citizens than by law enforcement (Huntwork). Firearm injuries are the second leading cause of injury (Ruben). There are more gun related fatalities in the United States than in the worlds thirty-six other richest nations. Murders by firearm rates are 17.5 times higher than in twenty-two other populous high-income nations combined.
Criminal behavior has always been more prevalent among young people. Thus, studies of changing crime patterns need to distinguish juvenile crime and youth crime from crime by adults. In the late 80's and early 90's the crime rate involving juveniles started to rise at a high rate for all offenses. Especially with the teen population. Studies have shown that juveniles are more acceptable to committing crimes in groups than by themselves.
Nevertheless, not always do people get influenced negatively into turning to gangs and making bad choices. Thinking about the gangster environment and about the people that have lived or live in such surroundings you may think that it’s not as bad as it looks or sounds like, but in most cases the people get dragged into situations that force them into joining gangs for protection; people have been impacted by the environment that they live in. They make their own choices, often leading them through several traumatizing events that might make them change. I believe that with a good education our youth will notice all the pointless violence and wasted futures that have been around; the more education one gets not only does it enrich the person who is devoting their life for education but it also enriches their families, communities, neighborhood’s future as well as it does for them. Environment has a lot to do with the choices that people make but thanks to knowledge people decide the path they want to take.
Situations such as this are what affects the teenage perspective of the police force. Teenagers and young adults are becoming more and more frequently involved in encounters with the police. The incident in London, Ontario is what causes many young individuals to fear law enforcement, yet police insist that they need to monitor teenagers more closely due to the brutal nature of some crimes committed by teens. In most cases, teenagers and young adults are more likely to conduct a crime then seniors or kids. Most of these crimes consist of robbery or even homicide, and are conducted mostly by a male.
Gangs The past 15 years have witnessed a dramatic resurgence in youth gang activity in the United States. One of several types of gangs (others include prison gangs, motorcycle gangs, hate groups, ideological gangs, and adult street gangs), youth gangs are not new to the American landscape. Modern youth gangs, however, are more dangerous than their historical counterparts because of the growing drug economy, the decreasing availability of legitimate employment opportunities in urban areas, increased mobility due to the availability of automobiles, and greater access to more lethal weapons. Moreover, gangs are no longer limited to densely populated urban areas but have an increasing presence in suburbs, small cities, and rural towns. WHAT IS A GANG?
The study conducted by (Fox, 1996) shows the pronounced increased role in male homicide problem, who are aged 14-24. Although males are 8% of population, they commit 40% of the murders. Homicide is now reaching down to a much younger age group (Fox, 1996). The age characteristics of juveniles indicated that the rate of violence among males between the ages of 15 to 17 according to Tatem-Kelley et al. (1997) as rated in violence committed (2015).