The Causes of Crime by Street Gangs in the United States - Article Example

The causes and consequences of crime by street gangs in the United s Introduction 1. Theoretical outline The theoreticalframework of analysis applied in understanding the causes and consequences of crime committed by street gangs in the US is characterized by the modern sociological theory on criminal behavior (Klein & Maxson, 2006). Thus criminology and sociology assume a very important dimension in the current research study. The conceptual framework is essentially integrated in to this theoretical model in order to achieve a cohesive element of representation across a major range of variables such as social and economic paradigms that support contingency model construction efforts of this nature. The underlying assumptions of the set of causative principles adopted in this analysis would be categorized according to their respective orientations and relevance. For instance the assumption that criminal behavior among street gangs in the US requires both an autochthonous and heterochthonous approach in evaluating the learning outcomes is based on the fact that individual cognitive behavioral tendencies of street gangsters are not amenable to a particular interpretative method. 1.2. Research problems or questions The psychological, economic and social causes of the street gangster behavior have attracted the attention of law makers and enforcement authorities in the US as never before. The nature and the extent of primary and immediate impact on the society at large of the increasing number of gangsters on a national scale, increasing involvement in drug trafficking, greater prevalence rate of weapons and street violence and crime by US street gangs (Sanders, 2005). The impact of social disabilities on the extent and nature of gangster behavior. The direct and indirect impact of public opinion about gang formation in US. The negatively skewed correlation between the typology of street gangster crime and criminal behavior and its consequences on the socio-economic relations at large in the US neighborhoods has a much bigger dimension to it than hitherto being presented. 1.3. Research aims/hypothesis To investigate the impact of social disabilities on gangster behavior in the US street. To establish positive and negative correlations between and among endogenous and exogenous variables that impact on the US street gangsters’ criminal behavior. To examine the existence of a probable antithesis between street gangster criminal intent and the subsequent disorderly conduct, thus proving/disproving the increasing incidence of street gangster crime in the US and equally increasing use of drugs and weapons among gang members as a corollary of a broader national phenomenon. Its impact on the individual, family and the society would receive a wider analysis. Finally to ascertain the a priori and a posteriori relevance and significance of the impact of public opinion on the street gang formation, thus widely focusing on the consequential impact of street gang crime on the society at large. 2. Literature review The literature review of this paper would focus on both the theoretical and conceptual aspects of psychological and social causes based on the street gangster behavior in US. Thus this study would be a thorough examination about the impact of social disabilities on gangster behavior in the US streets. Social, economic and psychological factors would be thoroughly examined in order to apply a more appropriate conceptual and theoretical contingency model/framework of street gang behavior. Currently available literature on the conceptual and theoretical contingency models of the US street gangster crime prevalence and its cause and effect analysis on the society at large is pathetically inadequate (Potter, 1998). While the degree of convergence/divergence between and among the variables has been metrically presented as higher, there is very little analysis on the related subject of street gangster crime level and its consequences for the society, the affected individual and the family. The psychological conceptualization of the US street gangs’ criminal behavior also underlines the importance of cognitive societal biases and prejudices to such an extent that independent researchers on the subject hold the common view that community perspectives on street crime and gangster behavior have much more than what they show on the surface. For instance family values and poverty have been pilloried as the most powerful endogenous factors with such a greater impact on the potential individual gangster’s thinking. Sociologists have identified the existence of mass poverty pockets in predominantly black neighborhoods in the US (Barr, 1992). Thus societal attitudes haven’t undergone the more desirable transformation needed to serve as a catalyst of change on the part of the potential gangster. The available literature on societal attitudes towards family values and poverty has amply demonstrated the fact that attitudes in the US society towards street crime by gangs have not been shifting in the right direction. This has further exacerbated the ideological divide between those who support a psychology-based approach to understanding street gangsters’ criminal conduct and those who argue that the problem is purely socio-economic. These differences have been centered on the recent tendency among scholars to adopt a more scientific approach to understanding and tackling the ever worsening street crime situation in America. Though the causative factors like gun culture and drug use have been factored into the equation there is very little evidence to suggest that such factors have contributed in large measure to the currently very high prevalence rate of street crime in the US. Indeed gang members are increasingly drawn into these vices by the very nature of gangster behavior. Thus they are more or less the consequences arising from gang membership rather than the antecedents. Gangster violence is rooted in calibrated anti social