Why People Join Gangs In The United States
So I believe gangs have a history in the United States. The
United States have became a melting pot in the nineteenth century.
There has been multiple attacks of gangs association around the world
especially where most crime has happen. In Chicago shootings this year were
4,999 gang-related members, the police say..
Gang members do not know the reason of being in a gang.
It’s manly to be brothers or sisters as one. Some kids growing up don’t have
actual brothers or sisters, so they go and find people the can be cool with.
This topic is important because most people in our country are dying for no
reason. So to stop this from happening we should try to stop the crimes in
America by putting the guns down.The …show more content…
fallout exposed the Police Department's
frayed relations with the city's minority communities and contributed to complex
problems that law enforcement face in 2017 a fractured gang structure with
young, impulsive members a seemingly endless supply of guns on the street; a
police force grown hesitant amid crime in neighborhoods for decades innocents
have suffered from inadequate resources and opportunity.
Solutions to the epidemic were just as difficult to define,
Most gangs use graffiti show that they are apart of the group. This mean
showing initiative. researchers said. But they noted the undeniable fact that
guns are ravaging Chicago. Over the past 25 years, no
other major city has had such a dramatic single-year
essential, experts say, is restoring police morale and
improving officer training. In the neighborhoods most
racked by violence, the city and private companies are
launching new investment efforts to offer an alternative
to crime: a job.
Big gangs groups like the Vice Lords and Gangster
Disciples have claimed large swaths of territory in
Chicago, protecting the gang's reputation and drug trade
with guns and violence. Also the height of the
crack-cocaine epidemic in the 1990s, more than 900
people were killed annually in the city in some years.
Shells of those larger gangs remain today, splintered
into smaller block-by-block associations. Conflicts over
drug territories remain a factor in Chicago's violence, but
the immediacy of social media has exacerbated the
problem, with personal disputes and challenges by gang
rivals posing a constant threat. Many of the shootings
appear to be retaliatory, leaving police searching for
ways to interrupt the back-and-forth violence.
Chicago police attributed 75 percent of homicides in the
city in 2015 and 2016 to altercations — most involving
street gangs, according to the University of Chicago
Crime Lab draft report.
Leaderless Chicago street gangs vex police efforts
to quell violence analysts, community policing officers and command staff
will decide daily where to send teams of officers to try to
counteract the violence.
"These rooms will be running 24/7, as opposed to
(intelligence) coming from headquarters,"
consultants to provide Chicago with expert help. One of
those is former Illinois State Police Chief Terrance
Gainer, who began his long career in law enforcement
as a Chicago cop. Gainer, who helped coordinate
LAPD's recent visit, said the district-level focus fits with
Chicago's existing data-driven approach.
"You are trying to empower each roll call," he told the
Tribune. " 'Here is where we think the problem will be
this weekend.' You get the officers in the district focused
and psyched up with what you want them to do."
Los Angeles police officials said they are hopeful
Chicago's plan to use their strategy will help. But, they
say Los Angeles did more than refocus where cops
patrolled.
"An important component was community engagement,"
said LAPD First Assistant Chief Michel Moore. Cops
made outreach efforts in neighborhoods with the highest
number of gang shootings, he said, "so that residents
could feel safe coming out and, in a number of
instances, providing information."
Still, a single policing strategy is no cure-all.
When Los Angeles used this targeted effort last spring in
one area, Moore noted, crime jumped in other parts of
the city. And homicides and shootings overall in that city
were up slightly over 2015.
"We have to be mindful that other problems can erupt,"
Moore said.
Chicago's increase in homicides was driven
Chicago's draft report found that in 2016, 91 percent of
homicides were committed with a gun. By comparison,
between 2011 and 2015, the share of gun homicides
averaged 72 percent in Los Angeles and 60 percent in
New York.
I have thought of ways to stop gang violence in the
World.
Since the mid-20th century, gang violence in this country has become widespread—all
50 states and the District of Columbia report gang problems, and reports have
increased for 5 of the past 7 years. Despite the steady growth in the number and size of
gangs across the United States and the criminal behavior and violence they spawn, little
is known about the dynamics that drive gangs and how to best combat their growth. For
instance, no consensus exists on how gangs form, and few gang prevention programs
have been rigorously evaluated. published by the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs (OJJDP), presents a compilation of current
research on gangs, including data on the state of gang problems in the United States
today, why youth join gangs, the risk factors and attractions that increase youth’s
propensity to join gangs, and how gangs form.
The author examines how community
members can begin to assess their gang problems and provide necessary
enhancements to prevention and intervention activities. The bulletin also describes a
number of effective and promising programs that may help prevent youth delinquency
and gang violence.
The following are some key findings:
Youth join gangs for protection, enjoyment, respect, money, or because a friend
is in a gang.
Youth are at higher risk of joining a gang if they engage in delinquent behaviors,
are aggressive or violent, experience multiple caretaker transitions, have many
problems at school, associate with other gang-involved youth, or live in
communities where they feel unsafe and where many youth are in trouble.
To prevent youth from joining gangs, communities must strengthen families and
, improve community supervision, train teachers and parents to manage
disruptive youth, and teach students interpersonal
skills.
Our youth today is at risk of gang involvement so we need to help the number of youth
who join gangs get out of them. With our Intervention programs and strategies provide
sanctions and services for younger youth who are actively involved in gangs to push
them away from gangs. Law enforcement suppression strategies and intensive services
target and rehabilitate the most violent gangs and older, criminally active gang
members.
on the street, he said in a recent interview with the
Tribune.
The idea of stiffer sentencing for gun crimes has been
criticized, however. Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the
ACLU of Illinois, said questions remain about whether
tougher sentences really have an impact. Yohnka
pointed to the state's budget crisis as a more immediate
problem, saying the impasse drains services that would
help prevent crime.
Johnson said he was sensitive to the inequalities of the
criminal justice system but feels consequences aren't
dire enough to deter crime.
"I don't believe in mass incarceration or
disproportionately arresting minorities, "But
what I do believe is if you pick up a freakin' gun and you
pull the trigger … you should go to prison. That is just
the bottom line. You should go to prison."
Johnson has an ally in newly elected Cook County
State's Attorney Kim Foxx, who said in a Tribune
interview that fighting gun violence is "our No. 1 issue"
and that her focus will be on targeting gun-trafficking
networks. She also plans to bring in a top New York
prosecutor and specialist in trafficking cases to set up a
new gun crimes unit.
Foxx said she wants to identify the most violent
criminaland is looking to forge partnerships with
academics to try to better understand the root of the gun
problem.
"We want to go after those who pull the trigger. We want
to make sure that they are held accountable, and we
also want to make sure that the next person who is
thinking about picking up a gun doesn't," Foxx said
Nina Vinik, program director for the Joyce Foundation's
Gun Violence Prevention Program, said policymakers also should be looking at laws that tighten regulation and
licensing of Illinois gun shops, where handguns can be
illegally obtained through straw purchases.
"There needs to be a focus on the sources of crime guns
that are flooding Chicago's streets," Vinik said. "Chicago
has an exponentially greater challenge with illegal guns
than LA or New York. There is no silver bullet. We need
to do lots and lots of different things. We need to reform
the Chicago Police Department and restore community
trust. But we also need to get our arms around our illegal
gun problem."
Absent from much of the rhetoric, experts say, is more
concrete research on the gun issue. There has been a
long-standing frustration in the public health community
that Congress does not fund research on gun violence
like other health epidemics, said Roberta Rakove, senior
vice president for Sinai Health Systems.
Just this December, however, a group of academics,
hospitals and public health researchers in Chicago
pledged to cooperate on new research on gun violence.
"Given the nature of the emergency here in Chicago, we
really couldn't wait," Rakove said.
In the Laquan McDonald case, the court-ordered release
in November 2015 of disturbing police dashboard
camera video showing white Officer Jason Van Dyke
shooting the black 17-year-old 16 times had a ripple
effect on police all year. Superintendent Garry McCarthy
was fired within days of the video's release, and the
Justice Department probe of police practices followed.
In the ensuing months, the department drew withering
criticism, especially for its failure over the decades to
properly punish officers for a wide range of misconduct,
including excessive force, as Tribune investigations
found. The misconduct damaged relations with the
public, which experts say makes it all the more difficult
for police to get the community's help in fighting crime.
Police: Morale still low, emboldening criminals and
contributing to violence
Officers, in turn, were stung by the unprecedented
scrutiny and public anger. In stories published in the
Tribune in 2016, officers described plunging morale, and
their more cautious approach on the street. The Tribune
found officers made fewer stops of citizens for
information, and fewer arrests. Some officers believe the
new scrutiny of police also emboldened criminals, now
more likely to carry guns and taunt officers, and
contributed to rising violence.
Whether any of this had an impact on crime is not
immediately clear. But Chicago police will have a better
chance of chipping away at the violence if the
department can make headway not only in restoring
community trust, but in steadying officers, said Anne
Kirkpatrick, who heads the department's Bureau of
Professional Standards.
"When officers are trained with the best practices and
constitutional policing ... they can be confident they are
staying within the boundaries," she said. "And when they
stay within the boundaries, they don't need to worry
about getting into trouble."
In September, the city scrapped the Independent Police
Review Authority, the agency charged with investigating
police misconduct, and announced a new board that
would have somewhat expanded powers and authority.
The Police Department has also proposed changes to its
policy regarding when officers can use force. The
department also launched two-day retraining that
emphasizes "de-escalation" tactics to try to reduce the
number of fatal confrontations, with aims to train its
entire force in a year.
More stories from Tribune series 'Chicago Violence:
A City Wounded'
Chicago police bought more Tasers to give officers more
options in potentially deadly confrontations. And it
expanded its use of body-worn cameras to improve
transparency. On Wednesday, the department
announced an accelerated rollout of the cameras, saying
all officers would be outfitted by the end of 2017.
Emanuel also has pledged he will add about 1,000 more
officers to the current count of some 12,000 sworn
department members. A Tribune examination of
department rosters last month, however, showed that
the city has some catching up to do when it comes to
manpower. The number of sworn officers has shrunk
approximately 7 percent over six years — including the
loss of about 600 officers since Emanuel took office in
2011.
The mayor has committed to creating a citizens'
oversight board to monitor the department, as other
cities across the country have done when faced with
intense criticism of police practices. Emanuel, though,
has yet to offer specifics on when that board would be
created, how it would be structured or whether he would
control a majority of its appointments.
Giving power to a strong citizen board will be the most
critical going forward.
"That is really important," said Samuel Sinyangwe,
co-founder of Campaign Zero, a national policy platform
that grew from the national concern over police-involved shootings of
citizens and now tracks and researches reform. "(From) the changes to
the strategies of the Police Department to ensuring the department is
behaving appropriately, that can only happen with strong community
oversight."
Over the decades in Chicago, the same communities that have suffered from pernicious poverty and
joblessness also have endured the highest rates of
violence. Last year was no different.
The largest increases in homicides occurred in five
communities — Englewood, West Englewood, New City,
Austin and West Garfield Park. More than 37 percent of
the population in those areas live below the poverty line,
compared with 23 percent citywide, according to the
Crime Lab draft report.
United States have became a melting pot in the nineteenth century.
There has been multiple attacks of gangs association around the world
especially where most crime has happen. In Chicago shootings this year were
4,999 gang-related members, the police say..
Gang members do not know the reason of being in a gang.
It’s manly to be brothers or sisters as one. Some kids growing up don’t have
actual brothers or sisters, so they go and find people the can be cool with.
This topic is important because most people in our country are dying for no
reason. So to stop this from happening we should try to stop the crimes in
America by putting the guns down.The …show more content…
fallout exposed the Police Department's
frayed relations with the city's minority communities and contributed to complex
problems that law enforcement face in 2017 a fractured gang structure with
young, impulsive members a seemingly endless supply of guns on the street; a
police force grown hesitant amid crime in neighborhoods for decades innocents
have suffered from inadequate resources and opportunity.
Solutions to the epidemic were just as difficult to define,
Most gangs use graffiti show that they are apart of the group. This mean
showing initiative. researchers said. But they noted the undeniable fact that
guns are ravaging Chicago. Over the past 25 years, no
other major city has had such a dramatic single-year
essential, experts say, is restoring police morale and
improving officer training. In the neighborhoods most
racked by violence, the city and private companies are
launching new investment efforts to offer an alternative
to crime: a job.
Big gangs groups like the Vice Lords and Gangster
Disciples have claimed large swaths of territory in
Chicago, protecting the gang's reputation and drug trade
with guns and violence. Also the height of the
crack-cocaine epidemic in the 1990s, more than 900
people were killed annually in the city in some years.
Shells of those larger gangs remain today, splintered
into smaller block-by-block associations. Conflicts over
drug territories remain a factor in Chicago's violence, but
the immediacy of social media has exacerbated the
problem, with personal disputes and challenges by gang
rivals posing a constant threat. Many of the shootings
appear to be retaliatory, leaving police searching for
ways to interrupt the back-and-forth violence.
Chicago police attributed 75 percent of homicides in the
city in 2015 and 2016 to altercations — most involving
street gangs, according to the University of Chicago
Crime Lab draft report.
Leaderless Chicago street gangs vex police efforts
to quell violence analysts, community policing officers and command staff
will decide daily where to send teams of officers to try to
counteract the violence.
