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By reading this book, I learned a lot about teenagers’ critical situations at juvenile hall. This book gave me a greater insight and deeper understanding of what their lives are like and the challenges they face in this place. I also learned that the legal system is not doing a great deal to help these young kids mend their lives. They are not being offered counseling or therapy which could help facilitate a great deal of things for them such as, getting a better orientation of a path for them to follow, dealing with the excessive amount of stress they face in a healthy way and learning tools for becoming effective members of society once they get out of that place. This book gave me a broader view of the factors that could have potentially contributed and played a big role in these teenagers getting engaged with gangs or committing these crimes. Most of these teenagers, to not say all, come from a very dysfunctional family where they were either battered by the father, had no positive role model to follow or no parents at all. Probably most of them joined gangs to feel they belonged to a group or where part of a family. I learned how miserable they feel by being in this place and the feelings they experience such as, loneliness, confusion, depression, no sense of personal worth and extreme stress. Many of them feel like they just want to die. All these feelings are not being managed by therapy or counseling but rather by just having regular nurses give them psych drugs which is very sad. I learned that these young kids are in great need of affection especially from their mothers and how much a compliment means to them. I also learned the importance of being tough as a survival skill in the prison setting. Many of these teenagers feel remorse for what they have done and would like to have a…
There are many theories that could be brought about with youth gangs. Lifestyle and Routine Activity are theories that could be best explained when it comes to youth gangs. Youth gangs partake in many situations where it becomes a lifestyle. Not all youth gangs are the same, so each of them would react off of something different. For example, if there is someone who wants to become part of a particular gang; they will do anything they possible can to join. Once a youth become accustomed to their way of life by being in a gang; everything starts to occur naturally. The next step that will follow after this is the routine activity. A youth can becomes involved in a gang and start to realize that there are certain things you have to do. Committing…
Yes, I do. Juvenile gangs I think are more dangerous. They are more dangerous to me because it seem like they tend to get away with things like crime. Young adult are more violence than mature adult which is why it is scary. Juvenile tend to go through with their criminal act more than adult. The reason they go through with is because they are still young minded, and they want to join the gang. Knowing juvenile gang is rising in many states including North Carolina, it is alarmingly scary to me. I am very concern, and I hope we as society can do something about the situation.…
However, the study goes on to ask some difficult questions: How many kids are really committing crimes? How many juveniles are committing murder and whom do they murder? In 1997, juvenile homicides were the lowest in the decade, but still higher than those during the 80s. According to this study, the majority of these homicide victims are male and between 1980 and 1997, 93% of the juvenile homicide offenders were male. More than 56% were African-American, and 88% of juvenile homicide offenders were age 15 and older (54). Even with the numbers of juvenile offenders increasing, it must be stated again that juvenile crime is not something…
Today the Federal definition of a “gang” is a group of individuals with a recognized name and symbols who form an allegiance for a common purpose and who engage in continuous unlawful activity. Most of today’s adolescents join a gang for the feelings of respect and power, or they are drawn in by parties, girls/boys, or drugs and low self-esteems. Law enforcement is trying it’s hardest to prevent gang initiations and violence, but there is always more that can be done. Such as more extracurricular activities, more law enforcement involvement with children, and a tighter watch of children while they are young.…
Youth gangs in North American society are nothing new. When we turn on the news we often hear stories of misguided youth contributing to yet another gang related crime. Even though it is known that youth crimes are overrepresented in the media today, the subject of youth gang activity is quite a predicament to our society. Over the last few years, there has been a moral panic created by constant exposure to the media which portrays a great amount of youth crimes and violence. In Canada there are large urban cities with high proportions of young people, many of which live in poverty, that now have the issue of dealing with youth gangs and youth crimes. Toronto, British Columbia, and Ottawa are examples of Canadian cities that have youth gang problems. The implementation of the new Youth Criminal Justice Act (2002) has changed the way youth crimes are dealt with legally in Canada. It is one step in the right direction for dealing with the issue of youth offending. Although the new act is not perfect, it will provide a better sense of justice to society because it calls for greater punishment for youths who re-offend. Youth Gangs in Canada are a potentially serious problem that needs to be addressed and tactically prevented. If preventative measures are not taken, these large populated urban areas in Canada will have problems similar to those of some major American cities. This essay will analyze the youth gang problem in Canada. It will cover topics such as types of youth gangs, the seriousness of the problem, and the cause for the creation of youth gangs from a Social Disorganization theory perspective. It will also examine the effect of the Youth Criminal Justice Act on gang crime.…
