¶ … Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member Street gangs have been a menace in the United States for the better part of the century, and this has prompted researchers to attempt to identify the specific factors that drive youths, some as young as ten, to join criminal gangs. Different books have put forth different accounts to explain what exactly drives gang membership and gang involvement in the American context. Sanyika Sakur's Title, Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member, is one of the most widely-accepted texts in the area of criminology. It details the story of Kody Scott as a member of the notorious L.A-based Tray Eights Gang -- how he chose to lead a gang life, what drove him to becoming a member of a gang, what he encountered as a gang member, and what finally influenced him to turn a new leaf and lead a normal life. In the book, Shakur moves from a small boy to a Monster capable of killing mercilessly to defend his gang, and then to a reformed Sanyika Shakur. He dwells on several key themes, including poverty, race, and religion and focuses his attention on explaining how these could have contributed to his getting involved in gang activity. This text reviews Shakur's book, with particular emphasis on his key themes. The author links these to widely-accepted criminology theories with the aim of showing why there is need to adopt an approach that addresses the underlying causes of crime and gang involvement as opposed to one based on punishment if we are to be successful in the fight against street gangs and crime in general.

The Role of Poverty in Gang Involvement

Sanyika Shakur, then Kody Scott, was born in a female-headed household with five siblings. He mentions that his mother brought him and his five siblings up alone, working double jobs to make ends meet. I would argue, however, that although Shakur paints a vivid image of the expectation of moving from rags to riches as one of the reasons why he chose to get involved in gang activity, poverty was not so much an influencing factor in his case as was familial disorganization, particularly the issue of single motherhood and having a working mother.

Moreover, owing to the large size of the family, it is likely that Shakur's mother was in no position to pay particular attention to the attitudes and behaviors of each of her six children, and the fact that she had to work and at the same time provide leadership most certainly made it difficult for her to notice Shakur's change in behavior. It is likely, therefore, that Shakur was not as attached to his family and more so, his mother, and this made it relatively easy for him to be wooed into gang membership. I believe, therefore, that one of the key weaknesses of Shakur's book is his failure to give the issue of familial disorganization the attention it deserves as an influencing factor in delinquency and gang involvement.
This ideology is supported by the social disorganization and social control theories of criminology, both of which attribute youths' involvement in gangs and crime to the disorganization of social regulatory structures such as family and religious entities. Human beings are naturally born with criminal tendencies -- what restrains one from engaging in the same, however, is the attachment they share with their families and religious units (Wood & Alleyne, 2010). As a matter of fact, religion, particularly Islam, is one of the main reasons why Shakur finally decides to turn away from gang membership and lead a normal life. The book creates a strong image of how Islam, contrary to popular opinion, can be used as a tool for fighting racism and colonization in a peaceful manner. This aspect is relevant to the modern-day society, where Islam, particularly the Jihad concept of 'Struggle till Death' is widely associated with violence and terrorism. Shakur, therefore, perfectly illustrates the fundamental role of religion and religious entities in shaping youths' behavior. It can rightly be interpreted, therefore, that one way to make the fight against youth gangs more effective is to make…