Criminal Justice -- Analyzing Approaches to Gangs
Gang violence has plagued American cities for many decades. In response, cities have adopted several approaches to reducing or eliminating gang violence through several methods. Information gathered over several decades has shown that one approach is more successful than the others and is being effectively used even in the "gang capital" of America.
Different Approaches to Gangs
American cities with high gang violence have dealt with this urban problem by three basic approaches: suppression, social intervention and organizational change (Fearn, Decker, & Curry, 2006, p. 313). Suppression, as our text shows, is the attempt to annihilate gangs through surveillance, arrest and imprisonment (Fearn, Decker, & Curry, 2006, p. 313). Social intervention is an immediate, short-term response to an act of violence or a crisis (Fearn, Decker, & Curry, 2006, p. 313). Organizational change is a task-force oriented approach that studies the underlying causes and long-term remedies of gang membership and violence (Fearn, Decker, & Curry, 2006, p. 313). These approaches are not mutually exclusive and the authorities have used some or all of them. One example of this multiple approach is Los Angeles, which is known as the "gang capital" of America (Maxson, Hennigan, & Sloane, 2006, p. 394). In one form or another, Los Angeles has used suppression, social intervention and organizational change, with different degrees of success.
The Conditions under Which a Specific Policy or Program Might Be Most Effective, and the Resources Required
The approach to gang violence that seems to have the most potential for success is organizational change. Cities such as Los Angeles have used suppression and social intervention since the 1970's but those approaches seem to have failed miserably: the Justice Institute reported in 2007, after more than 30 years of suppression and social intervention efforts in Los Angeles, that there were six times as many gangs and at least twice the number of gang members in the Los Angeles area...
Gang Violence For many years gang violence has plagued cities in the United States and around the world, causing disruptions and chaos in communities, and bringing grief and grieving to families in those communities. There seems to be no end to the killings and gang members appear to have access to unlimited numbers of weapons. Lately Chicago Illinois, in particular, has been the scene of numerous deaths due to gang violence.
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dealt with the issue of youth gangs and their prevalence in USA. Sociologists have been analyzing youth gangs in urban backgrounds for around 70 years. It has been debated that youth gangs were created in accordance with social events, and that gang members were of loose morals or inadequately socialized entities who tied up together to do delinquent activities in groups rather than as separate entities. This paper shall
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gang development, research and reduction strategies as outlined by Klein and Maxson in their 2006 study Street Gang Patterns and Policies. It incorporates additional research beyond Klein and Maxson, but focuses on the basic analysis of the problem offered in their study. The specific focus of the paper is on finding solutions that work, as distinguished from the numerous failed solutions examined by Klein and Maxson -- with an
Introduction A far greater number of US citizens become victims of gang-initiated violence as compared to mass shootings or terrorist attacks. Gang members contribute to a disproportionately high percentage of the violence and crimes witnessed in the nation. Roughly two-thousand gang-linked murders are reported across the country per annum, which makes up 13% of overall murders in the nation. America's gang-connected murder rate alone (approximately 2 for every 100,000 individuals) goes
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