Essay on the Risk of Youth Involving in Gang Membership

People, majorly youths join gangs because of the push and pull aspects. The pulls refer to the appeal of a given gang, namely the thought of high reputation and social status, the urge to be with people and or family who are already in the gangs. Also, the promise of monetary rewards from selling drugs and other sources of making money, and or delight, and social ego and the idea of being identified with where one comes from (neighborhood). The aspects of social, economic and cultural influences push several of the youths in getting involved with gangs. To some of the youths, being a gang member provides the means of getting solutions to the social adjustment challenges.

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The risk issues of being a gang member are grouped into five aspects: personal, family, school, peer, and neighborhood/society. According to the National Gang Center, Studies show that there is no single risk cause accountable for one to join a given gang. Instead, it is the accumulation of several risk reasons across various scopes that extensively maximize gang memberships. As a result, in another term, being a member of a gang is does nor narrow down to one risk factor, such as single-parenthood. This is because some adolescents with risk factors may not be members of a gang, and some of these adolescents without the risk aspects may become members. It is extensively profitable, then, to evaluate (and ultimately publicize) the collection of risk factors across the five social platforms to counter gang membership. The anticipations for joining a gang, is to get protection. Regardless of this anticipated advantage, not only does it emerge to become ironical but also paradoxical that the danger and rate of getting victimized after joining a gang greatly increases.

Studies pertaining to being gang members shows that the dangers of being a gang member overshadow the benefits of just getting protection and money from a gang Sanders, 2012, p. 983). Evidence on the issue offers a compelling enlightenment that the cause of the danger of violence is qualitatively different (such as from a rival gang) while a gang member, which people consciously recognize as being more foreseeable and controllable, and as a result preferable. For the people who have been involved with being gang members for a long time, have negatively affected people rightly after seizing to be gang members. Gormally (2014) asserts that, Being a gang member for long has resulted in school dropouts, youth parenthood, and lack of unsteady employment. This is in addition to higher dangers of getting arrested and lowers the chances of a successful shift from adolescent to being a parent (p. 151). Studies have further shown that being a gang member in the youth stage relates to health concerns like drug abuse, bad mental condition during adult periods (Levitt & Vankatesh, 2001). Consequently, long-term membership in a gang pertains to a toll that exceeds times of being an active member.

Age is a key issue in getting to a gang. Most of the members of a gang are recruited a young age of between 13-18 years. This is because this category of people is easy to manipulate and not hard to suspect. Nonetheless, there are recruits from the age of between 21-23 years of age. This is people who have established their names as drug dealers in their own individual ways and thus they can get recruited by a given gang to avoid competition. There is a category of youths who are susceptible to being gang members. The reason for being members vary from culture to the gang in context. As stated, gangs can be seen by this youth as a replacement for their family units to offer protection especially if a youth comes from a violent family. Nonetheless, this category perceives gangs to offer a means of survival. The influence of the popular culture escalates the chance of some adolescents joining gangs because to them, being a ringleader in a gang is seen as being a hero and thus they desire to chase and get such an acceptance.

Gangs expand their territories everywhere since getting new members are not aware of their intuitions. They recruit students and attempt their friends with the deception that they will solve their problems and guard them against school teachers and family members. (Melde & Esbensen, 2011, p. 536)The targeted recruits are given a history of the gang operations to persuade them; telling them they do not require school education and since students are naive, they accrue interest. They are showered with luxury materials such as shoes and designer clothes, money and much more. This is least they know their commitment to the gang would entail criminal and violent activities.

The expectation that a gang has towards a member is consistent throughout the other types of gangs. The expectations include:

Do not tell the gang crew about the objectives and the future plans. The gang will not be pleased with a member going in the wrong direction. As a gang member it is expected that one should be optimistic about the goals and be selfless.

One should make individual choices. Rights are and should not be given to gang members on whether they will tell you how to act and what one should do. That should be individual decision

A gang member should not resort to stealing drugs from the crews coffers. This might ruin ones career and a persons life.

One should do some good things to get and earn respect from the gang crew.

To conclude, this work has offered and timely yet worrying revelations about the aspects of gang membership. Youths are at a high risk of getting themselves involved in such activities and thus, it calls on the society, the authorities, and fellow peers to create awareness on the dangers of getting in gangs as getting involved poses more threats and danger into life than the anticipated benefits.

References

"Frequently Asked Questions about Gangs". Nationalgangcenter.gov. N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

Gormally, S. (2014). 'I've Been There, Done That...: A Study of Youth Gang Desistance. Youth Justice, 15(2), 148-165.

BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 1033 Levitt, S.D., & Vankatesh, S.A. (2001). An Analysis of the Long-Run Consequences of Gang Involvement. Cambridge: Havard University.

Melde, C., Esbensen. F.A.. (2011). Gang membership as a turning point in the life course. Criminology, 513-552.

Sanders, B. (2012). Gang youth, substance use patterns, and drug normalization. Journal Of Youth Studies, 15(8), 978-994.