Brandon Diep
Professor Odegaard
English 104
6 December 2018
Youth Gang Intervention
Imagine that your twelve year old child just became a member of a gang. They constantly assure you that nothing is going to happen to them while they are in there- that they’re safe have protection. However, one night you get a call from a friend of theirs who was also in the gang, saying that they have been killed in a drive-by shooting by a rival gang. You are heartbroken and vow to stop teenage involvement in gangs. All around the world, many people are faced with situations such as this. There are many different solutions around the world, but still this issue is rampant in many places. A very effective method of intervention against youth gang involvement would be through providing job opportunities that allow at-risk teenagers to do something in their free time, while also earning the same amount or even more extrinsic rewards than they would gain out of becoming a member of a gang.
Youth gang activity is a prominent issue in today’s society because not only are innocent lives being drawn into this dangerous lifestyle, with death being a very possible outcome, but families’ hearts are broken as they slowly see their beloved son or daughter disappear from their lives. Youth involvement in gangs has a significant impact on the lives of people around them. According to the LAPD, “Parents and relatives of gang members live in a double fear; for their own safety and that of the other non-gang family members and, a fear for the survival of their gang member relative.” When teens (or anyone) joins a gang, they make themselves a target for other gangs to go after them due to gang rivalries. However, there may be times when the said rival gangs go a step further and attack the gang members’ families if they are unable to approach the gang member him/herself. Becoming a gang member is also often detrimental as time passes. According to the LAPD, “Gang members not killed or seriously injured often develop patterns of alcohol and narcotics abuse.” That may not happen to all recurring gang members, but is still a very serious problem, as they can easily become addicted to these drugs and alcohol. If these teenagers were to become involved in gang activities, then eventually as time went on, these drugs would affect almost every aspect of their lives.
Teenage gang involvement is a much more widespread issue than one would think. According to Lohmann, “Gangs like to target young teens for recruitment. The most popular time for gang recruitment is during middle school and some reports show that children as young as 10 are joining gangs.” A ten year old brain is still a very young brain. Most ten year olds have not developed very well common sense, and so most don’t know any better than to become members of gangs. As of 2010, “there [were] approximately 24,500 known youth gangs with about 772,500 youth members. That's about 7% of the US's teen population” (Lohmann). It is very startling how many youth gangs exist, even though we don’t see them much in our everyday lives. A survey produced by the National Gang Center, when compared with statistics from the FBI, found that around 13% of all homicides are gang related (National Gang Center). This statistic is particularly startling, as it shows that these gang crimes are much more common than one would think. Part of that 13% of homicides may be innocent teenagers who took one small wrong turn in their innocent lives and inevitably were sucked into the gang life, risking them and their families’ lives.
Much research has gone into this issue. Many different strategies for future intervention and prevention programs have been suggested by scholars. According to Garduno and Brancale, “Every initiative aimed to prevent and reduce gang related activities and membership should be driven by theory and methods known to target the risk factors conductive to gang related behaviors” (779). Forming solutions based off of risk factors can be very effective because these “risk factors” are the reason that teenagers join gangs. It is essentially attacking the problem from the root. Herrmann et al. suggest that “prevention and intervention efforts seeking to reduce gang involvement should essentially include at least some self-concept enhancing strategies…as part of a comprehensive treatment plan” (Herrmann et al. 191). