Crime as a Factor That Deteriorates and Scuttles the Development of Societies - Essay Example

?CRIMINOLOGY: YOUTH GANGS AND CRIME Crime is one factor that deteriorates and scuttles the development of societies as well as delineating peace in the contemporary communities. The rise in criminal activities within various communities and societies has been linked to the growing numbers of criminal youth gangs. It is valid beyond doubt to claim that criminal youth gangs are very serious and carries along them unbearable problems that threaten societies. In essence, youth gangs can be defined by Howell (1997, p. 1) as associations formed by peers and that have gang names, symbols, standing and organized leadership. In addition, youth gangs in the views of Howell (1997, p. 1) have a particular geographical territory that they cover and dominate, have certain set regular meetings and can at times decide to participate in illegal activities. Independently, Public Safety Canada (2007, p.1) defines youth gangs as organized groups of young adults or adolescents who practice intimidation, crime and violence acts just to accumulate power and gain group recognition from the society in order to control the specific regions. In the reports of Public Safety Canada (2007, p.1), youths who join or participate in the gangs activities are likely to have suffered from effects of social inequalities and disadvantages. Public Safety Canada (2007, p.2) highlights the following reasons as ones that pull youths into gang criminal activities. The first reason is that some join to get excitement while others join for prestige, others as ways of earning income while others may also join to get protection. Youth gangs have been very serious and problematic with consideration to high membership and increasing popularity across different genders and age groups. Initially, youth gangs were assumed as organizations only meant for male adults. Today, youth gangs have increasing number of girls and adolescents who are very brutal and dangerous to the communities. Youth gangs have been the main law breakers in various societies as they mostly participate in unlawful activities (Spergel & Susan 1995, 456). For instance, the increasing unrest in the community caused by rise in drug and substance abuse are all results of youth gangs. Astonishingly, Public Safety Canada (2007, p.2) discloses that the effects of youth gangs have involved sneaking of drug into learning institutions, thereby interfering with the learning progress of students. Increased use of drugs among students participating in youth gangs have led to massive school drop outs thus leading to rise in the number of unlearned and unproductive members of the society. Worse still, youth gangs have been attributed to the sneaking of guns into learning institutions alongside rise in gun violence in the same schools (Spergel & Susan 1995, p.469). As mentioned there before, youth groups gain popularity among girls who in most cases get involved in serious group assaults while in possession of guns and knives among other lethal weapons. Female members of youth gangs have also been involved in illegal drug trafficking and serious communal violence. This fact has led to the erosion of morality from communities that perceived girl child as one who should express respect and be submissive to the other members of the society. It has also been a common occurrence that teachers have been facing verbal and physical assaults as well destruction of property and school facilities by the students who engage in youth gangs. Incidents of theft in schools have also been on the rise due to the existence of youth gang members in schools (Scheidlinger 1994, p.3). It is a sad disclosure that young students in the elementary and secondary schools have been joining youth gangs in large numbers due to fear of aggression from the particular youth groups and thus the need for protection. The problem of youth gangs in schools has also been gaining support from the failure of the victimized students to report the incidences due to fear of intimidation and retaliation. The general effects of youth gang activities among school children have resulted to dilapidation in the quality of education earmarked by poor teacher-student relationship. The aggressiveness of youth gangs has led to great fear and phobia in adults towards the youths. This has been noted to cause immense murder of innocent youths by adults as the later fear the possibility of assaults by the youths (Scheidlinger 1994, p.11). Youth gangs have also been playing fundamental role in triggering and spreading intercommunity wars. Youths from across the disputing communities form organized groups with common plans and thus proceed with attacks against each other. Such confrontations have led to the inter-communal grudges and lack of peace among individual communities. Moreover, violent youth gangs have become great enemies of the communities as the members often participate in theft activities and robbing of people’s property (White 2002, p. 3). Furthermore, youth gangs have been the main agents and participants in the current rise in rape and corresponding cases of sexual abuse. Youth gangs have also been linked to uncontrolled killing of innocent members of the community who probably try to resist the activities of the gangs. Furthermore, youth gangs have led to the breakdown of families as children become rebellious against their parents. This leads to fear among parents as they lack trust on their children and opts for dissociation with the children for their individual safety (White, 2002, 3). Youth gangs have also been the major users of firearms with which they use to escalate crime rates and death of innocent members of the communities. Winton (2005, 172) in his report indicates that most of youth gangs in Guatemala were in massive possession of firearms that made them to escalate risks of injury and deaths along the streets. Also in moves to discuss the criticality of this issue, Siegel and Welch (2011, 622) disclose that Mexican drug lords formed or engaged youth gangs in killing of an estimated 27000 people perceived to be deterrents to the blossoming business of drug trafficking. The saddest side of this fact is that large numbers of the victims were innocent civilians and some tourists from America. Increased territorial and boundary wars have also been increased by the rise in number of youth gangs (Winton 2005, p.172). Winton (2005, p.172) further indicates that increase in youth gangs have led to longitudinal increase in the number of death among the individual members either as a result of internal differences or public confrontation. Not to understate, there has been war between different youth gangs as each rival seeks to dominate the other in a particular region, thus resulting to deaths. In the reports of Spergel (1995, p.39) youth gangs are considered a big threat to the communities especially due to their evident deliberate shooting of street bystanders perceived to oppose the activities