If you have concerns that your child is involved in a gang, it is important to discuss it with them. Confronting a child who is suspected of gang activity is not easy. Parents and children may fear gang retaliation. They may worry about giving up protection or money that they receive because of their child's gang involvement.
Parents may have to deal with the legal consequences of their child's past behavior. However it is important to be involved to protect your child from drugs, violence and criminal activity. If you suspect your child is involved in gang activity, look to agencies in your community for help. You can involve your child in other activities and limit unstructured time. Many street gang members carry on a family tradition established by siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, or cousins who they see as role models.
Lack of alternatives. Few job opportunities, no positive recreational choices, or lack of effective responses to peer pressure can create a climate favouring gang membership. Few recreational opportunities. Many teens and youngsters do not have any interests outside of school. Joining a gang provides friends with whom they can share their free time. Need for money. The monetary allure of gang membership is difficult to counteract. Gang members share profits from drug trafficking and other illegal activities.
To a teen, money translates into social status. Many people are without jobs or a source of income. Becoming a gang member can provide a teen with an opportunity to make large amounts money quickly, because many gangs are involved in the illegal sale of drugs and firearms. Lack of educational opportunities.
Many kids feel that time spent in school is wasted. In addition, individuals who belong to gangs often dress alike by wearing clothing of the same color, wearing bandannas, or even rolling up their pant legs in a certain way. Some gang members wear certain designer labels to show their gang affiliation. Gang members often have tattoos. Also, because gang violence frequently is glorified in rap music, young people involved in gangs often try to imitate the dress and actions of rap artists.
Finally, because substance abuse is often a characteristic of gang members, young people involved in gang activity may exhibit signs of drug or alcohol use.
For more information on illicit drugs check out our web site at: www. Call to request NDIC products. N ational Drug Intelligence Center. Product No. January W hat is the relation between drugs and gangs? By: Ed Grabianowski Updated: Apr 9, Gang violence is a problem in every major city in the United States and membership is on the rise. According to the Department of Justice's National Gang Threat Assessment, there are at least 21, gangs and more than , active gang members. Gathering accurate statistics on gangs and gang membership is difficult for a number of reasons.
Gangs obviously don't keep official records of their membership. Some people hang out with gang members, but aren't actually in a gang themselves. If someone "runs with" a gang, but hasn't been initiated yet, is that person a member? Who do you count when compiling your statistics?
It's also important to consider the source of the data. If a police officer asks a gang member, "Are you in a gang? Some youths may claim gang membership around other teens to seem tough, and gangs might inflate membership numbers to make their gang seem more powerful. Police departments don't always report gang statistics accurately, either.
Federal grants for fighting gang violence can give departments incentive to exaggerate gang numbers, while some departments deny having any gang problems at all to appease the public. They estimated that 49 percent of gang members were Hispanic, 37 percent were black, 8 percent white, 5 percent Asian and 1 percent had another ethnicity.
They also found that gang membership is not as prevalent among youth as some fear — between 1 and 2 percent of children ages 10 to 17 were gang members, although the percentage spikes when only "at-risk" youth are counted. Those that did join gangs didn't stay long, with the majority remaining in the gang for less than a year.
There are many possible reasons for someone to join a gang, but four primary reasons seem to describe those of most gang members:.
Drug use is an underlying factor in all of these reasons. Not only does the sale of illegal drugs drive the profits of street gangs, they also create many of the conditions that lead to gang membership. Criminal gangs have certainly been around as long as crime itself — it doesn't take a criminal mastermind to realize there is strength in numbers. The urbanization that accompanied the Industrial Revolution gave rise to the modern street gang. New York City was the epicenter of gang activity in America in the 19th century.
Poor sections of the city, such as the Five Points, provided a fertile ground for gangs with strong ethnic identities, usually Irish. Gangs based on Polish, Italian or other ethnicities were also common. The Forty Thieves, Shirt Tails and Plug Uglies fought over territory, robbed and mugged people and sometimes united to fight against gangs from other areas of the city, such as the waterfront and the Bowery district. Gang activity gradually increased in the 20th century.
Through the s and 60s, most gangs were in large cities, although nearby towns and suburbs might have hosted offshoot gangs if they were connected via major highways. Gangs with European ethnicity had all but disappeared, and gangs became almost exclusively black or Hispanic in their membership [ ref ].
In the s and '80s, narcotic drugs became more prevalent on the streets. Firearms also became easier to buy illegally.
This combination made joining a street gang both more lucrative and more violent. Overall, gang activity peaked in the mids [ref]. Some of the most notorious gangs in the United States are the Crips and the Bloods. The Crips began in Los Angeles in the late 60s, partially in response to the activities of other gangs in their East L. As the gang grew in power, smaller gangs joined them until Crips-affiliated gangs dominated the city.
The Bloods formed in response, as the smaller non-Crip gangs sought their own power base. The Crip-Blood rivalry is vicious and never-ending, but internal strife between different "sets" within each gang has probably resulted in more murders that the feud itself [ ref ].
Today, both gangs have "franchise" gangs operating out of cities across the country. Starting out as smaller gangs, each attracted members, established control over large sections of the city and developed a fierce rivalry. The Lords and the Disciples are part of larger gang coalitions known as the People Nation and the Folk Nation, respectively. The influence of both gangs has spread to nearby cities. The brutal truth of gang life is that the only way most gang members leave the gang is in a body bag.
Some do manage to move on to a better, peaceful life. It might be because they reach a level of maturity that allows them to see the dangers of gang life in a different light. If they have family or get a good job and a home, they want to protect those things.
There are three major types of street gangs, each defined by factors such as prerequisites for inclusion, location or gang activities:.
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