Nelyssa Gonzalez
16 April 2013
9D
Writing 2 Gang Violence Prevention
Many children across the country are joining gangs because they feel like they have no choice. Some might ask,” What is a gang and why it’s so dangerous?” A gang is simply an organized group of criminals that take space and use it for illegal activities. Gangs may be formed by race, ethnicity, territory or moneymaking activities. These groups have members that range from as young an 8 to as old as 22. Some gang members wear specific clothing to show there a part of a certain gang whether it’s a scarf or hat. Children join gangs because they feel like they have no other option and that the gang is their escape. Children often die in these instances because of the “assignments” that these gangs make them do. In the article titled, “Effects of Gangs” by Paul Bright he talks about the history, functions, effects, prevention/solutions and warnings. Gangs are really dangerous and he talks about how gangs really suck up the town’s police force. Gangs also destroy property by vandalizing them with graffiti, or just setting things on fire. Gangs have negative effects on society because they start gang wars and they destroy most of the town’s resources. People that witness these doings do nothing about it because they don’t want the gang to come after them. “... of people involved, lack of witness cooperation and types of crimes connected to gangs.” Even when things do happen people need to cooperate and report their findings to the police. They need to stop being scared and stand up for all those innocent people dying because of gangs.
Many people also lose value on their property because of gangs. The extensive violence and violence make people fear for their lives and property. Big businesses try staying away from the places where gangs vandalize or destroy places or property because then they lose lots of money. “Gangs also can bring down the property value of neighborhoods from the violence and vandalism involved with gang life. Big money investors may shy away from places where they feel that their properties and resources will not be used for fear of gang crimes.” People also let gangs vandalize their property because when gangs destroy their property they don’t report it to the police. Gangs also raise the prices on everyday grocery items and that’s used for protection while also keeping the gangs away with their very high prices. “Gangs can also drive up prices of local groceries and commodities via their intimidating schemes that force businesses to pay them sums of money in exchange for "protection."” Some people think that gangs are just a phase and that they’ll soon go away. Gangs have been around since the 1850’s and have increasingly gotten worse. According to http://www.statisticbrain.com/gang-statistics it is reported that there are 1,000,000 gang members in the United States (from 2009). There is said to be more gangs in the United States now than in 2000. Neighborhood-based gangs are greater in threats for violence than national-level street gangs, prison gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs. If there were more outside activities then there would be less gang. There are also many gangs prevention programs for at-risk teens if a teen feels like they are at the verge of dying or getting arrested then they need to seek help.
Many think that New York City is such a terrible city to live in with all the gangs but it’s not. According to http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-gangs it states that, “ California, New Mexico, Nevada, Illinois, and Idaho have the highest concentration of gang members, with more than 6,000 per state.” This is saying that there are other states that have gangs whether good or bad they’re still there. People can agree that not many gangs can be considered good because they’re called a GANG. People can misinterpret that and assume it’s bad. According to