Gang Crime: America's Growing Problem - Essay Sample

Introduction

Criminal gangs increase rapidly in various states in America. Chicago is currently the state with the leading number of gang-related crimes. Predominant street-crimes arising from gang activities include kidnapping and extortion, drug trafficking, robbery, and theft. Some of the measures that the police take to deal with gang-related crimes involve regular patrols in the streets, apprehension, and locking gangs in correctional facilities. However, these methods have not been effective in curbing the vice as gang crimes such as drug trafficking and coordination of kidnappings extend in and out of the prison system. The situation thus calls for long-term solutions plans and intervention mechanisms to deal with gang-related criminal activities.

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Gang-Related Crimes: Patterns and Trends

The long-term remedy for gang crime is a collective responsibility of the parents, community, and the police department. The three serves as critical pillars in the foundation of successful wars on the rise and growth of criminal gangs and their related evils in society. Hence, the plan to address gang problems involves bringing the three together and work on the issue collectively. The most effective way to deal with gang problems is focusing on children and young adults who are at their early stages of mental and emotional development, and prone to gang activities. The parents, teachers, and the community, in general, are in direct contact with the children. They can identify behavioral changes in teenagers early before the issue becomes critical. Therefore, they are vital in the plan to deal with gangs and gang-related crimes. Studies show that children develop violent traits as early as four years.

According to Smith and Ferguson (2019), some of the factors that contribute to violent traits among children and teenagers include children watching extreme movies without parental supervision, as well as the excessive playing of violent computer games. Therefore, parents are essential in ensuring that children do not develop violent gang-related behaviors. Smith and Ferguson (2019), outlines gang-violence as one of the effects of violent video games among children. There is a need for parental guidance and increased supervision on the types of computer games that children play. The monitoring will help in reducing the emotional effects of the games amongst young children, which might lead to future involvement in gang crimes. A parent can take active roles in supervising and monitoring activities of students when they are away from school to prevent their recruitment into violent and criminal gangs. Nevertheless, they can offer essential pieces of training on problem-solving techniques and interpersonal skills that help a student in solving personal conflicts.

The Role of Community in Dealing With Gang Activities

Community is a critical pillar in fighting gangs and gang-related criminal activities. Since one of the reasons for children joining groups is instabilities within families, the community can work to solve conflicts and strengthen relationships in families. The community can also take active roles in reducing conflicts based on race, class, or social status amongst youths. Gang activities thrive in a society with the awareness of some members of the community. People tend to focus more on their families and leave the rest of the work for the law enforcers. Therefore, there is a need for community-level supervision on children and youths and reporting suspected cases to the authority. The community at large should be responsible for the safety of the youth and report cases of rising gangs within the community level to the relevant body.

Various regulations and punitive mechanisms in the school system push young learners into gang behaviors instead of providing care and correction. Punishing students through suspensions or expulsions from schools are some of the ineffective techniques that schools employ to correct delinquents. Such punishment makes students vulnerable to joining gangs and developing gang-related criminal mentality (Clark, Pyrooz, & Randa, 2018). Therefore, the schools and community must ensure punitive sanctions focus on the correction of students' behaviors. At school-levels, the corrective punishments should focus on reducing gang behaviors amongst the students. Schools and community-based organizations should provide guidance and counseling to students with drug abuse problems, show signs of violence, or those who continually perform poorly in their academics. These issues could be the reasons why students quit school and become members of illegal gangs.

The Role of the Police Department

The police department, having interacted with the gangs and solved various gang-related crimes are in a better position to offer a long-term solution to gang crime since they understand the root cause of the crimes. One of the reasons behind the increase in gang crime is the tense atmosphere between the law enforcers and the youths. Therefore, there is a need for the police department to create a rapport and friendly relationship with teenagers to deal with gang crimes.

The initial step in attaining long-term solutions is creating or offering referrals for recreational facilities where youths from different backgrounds can interact with one another and with the police department. In such settings, the police department can introduce learning programs for the teens, parents, and the community in general on the evils of the gang and gang crimes. The gang awareness and the dangers of gang crimes are the most effective way to provide a long-term solution to the issue. Educating children on the dangers of gangs and gang crime imparts a positive mentality on the students. Practical teachings to students on the dangers of gang crimes involve the invitation of rehabilitated gang criminals who serve as living proof of the risks of engaging in such activities. The police department can also provide training programs and resources for schools on how to deal with gang-related cases identified amongst young learners. This will help ensure sufficient conflict resolution and mediation techniques. Teachers and parents are in contact with learners throughout their growth and development. Training them on ways to manage and handle disruptive and delinquent students will help in dealing with gang problems at an early stage. Nonetheless, the police department can provide long-term solutions to gang-related crimes by focusing on the increasing risk factors of becoming a member of a gang.

Methods to Determine the Effectiveness of the Plan

There are numerous methods for determining the success and effectiveness of the plan for solving gang-related activities. The primary process will be an assessment of gang crime trends. The evaluation and analysis are possible through the gang-crime arrest records, juvenile delinquency trends, and the general rates of gang activities (Fowler, Stylianou, Zhang, Reid, & Mousavi, 2019). The police department can also interact with the community, conduct surveys, and collect relevant data on gang crimes and activities. It can also perform direct observations in learning institutions, streets, and the community to determine behavioral changes resulting from the implementation of the plan. Institutional studies in correctional facilities and independent testing in the streets can help the police department obtain essential information in the changes in gang crimes.

References

Clark, K. J., Pyrooz, D. C., & Randa, R. (2018). School of Hard Knocks: Gangs, Schools, and Education in the United States. The Wiley Handbook on Violence in Education: Forms, Factors, and Preventions, 203-225.

Fowler, S., Stylianou, A., Zhang, D., Reid, S., & Mousavi, R. (2019). Predicting Violent Crime with Gang Social Media Postings.

Smith, S., & Ferguson, C. J. (2019). The effects of violent media on children.