Juveniles Associated With Gangs Are More Likely To Commit Violent Crime, Than Those Not Affiliated

Juveniles Associated With Gangs Are More Likely To Commit Violent Crime, Than Those Not Affiliated

Introduction

Juvenile gangs and violent crimes have become interchangeable terms in the past decade. The dramatic increase in youth homicide in the early 1990s led several commentators to conclude that gangs could be implicated in that increase. Indeed, when the term “gangs” is mentioned in the media or among public audiences, the context typically includes a violent event. However, this relationship between youth gangs and violent behavior is far more complex than it might appear. Although the focus in gang violence is often on homicide and gangs are disproportionately involved in homicide compared to other groups, there is more to gang violence than homicide, much more.

This paper reviews what is known about juvenile gangs and violent crime. It begins by considering the definitions of gang violence, a key to understanding the problem. This section of the chapter pays particular attention to the differentiation between gang and non-gang violence, noting the salience of who does the defining of such incidents, as well as the impact of such definitions for problem identification and interventions. The next section of the chapter is devoted to a consideration of gang homicide. Here we present data from both national surveys of law enforcement the Uniform Crime Reports.

This discussion leads naturally to the next section of the chapter, instrumentalities associated with gang violence. Here we consider the role that guns and drugs specifically play in gang violence. We then assess what is known about gang violence from the perspective of the medical setting. This is followed by a review of theories of youth gang violence, specifically the role of structural and social process variables. We then move to an examination of the nature of gang violence in non-American settings in order to isolate the factors that are common and unique to the U.S. context. We conclude this chapter with a set of observations about the future of gang violence.

Hypothesis

H1 = A Juviniles association with Gangs is more likely to lead him into commiting violent crimes.

H2 = A Juviniles assocociation with Gangs will have no effect in leading him into committing violent crimes.

Research Questions

What is the effect an association with Gangs on a Juvenile?

Does the association with Gangs lead a Juvenile into committing violent crimes?

How different is the attitude of a Juvenile associated with a Gang to the attitude of a Juvenile having no such association?

Do Juveniles having no association commit violent crimes?

Does having no association with such groups mean committing no violent crime?

Literature Review

The key to understanding youth gangs and violent crime lies in an appreciation of the difficulty of defining the problem. Like many topics in the study of violence, the definitional issues are complicated and engender many debates. The study of gangs has been replete with dilemmas about definition since Thrasher's seminal work in 1927. One of the key methodological issues in the study of gangs has been ...