behavioral tendencies and therefore needs to be treated with emphasis on some social policy failures of the state as well (Howell & Decker, 1999). Paradoxically government policies – economic and social – have invariably played a very significant role in contributing to the current level of street gangster crime in the US. In the first instance economic policies including social security benefits distribution have very little impact on sizeable crime pockets in America, especially in overcrowded urban centers of population concentration (WilsonJames Q. Wilson (Editor) › Visit Amazons James Q. Wilson Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central & Petersilia, 2002). Criminologists would have people believe that poverty is a very large contributory factor to street violence in the US. The cumulative impact of government policies becomes known only when realistic assessments are carried out to measure impact on social outcomes. The available literature on the subject suggests a national trend that shows a greater prevalence rate of poverty and an equally bigger school drop-out rate among street gang members’ families (Hunzeker, 1993). Researchers question the credibility deficit between the government social policies and actual social welfare levels. In the absence of metrics to measure social outcomes there is very little empirically reliable evidence to suggest what corrective measures ought to be adopted in order to tackle the growing incidence of street violence perpetrated by well organized gangs. Some recent research efforts however, have gone so far as to suggest a direct link between fear and awe that people have for such street gangs and the ‘street lordship culture’ among cult-like gangs. The culture of violence isn’t a foregone conclusion among these gangs as was previously thought of. Indeed what matters to them is the immediate impact on the society of such violent behavior. As much as mute submission to violence by opposing gangs isn’t expected by the dominant gang, the latter also doesn’t expect the community of people to submit to violence without resistance. Sociologists have also identified the existence of some definable connotations and denotations associated with the consequences of street gangster crime for the society. For example mute submission is taken for granted by such gangs as tolerance in some instances. The culture of violence isn’t an outcome of predetermined behavior. Consequences of such street gangster crime cannot be delineated as direct impact or indirect impact either. Thus a more realistic determination of the causes and consequences of crime by street gangs in the US have to be placed side by side to examine the impacting issues and implications as well. 3. Research methodology Methodology of this research study would consist of primary data analysis and secondary research analysis. Though the primary research would be limited to a questionnaire and a survey in some densely populated US neighborhood, the secondary research effort would definitely cover a large area of existing research. Above all this paper would place emphasis on the qualitative research aspect in order to identify the learning outcomes and their impact on causes and consequences street gangster crime in the US. The research methodology would also focus on the quantitative analysis of secondary research data that invariably identify national trends and statistically significant outcomes related to street gangster crime in the US society today. While the quantitative analysis would consists of three phases of gathering data, collating data and interpreting data, there would also be a fourth stage in which futuristic probable national trends in street crimes and violence by street gangs in the US would be examined in order to predict ways and means to understand how variances and co-variances persist in the metrics. The researcher has focused attention on the quantitative and qualitative research outcomes to such an extent, to identify a series of endogenous and exogenous variables so that correlations can be built and regressions analyzed in accordance with the learning outcomes. 3.1. Primary research 3.1.1. Interviewing The primary research effort would be limited to a questionnaire to be carried out among 100 odd respondents between the ages of 10 and 30 in some densely populated neighborhoods in the US. Though there would be an extensive interviewing process to augment the questionnaire and the survey, interviewing would be primarily carried out in administering the survey. Interviewees would be subject to a carefully arranged technical questioning process. For instance interview questions would address only the technically more significant information to arrive at convincing conclusions thus avoiding broader indeterminate questioning. 3.1.2. Survey Surveys are often carried out to collect both qualitative and quantitative information about variables in a sample of population. While politically motivated government surveys of citizens and institutions are common in healthcare industry and marketing, they are carried out with a particular set of variables, i.e. to examine some quantitative and qualitative learning outcomes. Surveys are usually carries out by administering questions to selected respondents. When a researcher addresses the questions to respondents it becomes a structured interview and when the respondents ask the questions themselves it become a self-administered interview. Researchers identify three types of interviews namely structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews. This researcher would adopt structured interviews so that there would be a reasonable amount of focusing on the relevance and the extent of street gangsters’ criminal behaviour and associated tendencies. In other words the survey would focus on behavioural categories including independent cognitive and dependent sociological ones. Structured interviews tend to be more suitable for constructing sociological models of behavioural tendencies and paradigms. Usually interviews