American Street Gangs
Gangs have always existed in history in some way, shape or form. According to Webster’s dictionary, it defines gangs as a group of persons working to unlawful or antisocial ends; a group of persons having informal and usually close social relations. In this modern day society, the rise in street gangs’ violence intensifies. Street gangs have only become dominant in the last few decades predominantly in the United States. United States have become a land of opportunities and while that holds true, the rise of poverty and criminal prosperity take holds on neglected neighborhoods and streets. Violence is one of the most damaging acts that society often faces. By instilling fear and creating distrust, violence has become a prominent problem in society.
How have street gangs in America affected the subculture of American youths and the trends it is responsible for? It holds true that the gang life in America has affected and influence the way of viewing deviant behaviors surrounding this lifestyle. Street gangs are predominantly responsible for the majority of city crimes and violence. Due to its nature, it has evolved into other areas of deviant criminal acts such as the drug arena and simultaneously with that comes murders and a tremendous amount of illegal firearm in the black market. Focusing mainly on the destruction of street gang and where it has put our society in perspective of how our governmental justice system has dealt with current gang activities.
Street gangs have become an image that has haunted society. It poses a threat of violence and criminal act to ranges from selling drugs, drive by shooting and the destruction of human morals. It goes against conservative family values and the justice system which is the only thing between society and the predatory of their crimes. Another question that is posed is that are all street gangs necessarily evil in their association. It is understood that street gang ranges from all types of people and ethnicity to every corner of America nation. It is proper to define street gangs by their behavior and clothing or by just merely the deeds that they posses. Regardless of the outcome, it is a predatory society that exists in the communities across the United States.
First off is the state of California. California is a very important state as it gave birth to some of the more dominant and still thriving street gangs. Los Angeles is a city in which historical accounts of the black community has seen unrest in the mid 60’s. Focusing on this particular city and how street gangs developed into a subculture in it can farther an understanding of where street gangs originated from.
Los Angeles, particularly smaller communities that were stricken with poverties and drug infested areas were places that gave birth to street gangs. Street gang came as a result from the Black Panther Organization. Charismatic leaders arose from the organization and parted ways and developed their own way of defending themselves. They started picking up arms to defend themselves from the authorities which in some cases were strictly out to harass. It was a lawless time in which the killing of peace officer eventually turned into victimizing their communities.
According to recent studies, a researcher surveyed and interviewed participants in the Colorado area. The study was based on gang involvement for the Latinos and African American population. This research looked at the aspect of why the gangs in this particular area have grown over the last decade and continue to hold the same views as when they first formed. The first question that was asked by researchers is will gangs exist in the future? This research found that due to policing tactics and views that gang association has grown due to resistance and hatred for the justice department. In Ogden and Denver, researchers found that “under pressure to find results, gang officers may feel freer to operate beyond the bounds of