of the groups. Spergel (1995, p.40) persists that youth gangs have been the main people who carry homicide missions in the communities of their target. Adding on this proof on this indication, Goldson (165) refers to the incident that occurred in South Manchester between 2001 and 2002 witnessing rise in street gangs shooting that killed estimated 12 people while injuring approximately 638 innocent civilians. Deaths of the energetic youths have left various societies in shortage of substantial labour force thus the decline in the productivity of individual victim communities. The problems associated with the rise in gangs in the contemporary societies also include delineation of freedom of speech and expression. Winton (2005, p.174) depicts that gangs have been using their powers to frustrate marginalized and powerless communities and people and even disfranchising their basic freedoms. Youth gangs have also been posing threats to business operations across various communities of their existence. Some violent youth gangs determine as well as dictating the kind of people allowed to practice business in particular regions within certain territories. In an attempt to clarify further, Esbensen and Maxson (2011, 256) present the case with Sweden where street gangs overruled business progress by imposing their violent activities as trademark to be bought in order for traders to continue with their business activities. Furthermore, Winton (2005, 174) unravels that certain youth gangs do halt transport activities as well as causing fear of travelling by certain channels due likelihood of attacks and robbery. Winton (2005, p.175) further connotes that youth gangs have been of great threats to the communities considering their organized ability to frighten and scuttle the efforts of police officers in disseminating security services to the citizens. It is also evident that the youth gangs have been collaborating with certain security officials through corruption deals in order to be allowed opportunity to disrupt communities. Winton (2005, p.175) in his research report supports that violent criminal youth gangs have reportedly been forcing members of the public to join the gangs or else face unfair treatment. Remarkable victims of such threats have been young people (juveniles) who found themselves into such groups just for the sake of their security and wellbeing. Youth gangs have also contributed in rise in the levels of poverty in various communities as they do collection of monies from individual families in the community while at the same time they are unemployed. Moreover, youth gangs have been attributed to increased prejudice and discriminations in the lines of race, ethnicity, nationality and sexual orientation. Youth gangs have also formed strategies of laundering money and thus have created distrust in the currencies of the particular victim countries (Andersen and Taylor 2008, p.196). Furthermore, youth gangs have been the major participants in the illegal gambling that have resulted to massive loss people’s monies. Siegel and Welch (2011, p.629) indicate that youth gangs have been problematic in various political domains due to increased participation of the groups in politics. Youth gangs have been used by politicians in suppressing and creating fear in opponents of certain influential politicians. To affirm this beyond reasonable doubt, Goldson (2011, p.22) relents to the existence violent gangs in Manchester City that are mainly sponsored by certain leaders to protect and uphold status of given communities in line with politics of England. It is also disheartening communities in that the gangs being organized in a stable leadership with great honours to the particular leaders, have the potential of forming totalitarian rule in case of existence of a weak government. Siegel and Welch (2011, p.621) further connotes that youth gangs have been abusing the street children to an extent of killing vulnerable and helpless children. The youth gangs have also been noted to participate in the bombing and planting of bombs in public areas, government buildings and structures, and tourists camps to impart fear to the government that is perhaps hard on the gangs. Surprisingly, Siegel and Welch (2011, p.622) point that particular youth gangs engage in purchasing of an already continuing wars from the stronger party and increases fights against the weaker party. In conclusion, youth gangs mainly involve groups formed by young adults and juveniles with intents of performing illegal activities just to gain attention and recognition of the societies. Youth gangs have been economically suppressive as they tend to dictate and scuttle business activities are carried in particular regions. Youth gangs are also known for high rate of robbery and vandalism of people’s property. In addition, youth gangs have led to psychological unrest among the members of the societies as they continually impart fear as well frustrating civilians whom dispute their criminal activities. The worst part of the youth gangs is the engagement in trafficking drug and drug abuse. Moreover, it is also worth rebuking the youth gangs for their increased reach and use of firearms in conducting evil activities. It has not been good for youth gangs to ploy for confrontation with governments by carrying terrorist activities on government structures with intent of gaining freedom for a watchful authority. To be precise, violent criminal youth gangs are serious and of growing threats to the communities and therefore should be monitored and terminated by all possible means. References Andersen, M & Taylor, H 2008, Sociology: understanding a diverse society, Belmont, CA, Thomson Learning. Baron, W 1997, Canadian Male Street Skinheads: Street Gang or Street Terrorists, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, v.34 (2), p.125-150. Esbensen, F & Maxson, C 2011, Youth Gangs in International Perspective: Results from the Eurogang Program of Research, New York, Springer Publishing. Goldson, B 2011, Youth in crisis? 'Gangs', territoriality and violence, Madison Avenue, NY, Routledge Publishing. Howell, J 1997, Youth gangs, viewed 10 January 2012, < https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/fs-9772.pdf> Public Safety Canada 2007, Youth gangs in Canada: What do we know? Viewed 10 January 2012, . Scheidlinger, S 1994, A Commentary on Adolescent Group Violence, Child Psychiatry and Human Development, v.25 (1), p3-11. Siegel, J & Welch, B 2011, Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law, Belmont, CA, Cengage Learning. Spergel, I & Susan, G 1995, The Little Village Project: A Community Approach to the Gang Problem, Social Work, v.42 (5), p.456-69. Spergel, I 1995, The youth gang problem: a community approach, Madison Avenue, NY, Oxford university press. White, R 2002, Understanding Youth Gangs, viewed 10 January 2012, . Winton, A 2005, Youth, Gangs and Violence: Analysing the Social and Spatial Mobility of Young People in Guatemala City, viewed 10 January 2012, . Read More