Asian and Latino Youth Gangs and Their Impact on Their Communities - Annotated Bibliography Example

Annotated bibliography on Asian and Latino Youth Gangs and their Impact on their Communities and the Criminal Justice System name Sociology January 29, 2012 Annotated bibliography on Asian and Latino Youth Gangs and their Impact on their Communities and the Criminal Justice System 1.“Gangs in America”(1993). The National Center for Victims of Crime. Retrieved from http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=32352 This site provided basic information about gangs in America, where they lived and their history. It raises some issues about their ethnicity and culture and some reasons why they are formed. The site also gave information as to the number of law enforcers and the number of youth gang members that are active in their jurisdiction. The site, although no author is presented, gave a complete insight to activities of gangs to the communities. It also discussed reasons of why kids wanted to join them. The impression I had from this site is that it would provide primary documents. I intend to use this site as one of my sources as I feel it is trustworthy. I accessed this site through Mozilla Firefox and the term used is impact of gangs in America 2.”Most Dangerous Gangs in America” (15 June 2011). Criminal Justice Guide. Retrieved from ww.criminaljusticedegreesguide.com/features/10-most-dangerous-gangs-in-america.html This site provided the 10 most dangerous gangs in America, where they are found and the list of crimes they committed. It also discussed their affiliations, and how they were formed. The impact to the criminal justice is explained by showing how the law enforcement agencies responded to the crimes committed by these gangs. However, the site did not provide the ages of the members of the gangs which is important, as we need to know if they belong to the youth category. The site has no author, but the information found in this website could easily be included in my research. I accessed this site through Google.com, and I think its content is believable and the site is trustworthy. 3. C. N. Lee (2012). Asian American Gangs. Asian Nations: Asian American History. Demographics and Issues. Retrieved from www.asian-nation.org/gangs.shtml The author discusses why Asian youths joined an alternative family where they felt comfortable and accepted. He describes that these groups believe that the only way to achieve success in America is through an organized group whose goal to achieve success is by committing crimes. He describes its effect to their own communities as these gangs do their home style of invasion. He said home invasion is a type of crime wherein the gang breaks into the family’s home or business, tie up all the family members, terrorize them until they give their money and valuables to the gang. Their tactics include torture, beatings and raping of the female members of the family. Asian gangs victimized Asian families because Asian families do not want to complain to the authorities because they fear to be deported. He continued discussing the impact to the criminal justice system as he illustrated how the police in California, where many Asians resided, harassed and discriminated the Asian youth simply because they were Asians. They were taken mug shots and profiled without their knowledge because they are suspected gang members in the community. At the end of the article author discusses how the police responded with strategies on how to understand Asian culture. This is an interesting topic. I accessed it though Google. com but I will need further verification before I include the topic in my research. Gang statistics.(n. d.) Helping gang youth.com. Retrieved from http://www.helpinggangyouth.com/statistics.html This website did not provide any author. The site could be trusted because it is backed by statistics coming from government. It states the latest figures of 2009 saying that there were about 1 million gang members in 2009. The demographics present in the website cited the percentage and number of juveniles, further sorting them according to the number of teenage boys and teenage girls joining gangs. The statistics also classified the gang members according to its ethnicity specifying that the Hispanic gang members was the largest group. The impact to the community is identified as the factors that led them to join gangs and one important factor is lack of education. Its impact to criminal justice system is shown by the number of delinquents in detention facility, work camp, residential facility or correctional facility. These is vital information that I could use in my study. I accessed it through google.com and used the term gangs in the US. 5. Howell , James. (Aug 1988). Youth Gangs: An Overview. OJJDP Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Retrieved from ww.