Street Gangs & Disproportionate Minority Contact - Assignment Example

Street Gangs and Disproportionate Minority Contact s 27th July Street Gangs and Disproportionate Minority ContactIntroduction Major cities and towns in the United States have witnessed the unprecedented proliferation of gangs and their related problems in the society. It is against this backdrop of crimes and affiliated social deviances that led to the development of comprehensive and meticulous intervention program by the Office Juvenile Justice And Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). OJJPD has been responsible for the research, training and evaluation and technical activities primarily aimed at intervening and suppression gang related activities in the country (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2014).

OJJDP has successfully developed an anti- gang programs whose elements represent prerequisite components of an effective intervention and suppression program. OJJDP adopted a comprehensive community based gang program model by Spergel based on research and development programs on gangs (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2014). According to National Gang Center (2014), a successful a successful gang intervention program should encompass the following the following community mobilization, social intervention, opportunity provisions, suppression, organization change and development.

Elements Of A Successful Intervention Program According to National Gang Center (2014), community mobilization entails the incorporation of the community at large in the intervention programs. Some of the pertinent parties that should be considered during the program include immediate residents of the given locality, reformed gang members, community groups such as football teams and private agencies within the area. In addition, it is pertinent that an elaborate framework be instituted to oversee the synergy and coordination of staff functions.

Social intervention involves the utilization of existing social fraternities to guide gang members adopt conventional norms of the community (National Gang Center, 2014). These social groups may include schools, religious organizations, the police and juvenile institutions. Additionally, the program should provide opportunities for the gang members through education programs, training and provision of employment to reformed gang members. Consequently, gang related activities should be suppressed through consistent supervision and monitoring of gang members by the police, youth affiliated agencies and the criminal justice systems.

Finally, a holistic approach to intervention programs should entail organizational change and development. The program’s policies and procedure should demonstrate effective and sustainable utilization of the available and potential resources in the organization’s endeavor to address gang related issues (National Gang Center, 2014). The Impact Of Disproportionate Minority Contact According to Armour and Hammond (2009), disproportionate minority contact (DMC) refers to the involvement of a racial or ethnic group with the criminal justice systems in a proportion considered as either higher or lower than the subject group’s proportion in the given population.

The concept of DMC was developed to examine the extent of racial biases characterizing the juvenile and criminal justice systems and demonstration of the offending patterns among racial and ethnic groups in the society. Based on the concept of DMC, studies by Armour and Hammond (2009) indicated that minority youths are disproportionately represented in the country’s juvenile system. Although African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asians only account for one third of the united state’s youth population, they accounted for the two thirds of youths in the juvenile justice systems in the country (Armour and Hammond, 2009).

Some of the reasons that have been put forward by scholars for the disproportionate representation of minority groups include jurisdictional issues, police culture and racially biased juvenile crime legislations. Critical examination of the juvenile and criminal justice systems further revealed that between the minority groups in the country, African Americans youths represented a larger percentage of the youths that came had come in contact with the justice system. Further studies by The Sentencing Project (2014) on the subject of DMC revealed that African Americans represented 31 % of all arrests in the country and they were also more likely to be referred to the juvenile courts than white offenders.

In addition adjudicated African Americans were further likely to be referred to secure confinement than their white counterparts. Additionally, black youths were likely to be transferred from the juvenile system to adult facilities than the white offenders. Thus, the juvenile justice system has been negatively affected by biased criminalization of delinquent behavior among the youths belonging to minority ethnic and racial groups in the country (The Sentencing Project, 2014). ReferencesArmour J.

And Hammond S. (2009). Minority Youth in the Juvenile Justice System: Disproportionate Minority Contact. Washington, DC.National Gang Center. (2014). About the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model. Retrieved 27 July 2014, from https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Comprehensive-Gang- Model/AboutThe Sentencing Project. (2014). Disproportionate Minority Contact in the Juvenile Justice System. The sentencing Project.Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,. (2014). Best practices to address community gang problems.

Washington, DC: OJJDP.