Reducing The Gang Violence

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Over the past couple of years, Philadelphia has seen an increase in crimes committed. The city’s murder rate reached its highs not seen since the 1980s, according to the Philadelphia Police Department (Estrada). As a direct result, Philadelphia is now considered one of the most violent and dangerous cities in the U.S. More than three hundred fifteen people have been killed in gang related activities this year, a pace of well over a murder a day, police said; that's a higher rate, according to FBI statistics, than much larger cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York (Estrada). Majority of these criminal activities are due to, but not limited to, poverty and low employment opportunities in the urban areas of Philadelphia. A gang is most prevalently defined as being an age-graded peer group exhibiting some permanence and establishing a sense of boundaries through gang-identified territory, style, and such oppositional practices as fighting and criminal activity (Short & Hughes, 2006). Based on a study by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in 1997, approximately 86 percent of reported serious offenses were committed by gang members, although they constituted only 30 percent of the youth population (Pappas, 2001). The involvement of youth in violent gangs has increased over the decades, which has served to harm many underprivileged communities. The involvement of youngsters in violent gangs has increased over the years, which has served to hurt a lot of disadvantaged neighborhoods. The government can reduce gang violence by providing programs that will change youth’s intention to join gangs, by supporting a more accessible education for all, and, lastly, by creating jobs for teens as well as adults. It is very crucial to lessen the severeness of youth gang violence in order to build a significantly less dangerous environment, as gangs are mostly widespread in underprivileged residential areas, where there is low income, employment, and standards of living. In another study funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in Denver, gang members, who only made up 14 percent of the study, had committed approximately 43 percent of illegal drug sells and 55 percent of all street offenses (Pappas, 2001). The FBI tells us that there are now 1.4 million gang members involved in the 33,000 different gangs that are active inside the United States;  the number of gang members in the U.S. has increased by 40 percent since 2009 (FBI)

           Youth from the ages of eight to twenty-four join gangs for a variety of reasons, ranging from being protected from the dangers of their communities as well as for the sake of developing a sense of identity and belonging (Pappas, 2001). Because a sense of belonging, survival, as well as safety to each one of its members, government must not try to break up these gangs since it might escalate the problem instead of solving, but the government should try and change the intentions of the youth. The government can intervene by creating programs that aim at all youth, but it should not be just limited to youth. It should reach out to an entire community. Unlike in the past, today, teenagers join gangs for protection and glory. Most teenagers seek a sense of belonging, acceptance, and loyalty. Gangs offer a sense of identity and status to its members. If their family is not involved with their children, gangs become a substitute family to them. Most gang teenagers refer to their gang friends or partners as brothers or sisters, or use other family related labels to call each other. Because youth join gangs to acquire a sense of belonging, the government must directly intervene through appointing people to serve various communities. Removing youth gangs as a whole is not the key, as the key is to get involved and minimize the violence by getting gangs to get back to what they stood for initially, while being guided mainly by educators. As the function of the government is to protect the people and their legal rights, it is particularly important to develop preventative approaches to ensure the well-being and safety of the individuals. Many fail to understand that many gangs have formed simply because of the lack of the government to provide for minority communities in the past, thus ultimately influencing future gang members to provide for themselves during a time of great injustice (Davis, Dylan, Halsted, Murphy, & Paralta, 2008). As a direct consequence of this, several brotherhoods have united in order to pull through, as gang associates are extremely loyal to each other. For that reason, no one should have the right to separate them, because of the fact that most youth gang members need this support.

Education is primarily the core of the movement of reducing and minimizing youth gang violence. In a study in Milwaukee, through which forty-seven gang members were interviewed, all forty-seven had dropped out or had been kicked out of school. In addition, a 1987 study in Florida estimated that approximately 80 percent of gang members were high school dropouts (Spergel, 1995). Quite a few of the ex-gang participants surveyed informed how they were not encouraged enough at home or school. This only presents more reasoning as to why the government ought to build programs to assist educators in changing the mindset in students. Due to creating programs for youth gang violence prevention, the government will need to aim at getting educators to go into the communities to teach and educate those who are likely prone to youth gang violence. For implementing this, the government should have the income of these educators supplemented for the risks they are taking. Through offering some form of housing in the middle of these neighborhoods, educators should provide services to the communities and monitor their students, consequently establishing some type of positive connection and niche in which they may well examine the dangerous outcomes certain affiliations may possibly have on their future. At the end of the day, a child’s teachers may possibly have a powerful influence on their future success.

Outside of institutionalized environments, it is extremely crucial that the government creates more options as well as opportunities for the unemployed. As gangs are mainly situated in jobless regions, where individuals rely on unlawful methods of income, such as selling drugs for profit, it is really important that the government creates more programs to assist these communities succeed. In this way, there need to be more paths in life, instead of pressuring young children to think that they have to attain a higher education if they want to be successful in life. As opposed to exclusively adhering to one particular path, there should be a wide range of options for individuals who have skills and talents. Although it is very good to encourage education as another option out of poverty and violence, the government really should create other possibilities as opposed to forcing individuals to be absolutely dependent on formal education, such as college or university. In doing this, the government should create more talent and skill related work opportunities in a wide variety of career fields such as woodwork, mechanic or technician, and inspire individuals to be more creative on a journey to discover their real abilities and interests. As opposed to rushing students through different classes such as Mathematics and Science, educational institutions should exert their best initiatives to get students to discover their passions, regardless of whether they are academic or non-academic. Subsequently learners developing interests and adhering to their passions with the motivation of their instructors, they might be able to congregate and develop some sense of belonging with individuals who share the same interests. It will also encourage them to work towards personal goals and ambitions, rather than restricting themselves to falling victim to the legal justice system or even death. This may also function to motivate kids as they build self confidence that they may be successful in something, whether it is Physics or auto mechanics.

Although the first gangs were formed for discriminated African Americans, today they are different. Gangs have become a way of illegitimately acquiring goods through criminal activities. Gang violence, especially in Philadelphia, is indeed on the rise. There are several factors that led to it. Now that the economy is worsening, new gangs are being formed and more crimes are being committed. And, nowadays, most of the parents are very busy with work that they do not even realize what their teens are involved in. Gang violence in Philadelphia will be impossible to prevent in the future if it continues to increase at this rate. Some experts have predicted that the coming storm of gang violence "will be more brutal than anything Americans have ever confronted" ("Nation").