Gang Communities in the USA - Assignment Example

Membership in a gang is based upon many criteria, the most important being, socioeconomic status, religion, race, and culture. Gangs tend to cluster in high-crime, socially disadvantaged neighborhoods (Thornberry et al., 2003) In the suburban and rural areas there has been a spurt in gang membership. Gangs began to take root as many immigrants could not cope with the culture of their adopted homeland and thereby could not assimilate themselves within the new society. These immigrants formed gangs to forge an identity for themselves and took up the role of the alternative family providing support to the members. Such gangs also provided their male and female members protection. One of the very distinctive characteristics of gang members is that most of them come from male minority groups such as Hispanic, African, and Asian countries. Other distinctive characteristics are that such members come from poverty-stricken areas, depend on welfare, or those coming from single-parent backgrounds.

Gang memberships are not a product of several specific risk factors, but the result of the accumulation of many varied kinds of risk factors (Krohn and Thornberry, 2008). One of the specific groups is the delinquent youth, who are most likely to join gangs. Various environmental and personal factors lead to the joining of gangs. Initially, delinquent youth join “starter gangs” and at a later point in time, they graduate to join serious gangs. Youth experiencing racism, find themselves being denied resources and privileges. The absence of purchasing power and the inability to fulfill basic needs leads to feelings of hopelessness and diminished self-worth. Adolescents belonging to this category often form their establishments.  Exposure to anti-social influences and poor performance in school increases the risk of a person joining a gang. Socially maladjusted youths tend to join gangs.

Most of the gang members are very young children between the ages of 10 to 18 years. They are at an impressionable age and thus peer pressure makes them gravitate toward gang membership. Gender is not an age issue. Both male and female gang members fell mostly within this age group and were expected to carry out their activities as required. Every gang has two or three leaders who head the gang and give out orders to assault, harass or steal from people. However, in Chinese gangs, the ages range between 13 to 37 years. (New York City Police Department, 1983) Though some of the youth join voluntarily, others are forced by threatening and other crude methods.

Gangs provide psychological support to youth which most of the members do not get from traditional support systems like family, religion, and school. They are a closely-knit cohesive structure that provides the members with a sense of belonging, more especially in the case of immigrants. The lure of easy money entices many to join drug gangs.

Gang members are benefited in more ways than one. For example, they are provided with an apartment and food in addition to ammunition to carry out their nefarious work. However, they face the danger of losing their lives in case an operation fails or when conflicts arise among the members themselves. Most of them do not have the freedom to do as they want and they live in fear because they have to obey their leader’s orders whether they like it or not. There is also the danger of a few of the gang members forming a clique against a gang member and making life even more unbearable.

The prime motivation for a person to join a gang is protection. They join a gang in search of security and protection. The other motivating factors are respect, money, and enjoyment. The popular belief that being a gang member is cool also leads to youth joining gangs. Young adolescents join gangs in search of excitement and companionship and also for status and self-worth. However, attachment is not absolute among gang members and if someone decides to leave the gang he is free to do so, but if he leaves to join a rival gang he could lose his life at any time. The members of a gang are expected to be loyal and faithful and also obey their leader’s instructions.

Gangs are very well organized and have systematic rules and regulations that are strictly followed. In most gangs, the members are expected to go through a training period before being allowed to carry out dangerous assaults of extortion. However, in Chinese gangs, the members are not expected to go through a training period and even new members could be assigned to some of the most dangerous activities. One of the chief expectations and motives is to make as much money as possible to meet their expenses and also to carry out their nefarious activities. All the gang members are expected to pledge solidarity with each other as long as they are in the gang, but they are not bound or expected to stay if they wish to leave.