What are gangs?

“Gang’is defined in general as a group of persons working together’ but in this essay the definition ‘organized group of criminals in the United States’is chosen. In every major city of the US gang violence is a problem. Gang violence is responsible­ for roughly half of all ­­homicides.

 Types of gangs

There several types of gangs like motorcycle clubs, national street gangs, local street gangs, prison gangs and ethnic and organized crime gangs. You find gangs mostly in poor sections of big cities.

There exist three major types of street gangs: ethnic gangs, turf gangs and prison gangs. They are defined by aspects as the reason why the members get involved, location or gang activities.

In ethnic gangs the nationality or race of the gang members define the gang. But it can also be the other way round. Gang members find each other and unite in their hate for another ethnic group. White supremacist gangs (man believing in male superiority, anti-feminist), Neo-Nazi gangs and skinhead gangs (close-shaven hair and often stand up for white-supremacist beliefs) unite because of their hatred for other ethnic groups like Jews, blacks, Hispanics and non-Protestant Christians

Turf gangs mostly are defined by the territory that the gang controls. Usually the gang members live together within a certain neighborhood. Sometimes they share a common ethnicity but not necessarily. As a neighborhood has a certain ethnic uniformity you will find this back in the composition of the gang. The names of the gangs refer usually to the neighborhood they live in and control.

Prison gangs When gang members go to prison, they often continue with their gang membership. Street gangs continue to exist. Inside prison walls they fight other gangs. There are also some gangs that start in prison.

Why people are joining street gangs

There are different reasons why people join gangs. Poverty  is one of them. People can become gang members because of poverty.  Someone who cannot earn enough money with a legal job and has a lack of  money could turn to crime. They want to profit from the organized crime then. Many gangs are like moneymaking companies. Gang members can earn quite a large amounts of money by committing crimes and dealing with drugs. This is one of the explanations but not everyone who is poor joins a gang and not every gang member was poor when he joined the gang.

Members of gangs are often quite young. Gangs recruit on purpose youngsters. Teenagers are easier to influence than adults. Gangs make use of peer pressure. Youngsters often react very sensitive to peer pressure. Youngsters who live in a gang-dominated neighborhood are most likely to join a gang of their area. Also if they go to a school wherein gangs are strongly present, they tend to join a gang as many of their friend are involved already and because they are afraid of loosing all their friends. Teenagers often don’t realize that gang membership brings harm. But there are also enough teenagers who are able to resist and who don’t follow the crowd.

Teenagers of poorer neighborhoods tend to join a gang of their area because of boredom. Some even form their own gangs. For them gang membership is entertaining because they can’t entertain themselves. Many communities have tried to give kids something to do to avoid gang membership. To keep kids off the streets they offer sports, dances, tournaments and other youth outreach programs. Luckily there are 10 teenagers who find a productive and positive manner to spend their time in opposite of 1 teenager who gets bored and joins a gang.

Despair and search for belonging. You can find despair where people have lived in poverty for generations. Youngsters who a raised in this environment often have no hope to get a better life, a better education, find a decent job or get out of their neighbourhood. In many cases their parents are addicts or don’t care what their children are doing, some even approve their childrens’ gang membership because they often have been a member of the same gang in the past. For these kids gang membership can give a sense of belonging somewhere and being a part of something that is important. The gang can feel like the only real family for them.

Another reason people join a gang is to seek protection from violent crime in general or from rival gangs.

Why are street gangs so dangerous?

Gangs can be very dangerous to the people around them but also especially to their own members. Because junior gang members lack a criminal record they often get forced by the gang leaders to do dangerous tasks. Gang leaders usually have an extensive police record illegal behavior. Junior gang members are often tested or forced into doing dangerous tasks because they lack a criminal record.

In the beginning when someone has chosen to join the gang you may be given tasks that seem to be ‘safe’. But after that the situations become more and more dangerous over time and get you more and more into trouble.

The first task you get can seem to be a small violation of the law but after doing it they can always blackmail you with it.

Getting caught by the police, the violence from other gangs when they catch you or violence of your own gang members towards you make that you live a life in fear every day.

Conviction of crime will put you in jail for quite a time. The gang is able to force you in certain situations to choose the gang above your family or friends. Violence is seen as normal and encouraged in gangs — you may be pushed into hurting others or even worse. So, think twice before joining!