The Los Angeles Police Department, Research Paper Example

The Los Angeles Police Department provides one of the most informative sites applicable to dealing with gangs. They point out that street fighting and violent gangs should not be approached and must be left to police experts.  In California there is specific legislation to deal with the eradication of gang warfare. It was in the 1980’s that the police ramped up their response to dealing with gangs. They started to establish special units – police gang units. In 1999 it was reported that the large law enforcement agencies engaged more than 100 sworn officers in their gang units. Special units existed in 56% of municipal police departments, 50% of all Sheriff departments, 43% of County Police agencies and 20% of law enforcement agencies.  In 1996 the Federal Government carried out a National Youth Gang Survey and disclosed that there were 9 main gang types.  The highest number of these being Juvenile Gangs and Street Gangs.  The e highest concentrations being in Cities like Los Angeles, Chicago.  (Los Angeles Police Department, 2010)

Gangs fall under two prime categories (i) Organized crime syndicates – those like drug cartels, drug dealers, etc and (2) Non organized – like juvenile gangs, street gangs etc.  They vary in size, structure and membership. No two gangs are the same and they vary in relation to one another and as such policies have to vary in the treatment of dealing with these gangs.

FBI  statistics state The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimates that at least 30,000 gangs, with 800,000 members, are having an impact on 2,500 communities across the United States. If we look at the largest problem that of juvenile and street crime, this is not a police problem but a social problem.  In order to make change it is considered that this involves national social reforms.  Many juveniles are multiple offenders and their crimes get more severe each time they offend.  They start off as petty crimes and eventually lead to crimes of homicide.  Many of these juveniles live in poverty and poor neighbourhoods.  States like California simply do not have the infrastructure in terms of social services, police and judicial services in order to deal with the problem.  Some recent interesting statistics in the USA indicate that about 62% victims of non fatal violence occur at the hands of juvenile offendors.  95 % of sexual assaults were commited by youths under the age of 18.  Some 74% of reported juvenile offences said the purpotrator was a male.  61% of simple assaults were carried out by juveniles.  One area singled out as having the most continued troubelsome record was Los Angeles in California.

The penalties for juvenile crime vary from State to State, with the death penalty being imposed at the severest end.  The Supreme Court generally does not advocate the death penalty for juveniles, nevertheless this remains at the prerogative of the State laws.  At the moment the USA has executed 6 juveniles this decade with Oklahoma and Texas strong advocates of this.  A Republican law maker [ John Pitts ] in Texas proposed that convicted young offenders, for homicide charges, should be placed on death row from Age 11 until they reach maturity age for Execution.  A Republican Governor in California stated that Children who commit murder over the age of 14 should be subject to the death penalty.  This hardening of philosophy brought about where there has been repeat offences by young offenders.  A study carried out in Texas showed that many juveniles who had been placed on death row had been the subject of child abuse and a number of them were mentally retarded.  The State of New Jersey awarded $2.8 million to local authorities for 14 programs to help reduce Gang crime in the State.  Burlington City Police Department was awarded $145,000 to help fight street crime and serious gang related incidents within its’ jurisdiction.  The main idea is to get the youths involved in after school programs as opposed to wandering the streets and getting involved in criminal activities The key for us is to get youngsters engaged and keep them engaged. In New  Jersey 3 programs will be launched at the Mary Ethel Castello Middle School in Gloucester City through a $225,000 grant provided to Education and Information and Resource Center, a non-profit group that operates after-school programs in Gloucester City.

Deterrent –  Programs in Massachusetts like “Scared Straight ” take potential young offenders on tours of state prisons. Illustrate what life is like inside of Prison and get them to hold frank conversations with the inmates.  The objective being to raise awareness and scare the juveniles enough to present them from pursuing a life of crime.  Counter arguments claim that the approach can be psychologically damaging to the juveniles and causes more harm than good.   Programs like ‘Scared Straight’ involve organised visits to prison facilities by juvenile delinquents or children at risk for becoming delinquent. The programs are designed to deter participants from future offending by providing first-hand observations of prison life and interaction with adult inmates. Results of this review indicate that not only does it fail to deter crime, but it actually leads to more offending behaviour. Government officials permitting this program need to adopt rigorous evaluation to ensure that they are not causing more harm to the very citizens they pledge to protect. Other programs include :

Parental Training Programs :  Teaching the parents how to recognise delinquent behaviour and instructing thyem in correctional measures. The concept uses a structured approach using varying family members to instruct youth . This program has had successes in middle class communities in detering children from drug related behaviour and joing gangs.  Regretably most of the more serious incidents tend to occur in the urban communities of large Cities and mainly relate to the poor, deprived and lower classes of society.

Community Based Programs :  These tend to work best on educating young groups of people before they are exposed into the more serious criminal elements. Successful crime prevention programs may include teaching leadership and life skills, mentoring, drug and alcohol education, family counselling and gang prevention. After school programs which keep a young person occupied and provide an opportunity for recreation and learning may also help prevent juvenile crime.

Controversies with Juvenile Justice :  A lot of the Juveniles are repeat young offenders and have already passed through the Justice system on numerous occasions. An example of this being in Los Angeles CA.  Most of the young people are either living on the streets, come from families where they are experiencing child abuse or are into the system where they are being influenced by gangs and drug addiction.  A problem being that the judicial authorities do not have sufficient resources or time to address the youngsters at an early stage before they evolve into more serious offenders.  Most of the offenders come from the lower echelons of society and often this is the poorer Hispanic and black communities

This program seems to be working in New Jersey but it will need to be evaluated more thoroughly over time.  The concept of education and catching these young people early is certainly an important factor in preventing gang warfare and young people in the poverty chain turning to more hardened criminal activities.

Works Cited

Los Angeles Police Department. (2010). Los Angeles Police Department. Retrieved 3 8, 2010, from LAPD on gangs: http://www.lapdonline.org/get_informed/content_basic_view/1396