Community and school leaders have teamed together for several decade now to address the issues of gangs. Gangs are real, but like many other community and school problems, gangs are a reflection of our society. To say that we can get rid of gangs is to say we need to get rid of society. Please understand what this means. It does not mean that gangs will always be here and we need to accept inappropriate behavior; it means we need to explore why gangs form and what we, as a society, can to to prevent this formation. The article written below is taken from “Keep Schools Safe.” This Web source is an active participant in providing resources for schools, parents and community agencies for the purpose of keeping our children safe.
WHAT IS A GANG?
Gangs vary tremendously in composition and activities. Irving Spergel (1989) suggests the following working definition: “juvenile and young adults associating together for serious, especially violent, criminal behavior with special concerns for ‘turf’.” Turf can signify the control of a physical territory, a criminal enterprise, or both.
Defense of turf can lead to extreme violence. As Captain Raymond Gott of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office says, simply “wearing the wrong color in a certain neighborhood can get you killed” (McKinney). Turf lines are normally drawn in the neighborhoods, but gang rivalries also have a devastating impact on schools. Often, even non-gang members begin bringing weapons to school for “protection” from robberies and gang violence (Cindy Tursman 1989).
Asian, black, Hispanic, white and interracial gangs exist, ranging in size from a few members to thousands. Ages range from preteen to adult, but the average age is dropping–from 15 in 1984, to 13 1/2 in 1987 (McKinney). The vast majority of gang members are male.
Most gang members advertise their membership by distinctive dress and behaviors, including handkerchiefs and shoelaces of specific colors, jewelry, tattoos, jargon, and hand gestures. They mark their territory and challenge other gangs with spray-painted graffiti or gang symbols. The National School Safety Center (NSSC 1988) provides an excel-lent summary of the characteristics of different types of gangs.
WHY DO GANGS FORM?
According to Larry Rawles, deputy director of Philadelphia’s Crisis Intervention Network, gang membership offers kids status, acceptance, and self-esteem they haven’t found elsewhere (Del Stover 1986). In poorer communities, a breakdown of family and community structures may leave kids more receptive to gang recruitment. However, gangs can also form in affluent areas among kids who feel alienated from friends and families (Stover).
Financial gain is a powerful motive for gang involvement, especially for impoverished youths with poor education and lack of access to decent jobs (McKinney). The vast sums of money available through the drug trade have increased the size of gangs, both by recruitment and by longer retention of members. Usually only a few adult gang members make large sums of money. Aware that courts treat juveniles far more leniently than adults, they shield themselves by using juvenile gang members as everything from lookouts to gang hitmen (NSSC). Drug trafficking makes traditional turf battles bloodier by providing the money for sophisticated weaponry, and it creates new sources of conflict as rival gangs fight over lucrative drug territories (McKinney).
WHERE ARE GANGS A PROBLEM AND HOW DO THEY SPREAD?
Gangs continue to be active in large cities where they have been long established, and they are spreading to suburbs and smaller cities. Pressure by police and rivals and the lure of higher drug profits push gangs to seek new territories (Dan Bryant 1989). Meanwhile, in many midsize communities factory closings and business failures create unemployment and poverty, “conditions conducive to gang activity” (Tursman).
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