can be carried out to elicit lot of information on theoretically determined constructs of tendency and behavior. Methodological principles enunciated here are determined by the relevance and the extent of the prevalence of criminal behavior among street gang members in the US. As such the survey would address those immediately and primarily relevant issues as distinguished from the secondarily significant information. The distinction between the direct methodology and indirect methodology is based on the above approach in establishing correlations and regressions among the variables discussed in the literature review. Structured interviews are utilised by the interviewer to reach each respondent with similar questions. Unlike a questionnaire, a survey is subject to a tightly controlled and structured format. The interviewer has a degree of discretion as to how these questions might be explained. However the aim is to subject the information to a set of norms so that biases can be eliminated as far as possible. This researcher would adopt an identical approach with emphasis on eliciting straight forward responses as far as possible so that the degree of divergence from norm centric theoretical and conceptual contingency models can be minimized to achieve a fair degree of convergence. The survey would also focus on respondents’ reluctance to answer or effort to avoid those questions which might have any awkward content or reference. However this researcher would avoid those questions which might be interpreted as efforts to delve in to interviewees’ personal matters. Responses would be pre-coded by using statistical survey techniques. For instance the application of response category marks to identify voluntary and involuntary responses would be adopted in order to meet the objectives of the research. The interviewees’ social and economic background would be of paramount importance here but nevertheless any questions that directly relate the interviewee’s social and economic status to membership of a street gang would be avoided. This researcher would carry out the survey in each neighborhood with some assistance from recorders who would record the interviewees’ responses on paper as well as on tape so that discrepancies between intentions and conclusions can be minimized. Permission to carry out the survey among the sample population has already been obtained. It would be carried out with active participation of the interviewees. The following strategic approach would be adopted by this researcher so that the survey would be comprehensive and conclusive. The following aspects should be considered when defining a strategy for the interview. Questions must make sense and be understood well by the interviewee. Questions should be relevant to the interviewee’s experience and must be based on what he/she knows about them. The interviewer ought to take care of the sensitivities of the interviewee. The interviewer must know how the interview ought to continue thus facilitating interaction by attempting to move effortlessly between topics. The interviewer has to focus on related issues that are essential to understanding and achieving the research based aims. Interview questions are based on the available literature and framed in accordance with the research topic, aims and objectives thus focusing attention on the main typology of street gang formation and crime in the US. The researcher would record responses to interview questions and then transcribe the data of each interview. Although this is a time consuming job, the authentic nature of contents warranted such an effort. Data gathering process is one of the major challenges in any research project. It is perhaps the only possible interaction with the people to assess their opinion. Data are gathered and categorised according to the aims of the research. Interviewing provides the much needed opportunity for interaction and the subsequent data collection process in which the researcher gathers information orally from the respondents, will be all the more desirable. Accessing people’s perceptions and opinions this way enables the researcher to identify, define and construct a broader analytical framework for reference to significantly alter the existing narrower approaches to understanding the street gangster behaviour in the US. Interviews become the ideal data gathering technique when in-depth information is required to build prototypes. However, in this research effort the researcher would not want to exercise that option. In fact a contingency model is not the same as a prototype. 3.1.3. The preparation of questionnaire This is perhaps the most significant part in the whole process of carrying out primary research because a haphazardly designed questionnaire might ruin an otherwise well planned and carried out survey. It is invariably advantageous to think in advance what variables and what tabulations would be essential for later analysis. It is advisable that a dummy tabulation plan must be prepared in advance, if required. This would faciliate the inclusion of the information, which would be needed for the questionnaire. The preparation of the questionnaire needed the following points to be kept in mind in order to avoid mishaps related to poor administering of the questionnaire. (a). The number of questions must be limited to the minimum possible. (b). Each question was couched in simple and easy to understand language. (c). Questions were made to follow a logical sequence. (d).Those highly private questions would be avoided. However they might be required to elicit some critical information so that they were put at the end of the questionnaire. 3.1.3. The administration process of the questionnaire When finally the questionnaire is made it might be given to respondents by adopting three different methods. (a). Direct private interviews. (b). Email inquiry (c). Telephone based conversation/chat. In this particular instance the direct method would be used. This method is desirable since most of the respondents require some explanations on the spot. Negligence and non-response on the part of respondents is expected to be very high, though in the current questionnaire such negligence would be minimal. 