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Why should
we be concerned about gangs?
Some
communities are literally held captive by the violence,
intimidation, and decay [caused by gangs].
(California
Council on Criminal Justice, 1989,
p. 16)
There is nothing more
insidious than these gangs. They are worse than the
Mafia. Show me a year in New York where the Mafia
indiscriminately killed 300 people. You can't.
(Police Chief William Bratton, Los
Angeles Police Department, Arizona Republic, 2002, as
found in
Katz and Webb,
2004, p. 128).
Isn't gang behavior just delinquency or criminality?
No.
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Gangs are in
our community. There is no
DENYING it!
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They recruit
others into gang activity
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Gangs and their
members harm our children
living in fear,
school failure, family disruption, drug addiction,
arrest, incarceration, disease, pregnancy, permanent
injury, and premature death.
Field
Note: I was
told repeatedly that the average age at which a gang
member is either permanently disabled, jailed, or
killed is only 20 in Los Angeles and 18 1/2 in St.
Louis. These figures were given to me by several
different sources in each of those cities. They
suggest an ominous prospect for gang members.
- Gangs
promote socially irresponsible values, attitudes, and
beliefs and teach deviant
and illegal behaviors
- Gang teach techniques for
avoiding detection and provide alibis for fellow gang
members
- Gang activities result in
making their members unemployable
- There are more youths
involved in gang activity now than ever before in
American history
- Gangs are now found
where the vast majority of Americans live and are
continuing to spread across the nation and world
- More females are getting
involved in gangs
- Gangs can destroy entire
neighborhoods, including businesses, and schools
Deterioration of the adjacent
business communities and the conversion to liquor
stores, gambling establishments, tattoo shops, adult
video stores, and other questionable ventures.
School personnel are terrified,
quality of classroom activity suffers.
- Gang youths commit a
disproportionate amount of delinquency, over a longer
period of time, and with the use of more violence than
do non-gang youths
- Gangs and their members have
a devastating impact on criminal justice practitioners -
lawyers, police, court personnel, and corrections
workers
stress, the potential for harm and
injury, exposure to temptations, the enormous amount
of time needed to deal with gangs
- Gang members are costing
this nation and many others a fortune in resources of
all kinds
- Gangs make the
rehabilitation of gang members less successful
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