Preview

Documentary Analysis: Gangs In America

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1605 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Documentary Analysis: Gangs In America
Made in America
The Movie, Crips and Bloods: Made in America, is a documentary that informs people outside of the projects of LA, just what life looks like from an insider’s perspective. Many people don’t understand gangs and what it is that started the huge uprising of them. Growing up in the projects and being turned away from many youth groups took a large psychological toll on many of the kids growing up in LA in the 60’s. Instead of Boy Scouts, and other youth groups, the youth turned to making groups that eventually resulted in gangs. Not only were they turned away from youth groups but also unfairly treated by authority, which triggered African Americans to search for more of a sense of belonging. Gangs started small and seemingly
…show more content…
In an article comprised of many different sources called “The Cycle of Violence: Intergenerational Violence,” Lila Stansup discusses how cycles of violence are created. In her article she quotes Fagan who said, “Various types of violence…even witnessing violence: may influence the growing child, to believe that that violence is normal (Stansup 2007). This just goes to show that when introduced to violence it is easier for children to accept and engage in violent acts of their own. This also makes gangs seem normal and more appealing to the youth especially when it is all they have ever known and seen. The movie talks about how when someone is paying for your meals and taking you under their wing you basically have to do whatever they ask of you. Often times what older gang members would ask of you was to do something that members of the gang would commit. Children are almost pushed into these violent acts because they have no other choice. If they were to say no then they may risk the food that is put on their table or the roof they live under. So not only witnessing these acts of violence but engaging in the violent acts themselves even if they had no desire to forces the youth into a cycle that has been extremely hard to break away from. This phenomenon is further discussed in an online source called “Why Do Youth Join Gangs?” compiled by Shay Bilchik. Bilchik quoted many other people in his piece such as Johnstone and Moore. “In some communities, youth are intensively recruited or coerced into gangs (Johnstone, 1983). They seemingly have no choice. A few are virtually born into gangs as a result of neighborhood traditions and their parents ' earlier gang participation or involvement in criminal activity” (Moore, 1978). This goes to show that what Peralta discussed in his movie is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    From the film Street Gangs in Los Angeles, it portrays the 1990's as a time when gang activity had expanded into the communities as a widespread issue for both law enforcement agencies and the citizens living within society. The documentary illustrates the daily lives of gang members, including what type of people join these crowds, their reasons for affiliation, different activities the organizations participate in, how the surrounding community is affected by the gang movement, even proactive initiatives law enforcement agencies and surrounding neighborhoods have taken to resolve the issue.…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I just watched the most interesting documentary video that presented the historical facts about the gangs. It was shameful that most of LAPD police judge black people from their color. It is unacceptable logically. Bad and good people are founded in every race. It seems to me that the police was the reason for establishing these gangs. When people are raised by the violence from the police or the army everywhere not only in the US, that will lead many impact to their lives. They will turn to violence as an impact of the violence that they had suffered. It was a series of actions and reaction that end up these gangs. During the WWII and after that, African American people were in the best demand to work in the factories which give…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    First of all, gang violence is everywhere although we do not see it at times, it is there and we should be aware of this social issue that happen in someone life. Some folks may think that these people that are in gangs were born into it or they just like to break the laws. Some of us may never know the answer why they are in gangs but we can seek our answers in books. For example in the book “ Always Running” , by Luis rodriguez in pages 50-68 it summarizes that Luis rodriguez joins a gang with his friend name the Animal Tribe in which he says he wants respect and to show he can take care of himself. As a result this ruins Luis’s relationship with his mom which makes him leave the…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hurricane Karina

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gangs originally began in the 1800’s which meant kids of the street. But US had other predecessors than unsupervised street urchins. There were four kinds of gangs which were predecessors of the street gangs of today 1. Secret Societies, 2. Gangs of outlaws and in the Wild West, 3. Racist like the Ku Klux Klan, and 4. “Voting Gangs” tied mainly to the Democratic Party in large cities. Many gangs if armed men were racially mortivated. Racial tensions in the cities like New York were constant, and racist conflict was almost everywhere more violent than nativism..On May 31.1921 a nineteen year old Black male accidentally stumbled on a bumpy elevator and bumped into a seventeen year old White elevator operator who screamed. The frightened young man was seen running from the elevator by a group of Whites and by the afternoon the “Tulsa Tribune” reported that the girl had been raped. Despite the girl’s denial of any wrong doing, the young man was arrested and a large mob of 2000 White men came to the jail to lynch the prisoner. With a defenseless Black community before them, the white mob advanced to the greenwood district where they first looted and then burned down all…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ms13

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Today, the gang has spread from Central America to the United States, originating in Los Angeles and evolving across 32 states. For this particular paper I will focus on the gang’s membership in the United States alone. I will take an ethnographic approach to attempt to understand why people join the gang and what they wish to accomplish by doing so. I will key in on the main goals of the gang, reasons for brutality, and how they have managed to spread with such popularity throughout America.…

