Structural Characterisitics
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Members are typically young teenage males of similar ethnic or racial backgrounds (usually from disorganized families in the inner-city).
Loyalty and adherence to a strict gang code (i.e., the gang is more important than anything) is mandatory.
Cohesiveness among members increases as recognition from society increases.
Loyalty and camaraderie are solidified by participation in group activities that are often antisocial, illegal, violent, and criminal.
Goals, identified roles, and responsibilities are clearly established and defined (they are often unspoken but are understood by all members).
The chain of command is hierarchical.
Identification with a local territory.
Recruitment is an ongoing process, especially at school. Younger active members (some as young as eight- or nine-years-old).
Evidence of ethnic and racial crossover in multiethnic neighborhoods. An insurgence of female gangs. Established cliques or sets in suburban communities.
Acquisition of large sums of money from illegal drug markets and prostitution. Rampant use of drugs and alcohol. Violent membership.
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Use of sophisticated communications devices and automatic weapons.
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Employment of guerrilla warfare-like tactics. Total disregard for human life as evinced by the senseless deaths of innocent victims.
The Essay on Gangs Young Kid
... reason society has a negative outlook on gang life. But young gang members don't start out using violent acts to ... changes in a bad way. Now that the young gang member is part of some kind of illegal crimes ... crime, although some won't grow up to be gang members others will and they will try there hardest ... are the ones who control all the other gang members and use their powerful minds to bring fear ...
Induction into the Gang
Members proceed through four developmental stages in the evolutionary process: the wannabe (one who wants to be a member) or the gonnabe (one who is probably destined to be a member), which is a more recent term for wannabe; the peripheral (one who hangs around the gang, and may or may not engage in activities); the affiliate (an actual member also known as a “gang banger”); and the hard-core (one who lives only for the gang, is “down for the hood”. The activities of gang members determine their position in the evolutionary process. For example, members engage in minor gang activities, such as hanging around, flashing gang signs, graffiti writing and claiming territory, before they become involved in serious hard-core illegal infractions, such as assaults, drug trafficking, and murder. Some recruiting practices bypass these simple activities; in such cases, hard-core members emerge overnight.
It is no secret that gangs and their criminal activities have been increasing at alarming rates in communities and on school campuses nationwide. A comparison of data collected in two studies demonstrates the increase in gang membership in the U. S. over a ten-year period. According to a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice ( Needle & Stapleton, 1983), there were approximately 1,000 known gangs with a combined membership of 50,000 operating in the U.S. by the end of the 1970s. In contrast, by the end of the 1980s these numbers increased to approximately 5,000 gangs with an estimated membership of 250,000 (United States Department of Justice, 1994).
Both studies give several reasons for this expansion, such as population growth, urban sprawl, high unemployment, augmented mobility of gang members, and new drug markets. Whereas the major well-established gangs of the 1970s (and earlier) generally operated from bases within their traditional neighborhoods (in highly populated, urban, low-income, and racially isolated areas), gangs of the 1980s were beginning to expand their bases of operations across the states (to less populated, suburban, middle-income, and racially integrated areas).
Anti Dress Code Gang Members
School is in the 'business' of learning. School is the place where the next lawyers, bankers, CPA's and Doctors are given the fundamentals of working in this economy. One of the basics of our culture in the working world is conservative dressing, dress code, or even uniforms. What is wrong with sending our kids the message that they are in 'the business of learning' by enforcing dress codes? ...
Recent data on gangs reveal that they have become part of all types of American and Canadian neighborhoods, more so than at any other time in history.
A comparison of statistics in Los Angeles County-often considered the gang capital of the nation-provides a local perspective. In 1988, the National School Safety Center reported that there were 600 gangs in existence, with a membership well over 70,000 in LA County alone. The LA County Sheriff’s Department reported that there were 1,130 known gangs with approximately 150,000 members operating in LA in 1993. This pervasive expansion gives new meaning to the term alarming rates, and suggests that current efforts to curb the gangs have been less than successful.
Impact and Consequences of Gangs in Schools
Students more readily acknowledge the existence of gangs in school than do adults. In 1991, the U. S. Department of Justice conducted a nationwide survey of students to ascertain certain facts about school violence (Bastian & Taylor, 1991).
This study reported that 15 percent of the students stated that gangs were active on their campus. Moreover, 16 percent indicated that they had witnessed gang members engaging in threatening acts against a teacher. Similarly, the California Student Substance Use Survey, conducted by the State of California (California State Office of the Attorney General, 1994) revealed that an average of 17 percent of students from grades 7 to 11 were involved in gangs at one time or another during their life.
Although school officials estimated a very small portion of their total student body population to be gang affiliated, they also indicated that responding to gang activity required excessive amounts of time and resources (Lal et al., 1993).
Maintaining a safe and secure school where gang activity is prevalent requires special tactics. Some large school districts have followed the lead of local, state, and Federal agencies and formed task forces to tackle the problem. District members believe that collaborative efforts among law enforcement, schools, families, churches, and social agencies are fundamental to gang prevention programs.
The Essay on To What Extent Should High School Students Be Allowed To
To What Extent Should High School Students be allowed to Exercise Freedom of Speech While on Campus I think that nowadays to deal with an issue of students free speech rights is a tough problem for High School administrators. The matter is that students free speech is protected by the First Amendment. Thus it means that students are allowed to exercise free speech while on campus. But what should ...
There are benefits for the gang members staying in their neighborhood schools. Lal (1991) reported that an overwhelming majority of members wanted to stay in school because they could congregate and discuss their activities in a social arena, uphold their reputation as an established gang, flaunt their accouterments, display their strength of membership, provide protection for their members, intimidate other students, recruit potential members, and sometimes engage in criminal or violent acts. But, of course, these benefits for the gang have negative consequences for all students, school personnel, school safety, and the overall educational process.