"These rooms will be running 24/7, as opposed to
(intelligence) coming from headquarters,"
consultants to provide Chicago with expert help. One of
those is former Illinois State Police Chief Terrance
Gainer, who began his long career in law enforcement
as a Chicago cop. Gainer, who helped coordinate
LAPD's recent visit, said the district-level focus fits with
Chicago's existing data-driven approach.
"You are trying to empower each roll call," he told the
Tribune. " 'Here is where we think the problem will be
this weekend.' You get the officers in the district focused
and psyched up with what you want them to do."
Los Angeles police officials said they are hopeful
Chicago's plan to use their strategy will help. But, they
say Los Angeles did more than refocus where cops
patrolled.
"An important component was community engagement,"
said LAPD First Assistant Chief Michel Moore. Cops
made outreach efforts in neighborhoods with the highest
number of gang shootings, he said, "so that residents
could feel safe coming out and, in a number of
instances, providing information."
Still, a single policing strategy is no cure-all.
When Los Angeles used this targeted effort last spring in
one area, Moore noted, crime jumped in other parts of
the city. And homicides and shootings overall in that city
were up slightly over 2015.
"We have to be mindful that other problems can erupt,"
Moore said.
Chicago's increase in homicides was driven
Chicago's draft report found that in 2016, 91 percent of
homicides were committed with a gun. By comparison,
between 2011 and 2015, the share of gun homicides
averaged 72 percent in Los Angeles and 60 percent in
New York.
I have thought of ways to stop gang violence in the
World.
Since the mid-20th century, gang violence in this country has become widespread—all
50 states and the District of Columbia report gang problems, and reports have
increased for 5 of the past 7 years. Despite the steady growth in the number and size of
gangs across the United States and the criminal behavior and violence they spawn, little
is known about the dynamics that drive gangs and how to best combat their growth. For
instance, no consensus exists on how gangs form, and few gang prevention programs
have been rigorously evaluated. published by the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs (OJJDP), presents a compilation of current
research on gangs, including data on the state of gang problems in the United States
today, why youth join gangs, the risk factors and attractions that increase youth’s
propensity to join gangs, and how gangs form.
The author examines how community
members can begin to assess their gang problems and provide necessary
enhancements to prevention and intervention activities. The bulletin also describes a
number of effective and promising programs that may help prevent youth delinquency
and gang violence.
The following are some key findings:
Youth join gangs for protection, enjoyment, respect, money, or because a friend
is in a gang.
Youth are at higher risk of joining a gang if they engage in delinquent behaviors,
are aggressive or violent, experience multiple caretaker transitions, have many
problems at school, associate with other gang-involved youth, or live in
communities where they feel unsafe and where many youth are in trouble.
To prevent youth from joining gangs, communities must strengthen families and
, improve community supervision, train teachers and parents to manage
disruptive youth, and teach students interpersonal
skills.
Our youth today is at risk of gang involvement so we need to help the number of youth
who join gangs get out of them. With our Intervention programs and strategies provide
sanctions and services for younger youth who are actively involved in gangs to push
them away from gangs. Law enforcement suppression strategies and intensive services
target and rehabilitate the most violent gangs and older, criminally active gang
members.
on the street, he said in a recent interview with the
Tribune.
The idea of stiffer sentencing for gun crimes has been
criticized, however. Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the
ACLU of Illinois, said questions remain about whether
tougher sentences really have an impact. Yohnka
pointed to the state's budget crisis as a more immediate
problem, saying the impasse drains services that would
help prevent crime.
Johnson said he was sensitive to the inequalities of the
criminal justice system but feels consequences aren't
dire enough to deter crime.
"I don't believe in mass incarceration or
disproportionately arresting minorities, "But
what I do believe is if you pick up a freakin' gun and you
pull the trigger … you should go to prison. That is just
the bottom line. You should go to prison."
Johnson has an ally in newly elected Cook County
State's Attorney Kim Foxx, who said in a Tribune
interview that fighting gun violence is "our No. 1 issue"
and that her focus will be on targeting gun-trafficking
networks. She also plans to bring in a top New York
prosecutor and specialist in trafficking cases to set up a
new gun crimes unit.
Foxx said she wants to identify the most violent
criminaland is looking to forge partnerships with
academics to try to better understand the root of the gun
problem.
"We want to go after those who pull the trigger. We want
to make sure that they are held accountable, and we
also want to make sure that the next person who is
thinking about picking up a gun doesn't," Foxx said
Nina Vinik, program director for the Joyce Foundation's
Gun Violence Prevention Program, said policymakers also should be looking at laws that tighten regulation and
licensing of Illinois gun shops, where handguns can be
illegally obtained through straw purchases.
