Essay Sample on Criminal Gangs: Police Dept. Fails to Deal with Challenge

Introduction

The challenge of criminal gangs affect many communities in united states; the police department has failed to manage the criminal gangs because they look for short term goal of dealing with the criminal gang whenever the gang has injured someone as opposed to finding a permanent solution. Arresting few gang members does not deal with the main challenge because young people that are left in the community replace the members that are arrested by the police. The elimination of gangs from the community can only be solved if the challenge that makes young men join criminal gangs is solved.

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The challenge of criminal gangs has to be dealt with in a holistic manner where the root cause is dealt with. The members of criminal gangs need to explain the motivational factors that make them join criminal gangs (Browning, Miller, & Spruance, 2018). As the head of the police unit, I will work with community groups that are committed to dealing with the issues where they identify potential gang members and empower the suspect to ensure that he does not fall into the trap of joining the criminal groups.

Empowering Communities to Tackle Gang Violence: Education, Intervention, and Prevention

Education initiatives need to be considered in helping the community deal with the ever-increasing gang cases in the community. The law needs to be enforced where all the students go to school because it has been found that the majority of criminal gangs are young people who should be attending school (Kelly, 2016). The school will keep them occupied; hence, they will not have the time to engage in criminal activities. In schools, children with bad behavior will also be disciplined by their teachers to have the right discipline. Education is an essential aspect of eliminating criminal gangs; young people also get the opportunity to learn about the dangers of engaging in criminal activities. As the end of police, I would work with the education stakeholders to ensure that all children access education.

Local Initiatives for Gang Eradication: Harnessing Community Engagement for Solutions

There are local initiatives that can also help in dealing with criminal gangs that attack people in the community. The local initiatives include encouraging police and community partnership to encourage the public to report the young people who have joined criminal gangs for action to be taken (Kelly, 2016). The community is the main stakeholders; hence, people need to play their role by reporting the members of the gang. The other local initiative entails collaborating with community readers to identify the motivation factors that is making young people join criminal gangs. Where the community identifies the main factor that is making young people join criminal gangs, the police can talk to the relevant government department to help the community deal with the challenge.

Supporting Youth Survivors of Violence: Psychological Aid and Long-Term Healing

The negative effects of violence on children can be lessened by giving them psychological support such as through counseling where the children are taught the skills of living with the experiences without revisiting the experience may times (Browning, Miller, & Spruance, 2018). The children can also be supported to get the medication in instances where they got injured during the violence. When the children are members of criminal gangs, and they get injured as they commit crimes, in most situations, they don't get any medication for fear of being arrested and attacked by the community. Many end up suffering and can even lead to death. The negative effects need to be dealt with early enough before the situations worsen.

Impact of Violent Video Games on Youth Behavior: Navigating the Link to Criminal Gangs

I believe that there should be a limitation on the violent video games that children are permitted to play because there is a close relationship between the video games and the character of the children (Kelly, 2016). Research has shown that children who get exposed to violent video games have higher chances of being violent when compared to children who do not play violent video games. The video game centers are where the children form groups that they use to attack the people. The groups formed to give the children the courage to carry out criminal and violent activities believing that they do not have personal responsibility for their actions.

The video games influence the mind of the children with negative violence things; hence, the children want to practice what they see (Browning, Miller, & Spruance, 2018). Children learn most from what they see than what they hear. The more they see violent scenes, the higher the likelihood of joining criminal gangs to practice what they have seen in violent video games. The video games make the children believe that its right to be violent.

Building Bridges for Sustainable Solutions: Community Policing and Gang Prevention

When dealing when the problem of increased gang violence, it is important to work together with the community in order to come up with a long term solution, as a police chief, you do not know the community like the members of the community. Working together with the members of the community helps in preventing resistance and the feeling that the police are targeting them. Engaging with the community is important in building community will and implementing their opinions on what might work as a solution to gang prevention in the community.

To come up with a long term solution, you need to establish the root cause of the increasing cases of gang recruitment and gang activities. A member of the community can only provide this information as he/she knows the families and the background of the people who are already involved in gang violence (Kelly, 2016). Without establishing the root cause, you will establish solutions that are only viable for a short time. To ensure that the strategies adopted are effective, the community is required to assist in ensuring that the families are strong as well as in the supervision of the youths. Both the parents, teachers, and the community should take the collective responsibility of guiding and managing disruptive behaviors among the youth.

Police play critical roles in the community policing as they collaborate with the community to solve the problem. For the community policing paradigm to work, the police need to listen more and provide feedback as well as being effective, accountable, and transparent. To maximize the effectiveness of community policing, the police lead in the formation of community policing forums whose objective is to identify problems and come up with suitable solutions. The community works together with the police to organize sensitization programs whose aim, in this case, is to encourage youths to keep off from gang violence.

Conclusion

The effectiveness of the gang reduction plan can be measured by establishing the number of reformed gang members after a certain time upon commencement of the program (Kelly, 2016). The community policing paradigm does not use coercion but rather consent and involvement of all stakeholders such as teachers and parents. The effectiveness of the plan will be measured by determining whether the recruitment of youth in the gang continues upon commencement of the program as well as by determining if the cases of gang violence are reducing.

References

Kelly, L. (2016). Moving in the Shadows: Violence in the lives of minority women and children. Routledge.

Browning, S. L., Miller, R. R., & Spruance, L. M. (2018). Criminal incarceration dividing the ties that bind: Black men and their families. In Impacts of incarceration on the African American family (pp. 87-102). Routledge.