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/167249.pdf The author, writing for this bulletin, gave an overview of youth gangs in the United States. He traced the history of gangs that emerged in 1813 after the Mexican revolution. He described that ages of youth gang members’ ranged from 17 to 18 years and that there were more male members than females. In this article, Howell took note of the particular membership of each group, which according to him varied in size and type of gang. In his article, the author mentioned that youth gangs in the modern era had been influenced by trend in using guns and had become more dangerous .Youth gangs today as reported by the author, are more specialized and use their skills in illegal trade like drugs. The author cited risk factors of youth membership coming from their community, family, school, peer group, and the individual. Some of the content of the author’s study could be included in my research as I found it informative and comprehensive. 6. Sanchez, Maria, Yamileth. (Aug 2010). Policy analysis of the gang violence and juvenile crime prevention act of 1998. A thesis submitted to the Department of Social Work, California State University, Long Beach California. Published by UMI Dissertation Publishing by Proquest LLC. Retrieved from gradworks.umi.com/1490336.pdf Author analyzes the effect of Proposition 21 otherwise known as Gang Violence and Juvenile Crime Prevention Act of 1998. She argued in her study that the lawmakers were not aware of the impact of the law on minorities, low income families and youth with mental illness. Proposition 21 toughens up penalties against juveniles aged 14 and older, who committed gang related and violent crimes. According to the author, the purpose of this Act is to decrease and prevent gang activities and violent crimes in order to have a safer community. She looked at the changes of behavior of delinquent youths who served jail sentences and became hardened criminals because of inmates’ influences. She cites that once the juvenile go to jail, they are taught by others in prison to become better criminals. She makes a comprehensive literature review that established her point of argument. The study is relevant to my research as it shows the impact of criminal justice system to young offenders. She has made a clear argument as to her disagreement with Proposition 21. It could serve as an eye opener and a good source of debate for ratification of the law. It could be referenced for my research as it touches on the impact of the criminal justice system. 7. Nellis, Ashley, Greene, Judy And Mauer Marc(2008). Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System. A Manual for Practitioners and Policy Makers. The Sentencing Project. The Research and Advocacy for Reform. Retrieved from ww.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_reducingracialdisparity.pdf The aim of the Sentencing Project is to present the causes of racial disparity and the possible actions of the law enforcer to reduce this disparity. The manual describes involvement of the Latino, the Asian Americans and the Native Americans in the criminal justice system. The authors report that there are more minority youths that are detained than whites, which shows that racial disparity among the minority exists. In his study, authors gave a meaning of racial disparity, and identified its causes. They also recognized the manifestations of racial disparity of the criminal justice system and discussed proposed strategies to reduce the racial strategy. I will use this article in my research as I have found it informative and comprehensive. The collated best practices of states commission on racial disparity could be used to make a comparison. 8. Arya , Nellum with Villaruel, Francisco, Villanueva,Cassandra, and Augerten, Ian(May 2009). America’s invisible children: Latino youth and the failure of justice. Policy Brief, Race and Ethnicity Series, Vol. 3. Retrieved from www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/Latino_Brief.pdf The authors studied the impact of the criminal justice system to the Latino youth. They feel that the criminal justice system is not doing well for the Latino youth. They dispute that there are better ways to punish the juvenile delinquents aside from incarceration. They argue that the country with lack of the political will, leadership and courage to institute reforms needs in the criminal justice. Authors offered a policy recommendation in the study which they hope will be taken into consideration by lawmakers to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system. The authors provided a thorough examination of U.S. justice system further assessing that the Latino youths are receiving harsher treatment than the whites. I think the research and the information gathered by authors are reliable and could be cited in my study. 8. Davies, Robert and Erez, Edna (May 1988). Immigration populations as victims: toward a multicultural justice system. National Institute of Justice. Research in brief. Retrieved from www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/167571.pdf Authors give an insight to the barriers immigrant groups come across in the criminal justice system. The research suggests that there is a low incidence of cases reported by victimized immigrants because of language differences and understanding. However, the study focuses on immigrants and does not mention gangs and their ages. This is an interesting study and would be helpful to immigrants who are under represented in the criminal justice system. It is a good reading material, it but will not be a source of reference for my study because it does not refer to the youth gangs. Read More