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Crash, Anomie, La Gangs

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the movie L.A. Gangs it gave a great background on what gang life is about and the movie gave a background on what gangs are capable of doing to their community. A gang is look to as a replacement of family and a form of survival. Being a gang member means getting respect. Gang members start off young, around the age of 10-11 yrs of age. Graffiti marks the limits where a gang member can go, it can also show a gangs power. Gangs are better armed then the police. Police do everything in their power to stop gang violence. The movie also mentioned that there is no way to break the cycle of gangs. Witnesses of gang crime don’t come forward due to being scared of what could happen to them or their family. Police are trying to prevent and deter gang activity and it seems to be working now a days involving the help from CRASH.…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The movie Colors displays the bad things in gangs like how easy it could be to join a gang and to distribute the drugs for them. This movie portrays the working of a gang in California.. The movie also showed how the older gang members got the younger members to go out and sell the drugs for them. The idea behind this was that if the younger person was to get caught there would be a lesser chance that they would rat on the main dealer and they would get a lesser punishment, as juveniles. In the movie they always show you the parts of the gangs running from the police or doing something bad like the drugs and violence. What the movie does not show you how the gangs contributed to the society or if they did where is it then. The movie was based on the fact that gangs are bad and that is how they showed it.…

    • 789 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kids are often drawn to gangs simply yearning to find safety in their own lives.…

    • 105 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There have been many theoretical explanations of why delinquents and adolescence, youth and other people might join gangs. Members of gangs have been questioned on why they would want to join a gang and most of them come up with socioeconomic factors and some say the attraction to street gangs are a rush. There are many different socioeconomic factors in their decision or choice to join a street gang. There have also been many different types of experts, researchers, doctors, sociologists, and psychologists all have their own theories and opinions about the socioeconomic factors…

    • 2568 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Why Children Join Gangs

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gangs were first fabricated so that poor majorities in the ghetto neighborhoods could defend themselves against police brutality and outsiders. Gangs also known as sets would gain their name from the area that the gang reside in, which could be the street number or street name. Gangs are a class of adolescents and young adults whom possess a common identity and are involved in wrongful and criminal behavior. Majority of gang members tend to be young adults, however, According to recent trends children are being recruited into gangs at a much earlier age, some when they are in elementary school. At that stage they are easier to attract and more vulnerable. According to the Department of Justice, gang activity usually take place in big cities but in the recent years gang activities and violence is making its way across in smaller towns and rural areas. Gangs don’t discriminate because they are fabricated with “[p]eople of every gender, race, culture and socioeconomic group”1. (The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.) Majority of Gang member are young adolescences that lack parental supervision, I believe that with an increase in supervision there would be a decrease in young children joining gangs and gang activity.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout the 1970s urban gangs became better organized and began to expand their activities into surrounding low income communities. This expansion just makes gangs more of a danger to low income kids. Egley and Howell found out that “There were approximately 28,100 active gangs across 3,500 jurisdictions in 2009 according to law enforcement estimates. This represents an increase of more than 20 percent in both indicators since 2002 (Egley and Howell, 2011). These figures are exactly why there needs to be something done about the recruiting of low income kids into gangs. Obviously the problem is only getting worse and will continue to get worse unless something is done about it. The gang members who migrated from urban areas often formed new, neighborhood-based local gangs. These gangs actually targeted kids young and from low income families to gain their trust at an…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Social Benefits Of Gangs

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In society, we often see impoverished communities lacking many of the routine social structures that are present in more affluent communities. Human being have a desire to belong to certain social structures that may be lacking in poorer communities. It is this need —for belonging — that gangs fulfill. Gangs present a dichotomy, offering protection and a sense of belonging to its member; and at other times preying on its members through exploitative practices like gang initiation, prostitution, and drug dealing. Although gangs offer some benefits to its members, becoming a gang member is usually a choice that is made because of limited alternative and lack of perceived social acceptance. Further influencing the leap into gang life is the common…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poverty that comes from inability to obtain a job or being forced to work at a low paying job because of racial discrimination can lead a young person to join a gang. In her…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is important to know that influence is critical to a young child. Often times children who are exposed to crime and violence tend to follow down that same path. A path that leads to a life of gangs. In an article Youth Gangs and Adolescent Development: New Findings, New Challenges, And New Directions: Introduction to The Special Section is presenting five new studies being conducted on youth gangs. A broader developmental perspective, underscoring the need for ongoing inquiry linking the heretofore separate literature on youth gangs and antisocial peer influences from criminology and developmental science (Boxer 201). Gangs have been present in America for decades. All through only in recent years are local and national observation studies showing gangs growing at an increasingly rapid rate. Discussing the full range of youth involvement in gangs. From how gangs evolve, their entry, the significant amounts of activities that occur during their involvement, to their disengagement. Understanding the complexity as to why youth join gangs is very critical and this article gives in depth research and reasoning. Peer pressure and influences being two main leading factors. The importance of learning and trying to address these issues in order to put the gang rise to a halt is very…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Female Gangs

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages

    as violent, sometimes more, than their male counterparts. More troubling, their children are immersed in the chaos and violence of gangs from birth, passing down the gang legacy to yet another generation.”(Courtesy: Mike Carlie, PhD, Into the Abyss: A personal Journey into the world of Street Gangs. Retrieved on February 9th 2008 from site…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays