A gang
Definition
A gang is defined by an association of friends or family members with a structured leadership operating on a course within a deafened territory. It is also considered as an internal organization working within a controlled area within a community engaging on an individual or collective illegal activities, behaviors, or violence. Joining a gang group varies across the gang groups. In some cases, members are “jumped in” or initiated voluntary membership or by force. Nonetheless, new members are often subjected to some ritual like activities to prove their loyalty, or they are asked to commit specific acts that in most cases, can either be violence or crime.
History
The history of the gang in the United States can be traced way back in 1783 after the American Revolution. The first gang activities were on the Americas East Coast. The gang activities emerged following massive immigration of population from rural areas to urban centers. The 40 Thieves was America’s first street gang whose activities were detected in New York City in the late 1820s. It operated massively in Washington D.C. taking full control in the Murder Bay region in what is currently known as the Federal Triangle. By the1920s, there were over one thousand gangs in Chicago. These gangs were associated with numerous criminal activities. However, they never profited from drugs trafficking until the drug was illegalized by the 1919 Volstead Act and the 1912 International Opium Convention. Increased involvement of gangs in drug trafficking was realized between the 1970s and 1980s; however, many gang groups never showed tremendous interest in the drug trade. Plug Uglies and Shirt Tails later emerged within the areas of New York City. Other than immigration, poverty, and ethnicity are also listed as other major gang emergence factors in the United States. The poor white immigrants from Europe with economic challenges resorting into gangs to find means of survival since they had no marketable skills.
With a small beginning, the gang activities proliferated in the 20th century with the peak occurring between the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, gang activities spread in large cities, suburbs, and nearby towns. By this period, the gangs with European origin had disappeared, leaving the gang groups exclusively Hispanic or blacks in membership. Gang criminal activities and hostility grew as they fought over territory control, mugged, and robbed people. In the 1970s and 1980s, the narcotic drug trafficking increased on the America streets; thus, leading to the emergence of more gangs and gang conflicts fueled by the increasing demand for control of territories led to the acquisition of illegal guns. Drug trafficking and use of weapon made the gang membership more violent and more lucrative. The use of guns escalated the gang activities in the mid-1990s.
The Bloods and the Crips are the most notorious gangs in America’s history. The Crips started its operations in Los Angeles towards the end of 1960. It was formed partly to respond to gang activities around East L.A. neighborhoods. Crip growth in power and influence, thereby making other smaller to join it until it dominated L.A. City. The Bloods gang was formed by smaller gangs that never joined Crip. The Crip and Bloods had a vicious rivalry with never-ending violence. However, the internal fights within them led to more deaths than the engagement between the two gangs. These two gangs are still operational in contemporary American society. They have franchised their operations in the cities across the United States. The establishments and formations of the Gangster Disciples and the Vice Lords in Chicago have similar historical patterns as for the Crips and Blood gangs. They also started as smaller gangs that later attracted members and establishing into dreadful gangs that control large sections of territories and advancing fierce rivalry. The Disciples and the Lords are portions of gang coalitions referred to the Folk Nation and the People Nation, respectively. Their influences have spread to other cities that border their headquarters.
Types of Street Gangs and Gang Membership
There are significant street gangs that exist in contemporary society, including the ethnic, turf, and prison gangs. The differences of these gangs are pegged on their locations of operation, gang activities, and the prerequisite for inclusion. The ethnic gangs are defined by race or ethnicity of its members. Some gangs in this category are defined or formed by what they hate. For instance, the Neo-Nazi gangs, white supremacist gang, and skinhead gang united because they all hated the Jews, Blacks, non-protestants, and Hispanics.
The turf gangs are defined by territories they control. Their members may be drawn from the same ethnicity by virtue that the neighborhood it’s formed is made up of people from the same ethnic definition or because of ethnic homogeneity. The turf gangs usually draw their names from the areas they control, such as the East Side Cobra or the 10th street Gang. If members of another turf gang stray into the territory of another gang, the penalty is a proper beating of the strayed member or death. Such actions often lead to deadly turf wars and rivalry between the affected gangs. The turf gangs have their ways of recruitment of members, including hierarchies and initiation practices such as hand signs and tattoos, among others.
The prison gang is conceptualized when a gang member is imprisoned. When a gang member is taken to prison, the member does not relinquish his gang membership. Consequently, street gangs often extend their gang activities, including crimes, fights, and rivalry into the prison walls. Therefore, when such gang members are released into the streets, they get back into the gang activities just like before the imprisonment. The prison gang members require that the person seeking to join should have been imprisoned once and are harsh and brutal. Hence, imprisoning a young gang member is equivalent to sending him to criminal college.
Youths and the Gangs Groups
Gangs often attract young people. The young age in the society is usually impressed by the respect and money that older gang members command. In most cases, young people who are attracted to gangs are those who hang around gang members. Their relationships with these members of the groups make them learn the activities of the gang. The most vulnerable youths are those around the age of 10 and 11 years. In most cases, the gangs recruit children within this age bracket intentionally to use them to distribute drugs and carry weapons among other crimes since children attract less attention from security apparatus. Moreover, if a child is caught, he is likely to serve shorter sentences or fewer years in juvenile detention centers compared to an adult gang member.
All new members, regardless of the age, join a gang through different forms of initiations. Gang initiations do not culminate with formalities or celebrations; however, the new member must undertake certain rites. Most gangs admit new members through “jumping in” admission. The “jumping in” is sometimes characterized by the new member being beaten by all members of the gang. The new female gang members are sometimes initiated by being raped. Alternatively, instead of “jumping in,” the new members are sometimes asked to participate in missions that may include fighting a rival gang or committing a crime. Some gangs do not regard the newly initiated member fully until they shall have killed or shot someone. Some new gang members are recruited through branding by a tattoo with a gang symbol. Notably, every gang has its ways of initiating a new member. The new member may be subjected into one or all of the possible initiation rites, depending on the gang.
The street gangs have a rough hierarchy that is defined by the experience of the gang members. Some of the experience of a gang member may cut across the jail period, and the nature and number of crime one have committed — the more the participation, the high the respect accorded. However, gangs use age to divide among the gang members into groups, including the younger initiates, junior groups, and the senior groups. The top category is bound to oversee the activities of the younger groups. Originally, female gang groups never existed. The female gangs that existed were affiliate gang groups that were formed by girlfriends of gang members as a show of respect and loyalty to the parent gangs of their boyfriends. However, female gangs have since gained autonomy, and they are rising rapidly. The contemporary female gangs are formed with pure women, and they are now fighting the male gangs for territories and respect. Most female gangs, just like male gangs, are currently accepting gang members regardless of gender and race.
Gang Activities
The daily activities of gang members are never exciting. In most cases, they often sleep late, drink all sorts of alcohol, doing drugs, just sitting around the neighborhoods, and have frequent or daily evening meetings. Their work may involve selling drugs in the street corners, theft, or committing petty crimes such as vandalism. The urge to be respected is the most dangerous element that misleads them completely. They also engage in criminal activities such as gang assault, assassination, and shootings. They engage in these activities for money, pride, turf, or revenge. Many gang members believe that gaining respect among all the gang members means a reward after committing the most violent crimes.
Gang members usually tread carefully not to be identified by other gangs or members of society. However, they often have some means of identifying or communicating with each other. For instance, they may dress on a gang’s color. For example, the Vice Lords is synonymous to gold and black wears, while Bloods vs. Crips is known as “Red vs. Blue.” They also mark their territories with graffiti of their color and displaying their gang symbols. Gangs that intend to wedge war with another gang can intentionally mark the territory of their intended gang with their graffiti and symbols or deface the symbol of another gang. Such actions usually lead to retributions of violence and fierce wars between the affected gangs. Other than the graffiti symbols, gangs also have elaborate hands signs associated with a specific gang. They also explore and practice numerous ways of displaying loyalty to the gang. Some of these signs include the “C-Walk” pattern employed by members of the Crips gang.
Reasons for Joining a Gang Group
Young people have varied reasons for joining gangs. Some people join gang groups to gain from the proceeds of gang’s organized crimes while some youth become members of a gang group to find life necessities, including shelter and food. Others become members to live a luxurious life. Some young people, as well as adults, join gangs to seek protection from violent crime or other gangs. Some seek protection from disturbances from the police. Some are born gangs and find themselves belonging to a gang because of their family background and family traditions. Other sets of youth often join gangs through motivations from live gang members and peer pressure as well as because of the excitement of taking high risk.
The risk factor is noted to be the highest reason for youths to join gangs. Most of these risk factors are pegged on family life, including family instability, poverty, violence, and minimal parental supervision. Victims of abuse are more likely to join a gang group and also influence other family members and friend to enter. Socially marginalized groups, including minorities and ethnically marginalized individuals, are prone to joining a gang group. Academic frustrations, low esteem, hyperactive, learning disabilities, little expectation, lack of employment, and lack of role model are additional factors that are likely to compel youths from joining a gang group. Early sexual engagements and ownership of illegal gun are also driving factors among the children from joining gangs.
The Anti-Gang Initiatives
The FBI is committed to dismantling and disrupting the most influence gangs in the United States and across borders. The FBI has adopted intelligence driven investigations and partnerships to identify gang activities and gang members. Some of the FBI initiatives include the formation of task forces to investigate the activities of different gangs and their members. The FBI has three main anti-gang task forces that include the safe streets, National gang intelligence, and transitional anti-gang.
The FBI created the National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) through the act of Congress to help it handle the gangs and their related criminal activities. The center was established in 2005. It has integrated gang intelligence across the United States. Its integrated services are operational at local, states, and federal levels. The centers act as points of investigating gang activities and gang members. They also monitor their growth, criminal activities, migrations, and gang associations. The FBI National Gang Intelligence centers support law enforcement agencies by sharing with them timely and accurate information regarding the gangs’ activities. The center also provides intelligence analysis on gang-related crimes and actions. The NGIC identifies gangs whose activities, involvements and collaborations pose the greatest danger to American and America. Nonetheless, all gang groups already identified are usually subjected to investigative resources and investigative techniques targeting organized crimes.
The 18th Street gangs and the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) have continued to expand their activities and influence across the United States. The FBI investigations have revealed that the events of the transnational gangs have spread to nearly all the state in the United States. The FBI is further concerned that the activities and influence of these gangs continue to grow, including their membership growth by targeting young recruits. The FBI formed the Transnational Anti-Gang (TAG) Task Force Initiative to counteract the activities and growth of the transnational gangs operating within the United States. The TAG task forces investigating, thwarting activities, and arresting the multinational gang members have their bases in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
The programs and missions of the task forces are to investigate, dismantle, and disrupt the activities of the transnational gangs, particularly in the three Central American countries. The multinational task forces also disseminate intelligence to help the United States based investigations. The FBI usually collaborate their gang investigation activities with state or nations within which the targeted gangs operate. In most cases, the FBI identifies and examines gang groups, cliques, and members as well as their operation areas and their leadership structures. For that 18th street and the Ms-13 gangs, the investigative task forces have worked collaboratively with international and national investigative agencies.
The police use gang intelligence for prevention, intervention, suppression, and assessment of gang activities. Prevention services, events, or programs are usually designed to prevent citizens from joining the gang groups. Prevention measures often target young people. Situational prevention measures focus on situations that facilitate gang activities or crime. They target specific offenders or gang members has opposed to entire gang. The situational gang prevention programs also address opportunistic and environmental factors that may drive an individual, particularly youths, into joining a gang group.
The gang intelligence can also be used for interventions seeking to draw close associates and gang members away from the gang lifestyle. The intervention intelligence programs involve the law enforcement agencies coordinating faith-based or community-based programs aimed at educating the vulnerable youths. Some intervention programs are community service and job training based. The programs are aimed at providing incentives to members to quit the gang families. They also hold members who refuse to leave responsible for criminal activities and continued delinquent.
Gang intelligence is also used for suppression of gang criminal activities. Gang suppression involves a range of broadly defined criminal justice activities, including prosecution, probation, law enforcement, and parole focus. In most cases, law enforcement agencies focus the resources on limiting gang illegal activities. Some of the suppression tactics applied by the police include sharing the intelligence information about the gang to all law enforcers, correction facilities, and criminal justice actors. Targeting and Apprehending chronic and severe gang crime offenders as well as using local ordinances or gang injunctions are used to suppress the association of the gang members. Law enforcers also prosecute gang offenders as a means of suppressing gang crime and gang-related activities. Gangs are also suppressed through prosecutions of the gang members or the gang offenders through enhanced sentencing, conspiracy statutes, and vertical proceedings.
Gangs have remained a security threat to the United States; thus, elaborate and comprehensive anti-gangs initiatives are vital in controlling gangs’ activities and combating gang crimes. Consequently, there are needs to assess problems or socioeconomic and environmental conditions that are likely to contribute to gang activities. Gang assessment is vital in planning and initiating anti-gang programs to the gangs, gang members, and the vulnerable youths among other community members. Having the correct information about gangs and effective anti-gang programs is the only way to combat gangs and their criminal activities in the United States.