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 a gang is
both an acceptable and prestigious way to live? The long-range answer to these
questions can only be speculated upon, but in the 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. To determine how to effectively end gang
violence we must find the way that these morals are given to the individual.
Unfortunately, these can only be hypothesized. However, by looking at the way
humans are influenced in society, I believe there is good evidence to point the
blame at several institutions. These include the forces of the media, the
government, theatre, drugs and our economic system. On the surface, 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 (a 6-10 year old, who is not yet a member) is shown that
s/he 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 that are
strongly against their morals. 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 than she/he spends in 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' mentality
is also taught through many shows where the goody 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 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 or 'violent- acceptant' person. 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 children's 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
child's 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 male gangs problems occur, as each member tries to be the most manly. This
often leads to all members participating in one-up-manship. 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 will. With all members participating in
this sort of activity it makes for a never-ending unorganized violence spree (A
sort of Clockwork Orange mentality). 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 organized and improves the morale
of members which in turn makes them more dangerous and very hard for the police
to deal with and catch (There is nothing harder to find and deal with than
organized teens that are dedicated to the group). 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-mainship is often the
reason between rival gangs fighting. All gangs feel powerful and they want to be
feared. To do this they try to establish themselves as the only gang in a
certain neighborhood. After a few gang fights hatred forms and gang murders and
drive-by'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-by's kill their
intended victim yet over 60% do kill someone. 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 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. People in low rent
areas are most often being repressed due to poverty and most importantly, race.
This often results in an attitude that motivates the person to base his/her life
on doing what the system that oppresses them doesn't want. Although this
accomplishes little it is a big factor in gang enrollment. 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.
Bibliography
Margot Webb, Coping with Street Gangs. Rosen
Publishing Group, New York, 1990.
William Foote Whyte, Street Corner
Society. University of Chicago, Chicago, 1955.
Peter Carroll,
South-Central. Hoyte and Williams, L. A., 1987.
1 Marshall B. Clinard,
Sociology of Deviant Behavior. University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, 1963, Page
179.
2 Merton Nisbet, Contempory Social Problems. Harcourt, Brace &
World, New York, 1971, Page
588.