Example research essay topic: Marshall B Clinard Joining A Gang - 1,447 words

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Gangs are a Gangs Gangs Gangs are a violent reality that people have to deal with in today s cities. What has made these groups come about? Why do kids feel that being in gang is both an acceptable and prestigious way to live? The long-range answers to these questions can only be speculated upon, but in short term the answers are much easier to find. On the surface gangs are a direct result of human beings personal wants and peer pressure. By looking at the way humans are influenced in society, there is good evidence to point the blame at several institutions.

These include forces of the media, the government, theatre, drugs and the economic system. Peer pressure and greed cause gangs. Many teens in gangs will pressure peers into becoming part of a gang by making it all sound glamorous. Money is also a crucial factor. A kid is shown that he / she could make $ 200 to $ 400 for small part time gang jobs. Although these are important factors they are not strong enough to make kids do things against there morals.

Sociologists as well as gang members have isolated the following reasons for joining a street gang: &# 61623; Identity &# 61623; Recognition &# 61623; Belonging &# 61623; Discipline &# 61623; Love &# 61623; Money One of the ways that kids morals is bent so that gang violence becomes more acceptable is the influence of television and movies. The average child spends more time at a TV that he / she spends on a classroom. Since nobody can completely turn off their minds, kids must be learning something while watching the TV Very few hours of television watched by children are educational, so other ideas are being absorbed during this period of time. Many shows on television today are extremely violent and are often shown this from a gang s perspective. A normal 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 mentally is also taught many shows where the good guy captures the bad guy through violence and is the 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. Some music and movies tend to glamorize the gang lifestyle. Many kids who gravitate to gangs do so out of a need to belong to something and for the power that is gained from being in a gang. The society that we live in makes alternative lifestyles very appealing.

Older viewers see gore and are not concerned with the blood but rather with the pain the victim must feel. A youngster mind doesn t 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.

Gangs bring the delinquent norms of society into intimate contact with the individual. 1 (Marshall B Clinard, 1963). So, as you can see if TV 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 don t spend a lot of time with their kids at the TV 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. Once this mentality is installed in youngsters they become increasingly prone to being easily pushed into a gang situation by any problem 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 firstly out of boredom and to belong somewhere. As time goes on, a form of love or kinship develops between the gang members and the child. It is then that the bond between the kid 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 boy / girl can join a gang. 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 are 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). In essence, today s youth are more frequently the victims of violence; but about the same proportion of youth are committing serious violent offenses today as in 1980 and their frequency of offending is approximately the same.

One important dimension of youth violence has clearly changed. Today s violent acts are more lethal, a larger proportion of these acts result in serious injury or death. The fact that the adolescent homicide rate has more than doubled since 1988 is grim evidence of this increased lethality. And this dramatic increase in the lethality of adolescent violence is explained almost entirely by the increased use of handguns in these violent exchanges.

Gangs are a subtype of adolescent peer group, with a more formal identity and membership requirements. They tend to involve more homogeneously delinquent youth, often actively recruiting persons for their fighting skills or street smarts. In some instances membership entails violent behavior as an initiation ritual. However, not all gangs are involved in serious violent behavior or drug distribution. They often serve some positive functions, particularly in disorganized neighborhoods. They not only provide youth a sense of acceptance, belonging and personal worth (which most friendships do), but also a safe place to stay, food, clothing and protection from abusive parents.

But like delinquent groups more generally, joining a gang greatly increases the risk of serious violence, both perpetration and victimization. Likewise, leaving a gang or delinquent peer group substantially reduces the risk of serious violence So, as you have seen gangs are a product of the environment we have created for ourselves. Some of these factors include: oppression, the media, greed, violence and other gangs. 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 organized force to help fight gangs. Of course the police are supposed to do this but this situation quite often deals with racial issues also and the police forces regularly display their increasing inability to deal fairly with these issues. What we need are more people to form organizations like the Guardian Angels a gang-like group that makes life very tough for street gangs that are breaking laws. Lastly one of the great factors 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 the very worst case, Compton, 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 from 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.

Margot Webb, Coping with Street Gangs. Rosen Publishing Group, New York, 1990. Peter Carroll, South-Central. Home and Williams, L. A. , 1987. Marshall B.

Clinard, Sociology of Deviant Behavior. University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, 1963, Page 179. Merton Nisbet, Contemporary Social Problems. Harcourt, Brace &# 038; World, New York, 1971, Page 588.

Research essay sample on Marshall B Clinard Joining A Gang