As a kid I could remember walking to school every day. While on the way to school there was always a group of kids sanding outside of the school walking away. These kids dressed differently and they all whore the same type of clothes. It wasn't until years later that I was told to stay away from them because they were gangsters. They were gangsters that caused problems to the community. These gangsters would go up to kids and try and jump them into their gang. For them the more members they had the more "territory they had." One problem that major cities around the world have is gangs. Most of these gangs are made up of many juvenile delinquents looking for trouble. These gangs tend to hang out in certain places and claim it as their territory. Many of the gang members are drawn together by similar interests, and are brought up in similar neighborhoods.…
The amount of youngsters that joins gangs varies by area. Surveys establish that 14%-30% of youths become a gang member at some time in their life and are frequently around 12 to 24 years old. The members of these gangs come from a diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds. There has been a growing of youth gangs since 1980 and a number of cities broadcasting youth gang difficulties continue to increase. (Decker, 2011)…
Teenagers and young adults join youth gangs for many reasons. Reasons a teenager would join a gang include family factors such as parental abuse or even a lack of supervision, school factors meaning if a adolescent has early school failure, he is more likely to become a violent person, "Early school failure is predictive of subsequent violent behaviour" (Maguin & Loeber, 1996). As well as the neighbourhood one grows up in plays a factor in their future behaviour, so does many other factors. That is why programs are created to revolve around the issue at hand. "Street gang crime has many different causes and facilitators. This means that solutions to the problem must also be multi-faceted and involve a combination of prevention, intervention, and suppression programs." (Linden 5). The government uses the Prevention method to start with. This targets young kids who are at risk of joining gangs. Within the prevention program expands with even more programs to resolve the issue encouraging a young child or teenager to join gangs. Ranging from recreational programs such as summer camps to parental training to provide the correct skills need, there is a prevention program for any issue. Although not all these programs are not guaranteed to work, it is almost a trial and error scenario, "While there are some consistent patterns in the research…
Juvenile delinquency is no different from adult delinquency. It is a blatant and often persistent disregard for law and order, for moral and ethical standards and for the rights of others. Gang membership among juveniles is on the rise. And even these juveniles are dangerous. Gangs, according to police experts are much like the better known crime families, usually the leaders do not participate in criminal…
Although some may argue that gang activity and youth involvement has grown exponentially through the years, it has been an ongoing epidemic for decades. Methods, levels of violence, rules, and motivations may have changed over the years, but the basic infrastructure has remained the same. The earliest accounts of youth involvement in gangs first appeared in Europe or Mexico, while the earliest record of youth gangs appearing in the United States are recorded as early as 1783. In the early 1800’s youth gangs appeared to spread in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, in the form of poverty stricken Irish immigrants. Kids banded together and ran the streets stealing food and goods to help feed their families. These crews were more a nuisance than anything else (Howell, 1998).…
Juvenile delinquency has become a very predominant occurrence in today’s society. In 2010, there were 6,531 arrest for every 100,000 youths age 10 to 17(Knoll, C, 2010). While it may be that youth are being processed through the criminal justice system more today than ever, rather than actually committing more forms of crime and delinquency (Puzzanchera, Adams, & Sickmund, 2010). Youth are however experiencing increased participation with the criminal justice system are creating problems for parents, schools, communities, and other children who are in the presence of juvenile delinquents. Two of the biggest aspects influencing juvenile delinquency are the family structure that the child is exposed to and the relationship they have with their…
Gangs are nothing new to American society, what is new and disturbing is the recent spike in juvenile crimes with reported ties to certain gangs. Youth gangs have been prevalent in schools in large cities since the 1970 's. However, they have become even more prevalent in schools in the recent past. In the student survey component of the 1995 National Crime Victimization Survey, more than one third (37%) of the students reported gangs at their schools and the percentage of students reporting the presence of gangs at their schools nearly doubled between 1989 and 1995, and then decreased in 1999, according to a more conservative measure.…
Huff, Ronald C., 1998, Comparing the Criminal Behavior of Youth Gangs and At-Risk Youth, National Institute of Justice, Washington D.C. Retrieved July 24, 2010…
Gang violence has been a problem for many years, and it shows no signs of subsiding any time soon. The most critical factor in combating gang violence is juveniles. Juveniles are important for several reasons. They are most at risk due to their position in their community. Parents in low-income areas often work long hours and are not able to supervise their children as much as necessary. This can lead youth to seek companionship or support from other youngsters in their neighborhoods.…