Gangs Essay Research Paper GANGS

Gangs Essay, Research Paper

GANGS Gangs are a violent reality that people have to deal within today’s cities. What has made these groups come about? Why do kids feel that being in a gang is both an acceptable andprestigious way to live? The long range answer to thesequestions can only be speculated upon, but in the short termthe answers are much easier to find. On the surface, gangsare a direct result of human beings’ personal wants and peerpressure. To determine how to effectively end gang violence wemust find the way that these morals are given to the individual. Unfortunately, these can only be hypothesized. However, bylooking at the way humans are influenced in society, I believethere is good evidence to point the blame at severalinstitutions. These include the forces of the media, thegovernment, theatre, drugs and our economic system. On the surface, gangs are caused by peer pressure andgreed. Many teens in gangs will pressure peers into becomingpart of a gang by making it all sound glamorous. Money is alsoan crucial factor. A kid (a 6-10 year old, who is not yet amember) is shown that s/he could make $200 to $400 for smallpart time gang jobs. Although these are important factors theyare not strong enough to make kids do things that are stronglyagainst their morals. One of the ways that kids morals are bent so that gangviolence becomes more acceptable is the influence of televisionand movies. The average child spends more time at a TV thanshe/he spends in a classroom. Since nobody can completely turnoff their minds, kids must be learning something while watchingthe TV. Very few hours of television watched by children areeducational, so other ideas are being absorbed during this periodof time. Many shows on television today are extremely violentand are often shown this from a gang’s perspective. A normaladult can see that this is showing how foully that gangs areliving. However, to a child this portrays a violent gangexistance as acceptable. ‘The Ends Justifies the Means’ mentality is also taught through many shows where the “goodyguy” captures the “bad guy” through violence and is then beingcommended. A young child sees this a perfectly acceptablebecause he knows that the “bad guy” was wrong but has no ideaof what acceptable apprehension techniques are. Gore in television also takes a big part in influencingyoung minds. Children see gory scenes and are fascinated bythese things that they have not seen before. Older viewers seegore and are not concerned with the blood but rather with thepain the victim must feel. A younger mind doesn’t make thisconnection. Thus a gore fascination is formed, and has beenseen in several of my peers. Unfortunately kids raised withthis sort of television end up growing up with a strongerpropensity to becoming a violent gang member or ‘violent-acceptant’ person. “Gangs bring the delinquent norms of society intointimate contact with the individual.”1, (Marshall B Clinard,1963). So, as you can see if TV leads a child to believe thatviolence is the norm this will manifest itself in the actions ofthe child quite, often in a gang situation. This is especially thecase when parents don’t spend a lot of time with their kids atthe TV explaining what is right and what is wrong. Quite oftennewer books and some types of music will enforce this type ofthought and ideas. Once this mentality is installed in youngsters they becomeincreasingly prone to being easily pushed into a gang situation byany problem at home or elsewhere. For instance, in poorfamilies with many children or upper-middle class families whereparents are always working, the children will often feel deprivedof love. Parents can often feel that putting food on the tableis enough love. Children of these families may often go to thegang firstly out of boredom and to belong somewhere. As timegoes on, a form of love or kinship develops between the gangmembers and the child. It is then that the bond between thekid and the gang is completed because the gang has effectivelytaken the place of the family. The new anti social structure of cities also effects theease in which a boy/girl can join a gang. ” The formation ofgangs in cities, and most recently in suburbs, is facilitated by

the same lack of community among parents. The parents do notknow what their children are doing for two reasons: First, muchof the parents’ lives is outside the local community, while thechildren’s lives are lived almost totally within it. Second, in afully developed community, the network of relations gives everyparent, in a sense, a community of sentries who can keep himinformed of his child’s activities. In modern living-places (cityor suburban), where such a network is attenuated, he no longerhas such sentries.”2, (Merton Nisbet, 1971). In male gangs problems occur as each is the members triesto be the most manly. This often leads to all membersparticipating in “one-up-manship”. Quite often this will thenlead to each member trying to commit a bigger and more violentcrime or simply more crimes than the others. With all membersparticipating in this sort of activity it makes for a neverending unorganized violence spree (A sort of Clockwork Orangementality). In gangs with more intellegent members thesefeelings end up making each member want to be the star whenthe groups commit a crime. This makes the gang much moreorganized and improves the morale of members which in turnmakes them more dangerous and very hard for the poli