"There needs to be a focus on the sources of crime guns
that are flooding Chicago's streets," Vinik said. "Chicago
has an exponentially greater challenge with illegal guns
than LA or New York. There is no silver bullet. We need
to do lots and lots of different things. We need to reform
the Chicago Police Department and restore community
trust. But we also need to get our arms around our illegal
gun problem."
Absent from much of the rhetoric, experts say, is more
concrete research on the gun issue. There has been a
long-standing frustration in the public health community
that Congress does not fund research on gun violence
like other health epidemics, said Roberta Rakove, senior
vice president for Sinai Health Systems.
Just this December, however, a group of academics,
hospitals and public health researchers in Chicago
pledged to cooperate on new research on gun violence.
"Given the nature of the emergency here in Chicago, we
really couldn't wait," Rakove said.
In the Laquan McDonald case, the court-ordered release
in November 2015 of disturbing police dashboard
camera video showing white Officer Jason Van Dyke
shooting the black 17-year-old 16 times had a ripple
effect on police all year. Superintendent Garry McCarthy
was fired within days of the video's release, and the
Justice Department probe of police practices followed.
In the ensuing months, the department drew withering
criticism, especially for its failure over the decades to
properly punish officers for a wide range of misconduct,
including excessive force, as Tribune investigations
found. The misconduct damaged relations with the
public, which experts say makes it all the more difficult
for police to get the community's help in fighting crime.
Police: Morale still low, emboldening criminals and
contributing to violence
Officers, in turn, were stung by the unprecedented
scrutiny and public anger. In stories published in the
Tribune in 2016, officers described plunging morale, and
their more cautious approach on the street. The Tribune
found officers made fewer stops of citizens for
information, and fewer arrests. Some officers believe the
new scrutiny of police also emboldened criminals, now
more likely to carry guns and taunt officers, and
contributed to rising violence.
Whether any of this had an impact on crime is not
immediately clear. But Chicago police will have a better
chance of chipping away at the violence if the
department can make headway not only in restoring
community trust, but in steadying officers, said Anne
Kirkpatrick, who heads the department's Bureau of
Professional Standards.
"When officers are trained with the best practices and
constitutional policing ... they can be confident they are
staying within the boundaries," she said. "And when they
stay within the boundaries, they don't need to worry
about getting into trouble."
In September, the city scrapped the Independent Police
Review Authority, the agency charged with investigating
police misconduct, and announced a new board that
would have somewhat expanded powers and authority.
The Police Department has also proposed changes to its
policy regarding when officers can use force. The
department also launched two-day retraining that
emphasizes "de-escalation" tactics to try to reduce the
number of fatal confrontations, with aims to train its
entire force in a year.
More stories from Tribune series 'Chicago Violence:
A City Wounded'
Chicago police bought more Tasers to give officers more
options in potentially deadly confrontations. And it
expanded its use of body-worn cameras to improve
transparency. On Wednesday, the department
announced an accelerated rollout of the cameras, saying
all officers would be outfitted by the end of 2017.
Emanuel also has pledged he will add about 1,000 more
officers to the current count of some 12,000 sworn
department members. A Tribune examination of
department rosters last month, however, showed that
the city has some catching up to do when it comes to
manpower. The number of sworn officers has shrunk
approximately 7 percent over six years — including the
loss of about 600 officers since Emanuel took office in
2011.
The mayor has committed to creating a citizens'
oversight board to monitor the department, as other
cities across the country have done when faced with
intense criticism of police practices. Emanuel, though,
has yet to offer specifics on when that board would be
created, how it would be structured or whether he would
control a majority of its appointments.
Giving power to a strong citizen board will be the most
critical going forward.
"That is really important," said Samuel Sinyangwe,
co-founder of Campaign Zero, a national policy platform
that grew from the national concern over police-involved shootings of
citizens and now tracks and researches reform. "(From) the changes to
the strategies of the Police Department to ensuring the department is
behaving appropriately, that can only happen with strong community
oversight."
Over the decades in Chicago, the same communities that have suffered from pernicious poverty and
joblessness also have endured the highest rates of
violence. Last year was no different.
The largest increases in homicides occurred in five
communities — Englewood, West Englewood, New City,
Austin and West Garfield Park. More than 37 percent of
the population in those areas live below the poverty line,
compared with 23 percent citywide, according to the
Crime Lab draft report.