Understanding Street Gangs, Essay Example

Introduction

Transnational gangs affect communities in different ways today. Nappi (2007) states that in Long Island alone there are 42 different street gangs (as of 2007, the publication date). As schools are becoming the battleground of gangs more and more, there is a need for intervention to reduce the effects of these aggressive interactions between rivals. One of the approaches is to develop alternatives for young people to gangs, and education authorities, teachers and community workers have a great role in this work. Valdez (2005) studied Hispanic females’ involvement in gangs. One of the main triggers of becoming a gang member he found is being marginalized by the society. However, the author also concludes that females who are not marginalized by Hispanic gangs are more likely to engage in criminal and risky activities. Violence, teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse and non-compliance with education commitments were among these activities. Therefore, it is evident that international and multicultural street gangs need to be looked at from the preventive perspective, in order to reduce crime among the young.

Policies and Immigration Law

From the research of Sanchez-Jankowski (2003 p. 193.), it is evident that gang formation among people who have suffered identity deprivations, gang membership seems to be the option for creating an alternative identity within the society and for making individuals feel like they “belong”. Gangs fill the identity vacuum, therefore, policies for inclusion and immigration need to be looked at from the individual’s perspective. Granting the immigrant rights to reside would mean that they get a new chance in life (those coming from Latin America).

Sanchez-Jankowski (2003, p. 203) confirms that the waves of immigration meant that all people arriving from different parts of the world at different times had to face a completely unique challenge to overcome discrimination and prejudice.

According to the latest CRS Congress Report (2008), there are various legislative issues related to transnational gangs. Law enforcement has a great importance, and the congress legislation that passed in the 1990-s has made individuals who were members of transnational crimes “deportable”. Anti-gang responses have been developed within the jurisdiction services, in order to create preventive and interventive measures. Since 2005, the FBI has also become involved in investigating criminal gangs, creating different departments focusing on transnational groups, such as the Gang Targeting Enforcement Coordinating Center. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) researches and assesses alien street gang activities on the US. The Customs and Border Protection does target illegal aliens and collects intelligence information about transnational gangs.

The legislative issues of the Congress (CRS 2008) are identified as the ones focusing on prevention. Filtering immigrants is a good approach, however, those criminals already in the country holding a legal immigrant status would still continue recruiting new members as long as their criminal activities are paying off. One of the major problems identified by the study was, however, that some of the deported individuals were coming back using the Mexican-American border. Mandatory minimums have been introduced in prosecution, and various anti-gang bills were introduced in the past decade. Although street gang has been declining in the past few years, according to latest research, it is important to carry on developing bills not only for prosecution but to change the complete immigration law of the United States. According to the study, immigration enforcement is the most effective tool to fight gangs. (CRS, 2008, p. 20.)

According to Valdez (2005), there is a need for a combination of immigration enforcement and crime prevention. There is, however, a difference between Americanized (Hispanic) and traditional gangs. (Valdez, 2005). The below part of the study will review the different social, political and economic conditions of the two types of gangs.

Social, Political and Economic Conditions of Ethnic Street Gangs

Hispanic Gangs

According to Valdez (2005), Hispanic gangs have a stronger Mexican identity than non-members from the same community. This results in even the second or third generation of the family (often the children of immigrants coming to America in the 30-s) develop a unique and distinctive culture and attract young people through strong socialization and create the atmosphere of belonging. The gangs have a strong base because of this cultural issue. Hispanic gangs can endure longer and are created like a family. The sociological reasons for the popularity of gang membership are “multiple marginality”. (Covey, 2010). As single parent families are very common among these Hispanic communities while poverty is high, children as young as 8 join gangs. As the hierarchy of these gangs is well determined and the leadership creates strict rules, the economy is developed based on the level of input by the member. There is usually an internalization process which is equivalent to the socialization progress within the society.

African American Gangs

African American gangs are usually more commonly present in high schools. Their activities initially involved extortion. While these gangs are not formed around a strong ethnic identity or culture, as African Americans are now the part of the society, they created a new culture for high school children who were looking for motivation and the sense to belong. As with all gangs, the occurrence of unemployment, single parent and low income, housing problems in the family is high, and this is one of the motivational triggers of the young people joining the gangs. Many of the members are not new immigrants, however, these gangs welcome those arriving from Africa.

Asian Gangs

Asian gangs in America are usually smaller in size than Hispanic ones. There are clear boundaries between different Asian ethnicities, and Hong Kong or Vietnamese gangs never mix together. These gangs recruit people from teenage years to 25 years old, and therefore, all members equally participate in violence. One of the reason for the formation of these gangs was the targeting and victimization of Asian immigrants by the police decades ago. Networking and technology, targeting the police is among the strengths of these gangs.

Politics

Politics in the US as the “frontier nation” (Sanchez-Jankowski, 2003. P. 210. ) have promoted inequality. Immigrants were becoming automatically considered “lower class” and the discrimination led to their exclusion from the society. Language barriers resulted in poverty, lack of education, low paid jobs and exclusion at the same time. Cultural differences have been the main reason for gang and transcultural community formations. However, it is important to note that the behavior of police and investigation agencies towards immigrants is also one of the reasons for the spread of transnational criminal groups.

Conclusion

While transnational gangs continue to challenge prosecutors and investigators, as well as legislators, the directions for immigration law, society changes and political, police approaches are clear. After reviewing the changes in legislation in the past decade, (CRS, 2008, p. 20.), it is evident that stricter rules result in lower level of street gang crime. However, looking at the motivations of gang members to join up, sociological and social issues need to be addressed as well, such as education, programs for inclusion, crime prevention programs. Schools and community workers have a great responsibility to create a long term plan for educating young people from marginalized communities about street crime and its consequences.

References

Valdez, Alora J., Valdez, Al (2005) A Guide to Understanding Street Gangs. 5^th edition. LawTech Publishing

Nappi, D. (2007) When Knowledge is Power: An Assessment of Gang Awareness and Safety Within a Long Island School District. ProQuest

CRS Report. Franco, F. (2008) The MS-13 and 18th Street Gangs: Emerging Transnational Gang Threats?

Wrobelski, H., Hess, K. (2005) Introduction To Law Enforcement And Criminal Justice. Cengage Learning.

Sanchez-Jankowski, M. (2003) Gangs and social change. Theoretical Criminology. 2003 SAGE Publications

Covey, H. (2010) Street Gangs throughout the World.2^nd Ed. Charles C Thomas.