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Gangs are a violent reality that people have to deal with in todays 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 psychological answer to these questions can only be speculated upon, but in the immediate reasons and benefits are much easier to find. On the surface, they 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.
Individually, these can only be hypothesis. However, by looking at the way humans are influenced by the cultural practices of society, I believe there is good evidence to point the blame at several institutions. These include the forces of the media, the government, theatre, illicit 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 involved in a gang by making it all sound glamorous. Money is also a crucial factor. A teen is shown that he could make $ 200 to $ 400 for small part time gang jobs. Although money is a strong motivator, it is usually not strong enough to make kids do things that are strongly against their morals. One of the ways that children?
s morals are bent so that gang violence becomes more acceptable is through the influence of television and movies. The average child spends more time in front of a television than she or he spends actively participating in a classroom. Since nobody can completely turn off their minds, kids must be learning something while watching TV. Very few hours of programming are educational, and these are not often watched by children, so other ideas are being absorbed during this period of time. Many shows on television today are extremely violent and are often show a gangs perspective. An adult can see that this is showing how foully that gangs are living.
However, to a child this portrays a violent gang existence as acceptable. The Ends Justifies the Means mentality is also taught through many shows where the good 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 does not 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 violence- acceptant person. Gangs bring the delinquent norms of society into intimate contact with the individual. 1, (Marshall B Clinard, 1963). So, if television 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 do not spend a lot of time with their children 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. Rap music is the most recent genre? to emerge promoting the gang lifestyle. While this music at first only attracted black youth, it has now infiltrated pop music culture.
Groups such as the Gang Bangers and 2 Pac Shakur glorify gang life and the privileges obtained through such associations. We all know that music is the most power influence in our society, whether blatant or subliminal, so the gang message is spread. Once this mentality is instilled in youngsters, they become increasingly aware of the advantage of using gang power in any situation, whether 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 possibly out of boredom and to belong somewhere.
As time goes on, a form of love or kinship develops between the gang members and the individual. It is then that the bond between the person 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 gang can be joined. 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 childrens 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 childs activities.
In modern living-places (city or suburban), where such a network is attenuated, he no longer has such sentries. 2, (Merton Nisbet, 1971). Within male gangs, problems occur as certain members try to be the leader with numerous supporters. This often leads to members participating in one-up-mashup. 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.
In gangs with more intelligent 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 organised and improves the morale of members which in turn makes them more dangerous and very hard for the police to deal with and catch. 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-mashup is often the reason between rival gangs fighting. All gangs feel powerful, and they want to be respected. To do this, they try to establish themselves as the only gang in a certain neighbourhood.
After a few gang fights, hatred forms and gang murders and drive-bye? 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-bye?
s kill their intended victim yet over 60 % do kill someone. As you can see, often the intended victim is not killed. This gang application is one of the many reasons that sexual stereotypes and pressure to conform to the same must be stopped. Lastly one of the great benefits 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 Bedford Stuyvesant of NYC, 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 propaganda spouted by 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 or race. This often results in an attitude that motivates the person to base his life on doing what the system that oppresses them does not want. Although this accomplishes little, it is a big factor in gang enrolment. Bucking the system and Down with the establishment were cries begun in the sixties and brought to a new level in the nineties. So, as you have seen, gangs are a product of the environment created by music, media, cultural, and financial circumstances.
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 organised force to help fight gangs. Of course the police are supposed to do this, but since gangs are a type of family, police cannot fairly with these issues and can only deal with their manifestations not root causes. What might help is if there were more organisations like the Guardian Angels, a gang-like group originating in New York City, that makes life very tough for street gangs that are breaking laws. This group would need to be sanctioned by the current law enforcement administrations to be most effective.
Group or organisations equipped to meet the heart needs of the gang members and victims would possibly get to the root of the problem. Dave Wilkerson is best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade, which tells how he brought God into gang members? lives. Through God they found inner peace and freedom from their addictions. Scripturally, we know the answer to this and every problem is found through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Bibliography Grolier Multimedia Encyclopaedia, 1995 Margot Webb, Coping with Street Gangs. Rosen Publishing Group, New York, 1990. David Wilkerson, The Cross and the Switchblade. William Foote Whyte, Street Corner Society.
University of Chicago, Chicago, 1955. Footnotes 1. Marshall B. Clinard, Sociology of Deviant Behaviour University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, 1963, Page 179. 2. Merton Nisbet, Contemporary Social Problems. Harcourt, Brace &# 038; World, New York, 1971, Page 588.
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