Why Do Juvenile Gangs Start
Juvenile Gangs
Kaplan University
CJ150: Juvenile Delinquency
In the United States a gang is a group of recurrently associating individuals or close friends with identifiable leadership and internal organization, identifying with or claiming control over territory in a community, and engaging either individually or collectively in violent or other forms of illegal behavior. A member of a gang is known as a gangster. Gang members are typically "jumped in" or have to prove their loyalty by committing acts such as theft or violence. Over the past two decades, there has been a growing concern over youth gang activity in the United States. Gangs were once regarded as an essentially American problem, they are now considered in media accounts, …show more content…
Well an American sociologist by the name of Frederic Thrasher is known as the founding father of gang research. He documented the activities of over 1,000 gangs in the city of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. His views on the origins of these gangs are instructive. The gangs that he observed had their beginnings, not in a single minded criminal endeavor, but in the desire of youth people, growing up in a time of massive social change, for fun and excitement. The original gangs were little more than adolescent play groups in an informal neighborhood street culture that thrived and prospered in the absence of adult. In this environment, incidents of crime and deviance were occasional occurrences rather than regular …show more content…
Each street gang has its own signs, symbols, signals, dress code, and color, some of which are shared by other gangs, but all which serve to advertise the gang’s presence. There is no greater disrespect for a street gang than to have its symbols insulted by rival gangs. One of the first indications that gangs are in a certain area is the appearance of graffiti. To the gang members graffiti is marking their territory and serves as a warning to rival gangs. Gangs will put graffiti on any available space such as a wall in a restroom, street signs, or an outside wall in a neighborhood. If you see graffiti in which a gang symbol is upside down, backwards, or crossed out, it is a sign of disrespect to that gang. When this is done it is most likely done by a rival gang member. This form of disrespect often leads to gang
Kaplan University
CJ150: Juvenile Delinquency
In the United States a gang is a group of recurrently associating individuals or close friends with identifiable leadership and internal organization, identifying with or claiming control over territory in a community, and engaging either individually or collectively in violent or other forms of illegal behavior. A member of a gang is known as a gangster. Gang members are typically "jumped in" or have to prove their loyalty by committing acts such as theft or violence. Over the past two decades, there has been a growing concern over youth gang activity in the United States. Gangs were once regarded as an essentially American problem, they are now considered in media accounts, …show more content…
Well an American sociologist by the name of Frederic Thrasher is known as the founding father of gang research. He documented the activities of over 1,000 gangs in the city of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. His views on the origins of these gangs are instructive. The gangs that he observed had their beginnings, not in a single minded criminal endeavor, but in the desire of youth people, growing up in a time of massive social change, for fun and excitement. The original gangs were little more than adolescent play groups in an informal neighborhood street culture that thrived and prospered in the absence of adult. In this environment, incidents of crime and deviance were occasional occurrences rather than regular …show more content…
Each street gang has its own signs, symbols, signals, dress code, and color, some of which are shared by other gangs, but all which serve to advertise the gang’s presence. There is no greater disrespect for a street gang than to have its symbols insulted by rival gangs. One of the first indications that gangs are in a certain area is the appearance of graffiti. To the gang members graffiti is marking their territory and serves as a warning to rival gangs. Gangs will put graffiti on any available space such as a wall in a restroom, street signs, or an outside wall in a neighborhood. If you see graffiti in which a gang symbol is upside down, backwards, or crossed out, it is a sign of disrespect to that gang. When this is done it is most likely done by a rival gang member. This form of disrespect often leads to gang