3.2. Secondary research data Secondary research data for this study would be collected through a very extensive research task conducted both online and in libraries. This researcher may mostly utilize the books currently available on the topic and also study research journals, articles, newspapers and reports including commissioned reports by federal and state authorities. References might be adopted from most of the currently available research data on the subject. This study mainly depends on the secondary research data, because theoretical and conceptual study is much well aided by it than primary data which is basically limited to responses to the questionnaire and the survey interviews. The available literature would be analyzed with specific emphasis on the relationship between psychological, economic and social causes of the street gangster behavior and their impact on the crimes in US. This researcher would make a great attempt to demonstrate the most significant aspectual overview as outlined in the Literature Review. Also there is substantial reflection on the significance and relevance of current research data to understanding the prevalence of crime attributed to street gangs in the US. Futuristic possibilities in the field of research on the subject receive greater attention here to show how theoretical underpinnings evolve with time and space with specific reference to modern trends in street gangster behavior and crime reduction strategies at US in special and others in general. There is some critical literature to support the methodology of statistically determining the prevalence rate of street gangster behavior has been influenced by social, psychological and economic factors of US in particular. Despite some limitations such as skewed research and learning outcomes in the existing research this research methodology places emphasis on the qualitative aspect more than the quantitative aspect. Thus the available empirical evidence is greatly used by the researcher to identify and present the current line of arguments as shown in this paper. Conclusion and people protection (recommendations) plan Many causes and consequences of criminal behavior by street gangs in the US have been cited in research work. However many writers hesitate to examine some of the most obvious correlations between and among variables that are more likely to upset the existing views about the subject. For example causes of street gangsters’ criminal behavior include social, economic and psychological factors (Jankowski, 1991). Among them, social factors such as high concentration ratios of blacks in densely populated neighborhoods and the use of drugs and weapons have been cited to be the most significant. Economically poverty and depuration have been cited as an important factor contributing to crime and violence among street gang members in the US. However, very little attention has been paid to the government social welfare policy failures, because there is a tendency among government officials to assume that all government policies have the same uniform rate of success in all US neighborhoods irrespective of outcomes. On the other hand psychologically cognitive behavioral tendencies of street gangsters in the US have received much less attention. Further as a corollary of the above there are many implications arising from this anti-social behavior (Yablonsky, 2002). For example attitudes of people towards crime committed by street gangs have been changing fast. Many of them tend to submit mutely to such behavior simply because it is increasingly becoming a way of life for some youth in the US. Consequences of street gangster’s criminal behavior have assumed such national proportions that law makers and enforcement authorities have been wracking their brains over the issue so long time but without definite success. Despite a near universal agreement among American people that crime committed by street gangs has altered the usually fast paced life of the average American, especially in these neighborhoods, there is very little agreement on how to tackle the problem within the existing law and order framework (Anonymous, 2006). Thus there is a considerable divergence in opinion even among the people as to how to overcome the problem and what to do in the face of ever increasing incidence of street crime. REFERENCES 02. Anonymous, (2006 September 29). U.S. Uses Rico against California street gangs, Crime Control Digest. Retrieved September 22 2009, from www.highbeam.com. 02. Barr, W. P. (1992). Crime, Poverty and the Family. Retrieved September 24 2009, from www.heritage.org. 3. Howell, J. C. & Decker, S. H. (1999). The Youth Gangs, Drugs, and Violence connection. Juvenile Justice bulletin. Retrieved September 24 2009, from www.ncjrs.gov. 04. Hunzeker, D. (1993).Ganging up against violence. (US criminal street gangs) (The Problems of Poverty), State Legislatures Journal. 19 (5), 28 (4). 05. Jankowski, M. S.(1991). Islands in the Street: Gangs and American Urban Society. California: University of California Press. 06. KleinMalcolm W. Klein (Author) › Visit Amazons Malcolm W. Klein Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central , M. W., & Maxson, C. L. (2006). Street Gang Patterns and Policies (Studies in Crime and Public Policy). North Carolina: Oxford University Press. 07. Potter, C. B. (1998). 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Bronx D.A.: True Stories from the Sex Crimes and Domestic Violence Unit, New Jersey: Barricade Books. 16. Sieber, J. E. (2001). Summary of Human Subjects Protection Issues Related to Large Sample Surveys. California: U.S. Department of Justice. 17. Weingartner, N. (2008 August 13). VA Investigation Uncovers Human Subject Protection Violations In Medical Research, By Nikki Weingartner. Digital Journal. Retrieved September 21 2009, from www.digitaljournal.com. Read More