Gang Activities and Criminal Behaviors That Are Violent in Nature - Essay Example

Today, gangs are considered more pathological as opposed to functional groupings to the extent of almost becoming synonymous with criminal and violent groups. The latest definition of gangs depicts criminality as an inherent idea in such groupings. A function has termed a gang when it is identified as having such aspects as; an organizational structure, identifiable territory, identifiable leadership, and recurrent interactions. In addition, gangs have been closely linked to serious criminal behaviors that are violent. Information from Past studies reveals an increased prevalence of gang activities in major cities. For instance, in the past decade, over 25, 0000 active gangs were believed to be in existence in America alone.

The reports have indicated a slight decline in gang activities between 1996 and 2003; however, by the end of 2010, the yearly estimates realized a significant increase. The latest study indicates an approximation of greater than 29000 gangs, which represents a 4.6% increase from 2009. certainly; this presents the highest yearly estimate since 1997. Gang activities exist in smaller in the same manner they exist in suburban counties and larger cities just. However, the latter have been depicted as their primary locations, considered to host nearly two-thirds of the Gangs nationally.

Although suburban Counties and larger Cities expectedly account for large numbers of gangs, there is also substantial disparity within each area type. Such is the case that 45% of bigger cities and more than half of suburban counties report ten or fewer active gangs within their jurisdictions. On the other hand, a greater part of agencies in rural counties and smaller cities report less than five gangs. The geographical locations also explain a considerably large variation in the number of gang members reported between 2006 and 2010.

The suburban Counties and Bigger cities have been depicted again as reporting large numbers of gangs. Here, one in every five large cities accounted for 1,000 or even more gang members-an estimated deemed higher when compared to one in ten reported in suburban counties. Gangs have been closely linked to homicide activities. The period between 2000 and 2010 saw an average of 80 percent of persons reporting gang-related homicides within their jurisdictions. In this case, the data got from the NYGS sample depicting the period between 2006 to 2010 showed an average of nearly 2,000 annual homicides.

At that same time, the FBI anticipated, on average, greater than 16,000 homicides all over America. A further report relating to cities' recorded populations of over 100,000persons, showed the number of gang-linked homicides as having increased by approximately 10 % from 2008 to 2009, a similar scenario depicted in the period between 2009 and 2010. Another significant gang-related information from the respondents showed crimes ranging from personal offenses, to drug-related crimes, and the use of firearms.

However, the relative absence of comprehensive and definitive gang-crime data regarding violent and nonviolent crimes indicates that there is so much still to be told on gang crime trends. Gang activities have also been extended to take in street –crimes like drug trafficking, extortion, and theft. Also, gangs have been shown to undertake the victimization of individuals through kidnapping and robbery. A report from the studies conducted depicts street gangs’ dominance in certain “turf” or territory where they extort people in the name of “providing protection.” In such cases, they use fronts to display control and gain proceeds in certain areas.