Gangs

GANGS




by Anh Phu
psychology 202
Dr.Norwood 11:00-12:00 (MWF)

Gangs are a violent reality that people have to deal with in today's cities.
What has made these groups come

about? Why do kids feel that being in a gang is both an acceptable and
prestigious way to live? The long range

answer to these questions can only be speculated upon, but in the short
term the answers are much easier to find.
On

the surface, gangs are a direct result of human beings' personal wants and
peer pressure. To determine how to

effectively end gang violence we must find the way that these morals are
given to the individual. Unfortunately, these

can only be hypothesized. However, by looking at the way humans are
influenced in society, I believe there is good

evidence to point the blame at several institutions. These include the
forces of the media, the government, theatre,

drugs and our economic system.



On the surface, gangs are caused by peer pressure and greed. Many
teens in gangs

will pressure peers into becoming part of a gang by making it all sound
glamorous. Money is also an crucial factor.
A

kid (a 6-10 year old, who is not yet a member) is shown that s/he could
make $200 to $400 for small part time
gang

jobs. Although these are important factors they are not strong enough to
make kids do things that are strongly
against

their morals.



One of the ways that kids morals are bent so that gang violence becomes
more acceptable is the influence of

television and movies. The average child spends more time at a TV than
she/he spends in a classroom. Since
nobody

can completely turn off their minds, kids must be learning something while
watching the TV. Very few hours of

television watched by children are educational, so other ideas are being
absorbed during this period of time. Many

shows on television today are extremely violent and are often shown this
from a gang's perspective. A normal adult

can see that this is showing how foully that gangs are living. However, to a
child this portrays a violent gang

existance as acceptable. 'The Ends Justifies the Means' mentality is also
taught through many shows where the
"goody

guy" captures the "bad guy" through violence and is then being
commended. A young child sees this a perfectly

acceptable because he knows that the "bad guy" was wrong but has no
idea of what acceptable apprehension

techniques are.


Gore in television also takes a big part in influencing young minds.
Children see gory scenes and are

fascinated by these things that they have not seen before. Older viewers
see gore and are not concerned with the

blood but rather with the pain the victim must feel. A younger mind
doesn't make this connection. Thus a gore

fascination is formed, and has been seen in several of my peers.
Unfortunately kids raised with this sort of television

end up growing up with a stronger propensity to becoming a violent gang
member or 'violent- acceptant' person.



"Gangs bring the delinquent norms of society into intimate contact with the
individual."1, (Marshall B

Clinard, 1963). So, as you can see if TV leads a child to believe that
violence is the norm this will manifest itself in
the

actions of the child quite, often in a gang situation. This is especially the
case when parents don't spend a lot of time

with their kids at the TV explaining what is right and what is wrong. Quite
often newer books and some types of

music will enforce this type of thought and ideas.



Once this mentality is installed in youngsters they become increasingly
prone to being

easily pushed into a gang situation by any problem at home or elsewhere.
For instance, in poor families with many

children or upper-middle class families where parents are always
working, the children will often feel deprived of

love. Parents can often feel that putting food on the table is enough love.
Children of these families may often go to

the gang firstly out of boredom and to belong somewhere. As time goes
on, a form of love or kinship develops

between the gang members and the child. It is then that the bond between
the kid and the gang is completed
because

the gang has effectively taken the place of the family.



The new anti social structure of cities also effects the ease in which a
boy/girl can join a gang. " The

formation of gangs in cities, and most recently in suburbs, is facilitated by
the same lack of community among

parents. The parents do not know what their children are doing for two
reasons: First, much of the parents' lives is

outside the local community, while the children's lives are lived almost
totally within it. Second, in a fully developed

community, the network of relations gives every parent, in a sense, a
community of sentries who can keep him

informed of his child's activities. In modern living-places (city or
suburban), where such a network is attenuated, he

no longer has such sentries."2, (Merton Nisbet, 1971).

In male gangs problems occur as each is the members tries to be the most
manly. This often leads to all

members participating in "one-up-manship". Quite often this will then lead
to each member trying to commit a bigger

and more violent crime or simply more crimes than the others. With all
members participating in this sort of activity it

makes for a never ending unorganized violence spree (A sort of
Clockwork Orange mentality). In gangs with more

intellegent members these feelings end up making each member want to
be the star when the groups commit a
crime.

This makes the gang much more organized and improves the morale of
members which in turn makes them more

dangerous and very hard for the police to deal with and catch (There is
nothing harder to find and deal with than

organized teens that are dedicated to the group). This sort of gang is
usually common of middle or upper class
people

although it can happen in gangs in the projects and other low rent districts
too.



This "one-up-manship" is often the reason between rival gangs fighting. All
gangs feel powerful and they

want to be feared. To do this they try to establish themselves as the only
gang in a certain neighborhood. After a
few

gang fights hatred forms and gang murders and drive-by's begin to take
place. When two gangs are at war it makes

life very dangerous for citizens in the area. Less that 40% of drive-by's kill
their intended victim yet over 60% do kill

someone. This gang application is one of the many reasons that sexual
sterotypes and pressure to conform to the

same must be stopped.



Lastly one of the great factors in joining a gang is for protection. Although
from an objective

point of view, we can see joining a gang brings more danger than it saves
you from, this is not always the way it is

seen by kids. In slums such as the Bronx or the very worst case,
Compton, children will no doubt be beaten and

robbed if they do not join a gang. Of course they can probably get the
same treatment from rivals when in a gang.
The

gang also provides some money for these children who quite often need
to feed their families. The reason kids think

that the gang will keep them safe is from propoganda from the gangs.
Gang members will say that no one will get

hurt and make a public show of revenge if a member is hurt or killed.



People in low rent areas are most often being repressed due to poverty
and most importantly, race. This

often results in an attitude that motivates the person to base his/her life on
doing what the system that oppresses
them

doesn't want. Although this accomplishes little it is a big factor in gang
enrollment.



So, as you have seen gangs are a product of the environment we have
created for ourselves. Some of these

factors include: oppression, the media, greed, violence and other gangs.
There seems to be no way to end the
problem

of gangs without totally restructuring the modern economy and value
system. Since the chance of this happening is

minimal, we must learn to cope with gangs and try to keep their following
to a minimum. Unfortunately there is no

real organized force to help fight gangs. Of course the police are
supposed to do this but this situation quite often

deals with racial issues also and the police forces regularly display their
increasing inability to deal fairly with these

issues. What we need are more people to form organizations like the
"Guardian Angels" a gang-like group that
makes

life very tough for street gangs that are breaking laws.








THE END

by Anh Phu





Bibliography



Margot Webb, Coping with Street Gangs. Rosen Publishing Group, New
York, 1990.



William Foote Whyte, Street Corner Society. University of Chicago,
Chicago, 1955.



Peter Carroll, South-Central. Hoyte and Williams, L. A., 1987.



1 Marshall B. Clinard, Sociology of Deviant Behavior. University of
Wisconsin, Wisconsin, 1963, Page 179. 2



Merton Nisbet, Contempory Social Problems. Harcourt, Brace &
World, New York, 1971, Page 588.



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