YOUTH GANGS
Youth Gangs
Youth gangs are defined as an organized group of adolescents who are reliant on violence and group intimidation, and commit criminal acts to gain power and recognition from the public. Youth who aspire to become criminals join gangs for the purposes of connections in the criminal world, as well as protection from either freelance criminals or other gangs. These gangs demand loyalty from their members and some can have brutal initiation processes such as getting beat up by the whole gang before one becomes a member, or murdering a rival gang member to see how loyal and committed their new gang member is to their cause. Gangs can form for a multitude of reasons, yet the most common is that the environment they live in offers very little opportunities for them to be successful in life, and as a result will join a gang and turn to a life of crime to help succeed in life financially. The three main types of gangs that come from these type on environments are criminal gangs, conflict gangs and retreatist gangs. Criminal gangs are most likely to form in the inner-city communities suffering from poverty, and they incorporate members of all ages to contribute to the gang. The youth are recruited early into these gangs as they need to gain experience and develop their “street-smarts” so that they can become reliable members from an early age. Conflict gangs are extremely dangerous and thrive off of the violence that they commit onto other gangs. These types of gangs will not hesitate to harm or murder others in order to gain status and respect. These are the types of gangs most frequently reported on the news, as by showing these violent criminals is the most effective way to create moral panics about gangs. These gangs don’t recruit youth members as much as the criminal gangs do because it is extremely dangerous, and just by joining these gangs one could be putting a target on their back that their rivals will try and hit. Retreatist gangs hustle and peddle their way to financial success with a relatively small membership. At-risk youth are perfect in terms of recruitment for these gangs because a police officer is less likely to suspect a minor carrying and delivering drugs and for the most part isn’t as violent as the other two types of gangs.
Loeber’s Theory
For an at-risk youth, there are many reasons for one to get involved with gangs and crime with the most obvious one being financial. It would be easy to say that money is sole reason why every single member of a gang has joined, however Rolf Loeber has identified three different paths that young people take that leads directly into a life of crime. The first of Loeber’s paths is the “authority conflict”, as the youth in this category are described as “stubborn” and act out at school or with their parents due to them having issues with others holding authority over them. Loeber’s second path is called the “covert pathway” and entails youth who’s minor deviant behaviour flies under the radar until it eventually builds up and results in property damage, such as breaking and entering or theft, possibly leading to more serious criminal offences. Property damage has been chosen for this path as it is the most common crime committed by youth offenders, making up for 51% of all youth crimes. The third path is called the “overt pathway”, dealing with children that are hyper-aggressive leading to violent acts, with the more violent they become increasing the amount of aggressive behaviour and actions.
Developmental Theory of Crime
Terrie Moffitt’s developmental theory of crime attempts to explain why the the crime rate curve difference between youth and adults. Moffitt’s theory only has two paths and mainly focuses on adolescents prior to adulthood, and not at children during their main developmental stages. The categories are “adolescent-limited offenders” and “life-course persisters”. Adolescent-limited offenders describes the majority of offenders who show peak levels of their anti-social behaviour, before maturing into adulthood where that behaviour diminishes, while life-course persisters hang on to this anti-social behaviour and continue to exhibit it into their adulthood. This begs the question as to why they are different from others. Factors such as dysfunctional families combined with problems neurologically may lead to these individuals being predisposed to their anti-social behaviour. The pseudomaturity of certain individuals, meaning the fast rate that they had to mature plays in to a higher chance that they might be exhibiting anti-social behaviour after they have fully matured.
Life Course Theory
This theory looks at what factors have effects on youth becoming criminals that are planted in them early in life. Early onset individuals live in households with poor parenting, making them much more likely to become criminals than those with good parents, as the bad parenting leads to them exhibiting deviant behaviours. These deviant behaviours eventually lead to seeking out other individuals who show deviant behaviours, where they get involved in groups of delinquent youth, or a youth gang. Late starters are also subjected to bad parenting, causing the late starter to begin identifying with the mindset and behaviours of delinquent youth groups where they start engaging in deviant behaviour. If the late starter can avoid becoming acquainted with their deviant peers, then their involvement in criminal activity will not begin. In the Life Course theory, bad parenting is the common denominator, showing how much of an effect a parent’s nurturing has on youth in general. It can be the difference maker in a child’s life, as if they don’t receive adequate parenting they could spend their entire life in jail.
Racialization of Youth Gangs
An issue within the media regarding youth gangs is the overuse of racial terms when describing gangs, as when reporting on gang activities the race of the majority of members are extremely likely to be mentioned in the report, except when the gangs are mostly comprised of caucasian youth. It is quite common to hear “Mexican gang” or “Black gang” during news broadcasts about gang violence, however it if was a white gang there would be no mention of any racial or ethnic markers. The racialization of gangs in the media dates back to the eighties and nineties, as Asian and Latin gangs were prevalent in that society and was an attempt to create a moral panic about minority gangs and the dangers they held to society, even though gangs with white members held similar dangers as well. The moral panic created by the media has backfired, as the youth back then saw how powerful these gangs were made out to be, giving those who wanted power and respect an avenue into the criminal lifestyle.
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