How Does Gang Affiliation Become a Social Problem?

How Does Gang Affiliation Become a Social Problem?

Introduction

Despite the intention to create a positive and supportive environment, there are many conditions under which people continue experiencing social pressure, violence, and irrational biases and prejudices. It is not enough to find support but to ensure a better future, addressing available sources and knowledge. In the United States, gang affiliation remains one of the ways to escape routine problems, achieve some portion of prestige, and gain protection. However, today, not much attention is paid to the impact of gangs on social development, human health, and overall violent behaviors.

According to the National Gang Center, large cities report long-standing gang problems among such populations as Hispanics (46%), African-Americans (35%), and White Americans (11%). Thus, the U.S. government takes multiple steps to prevent the progress of gang relationships and involve schools and other influential facilities to solve the problem. Gang affiliation is a serious societal issue of concern due to the existing direct and indirect outcomes on interpersonal relationships and order, and the solution to this problem depends solely on local populations.

Definition of the Problem

One of the most critical aspects of discussing the impact of gang affiliation is the impossibility of hiding this problem in society. People are properly aware of gang violence as a means to “strengthen their reputation and status in the local neighborhood, reify territorial borders, intimate community residents, and exhibit dominance over rival gangs” (Brantingham et al., qtd. in Valasik and Reid 4). Some young individuals believe that gang affiliation is a good way to obtain social justice and solve problems. The reasons for them to join a gang vary, including peer pressure, boredom, poverty, and the desire to obtain a sense of belonging to something.

The outcomes are even more dangerous because gangs may change not only human behavior and attitudes toward the world but their mental health and emotional or financial stability (Rima et al.). Besides, there are many controversies about how people join and leave street gangs, and the media continues ambiguously covering this issue on different communication platforms (Fernández-Planells et al. 2100). Thus, gangs introduce not only a serious criminal challenge but a social concern.

Background

In the United States, street gangs are currently associated with aggressive and violent young people who are united for unspecific purposes. However, the history of American gang growth is longer than it might seem, and the first official gangs appear at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. When immigrants came to the United States from different parts of the world, they wanted to create stable and reliable relationships with native populations. However, it was hard to achieve the desired goal without certain sacrifices, and they decided to create groups, following their interests and needs.

In the 1820s, the Forty Thieves was one of the first street gangs made up of pickpockets and thugs (Howell and Griffiths 32). They preferred criminal steps to survive when honest earnings and living were not impossible for them. Similar methods were applied by other immigrant gangs like Kerryonians, the Five Points, and the Bowery to protect their rights and gain their regional freedoms (Howell and Griffiths 32). Gang affiliation turned out to be a privilege during the war periods because of the already-gained relationships.

With time, understanding gangs, their structures, and their affiliation has become a critical criminal and social element. The government needed to manage security in all American regions and ensure that migration did not contribute to gang violence (Paarlberg). The National Gang Center revealed that racial characteristics might not be as important as age ones: more than 35% of juvenile individuals and about 65% of adults comprise modern gangs in the United States. According to Howell and Griffiths, a prison is a place where most gangs are created, and their activities are expanded on the streets with time (36).

Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are common cities where gang members prefer to develop their activities due to access to the required resources and the possibility of hiding. Although the conditions under which modern people could be accepted into a gang differ from those of the 18th and 19th centuries, the main idea remains the same – gang violence and affiliation challenge American society.

Literature Review

The issue of gang affiliation is regularly discussed by modern researchers and policy-makers to understand the problem and find the most effecti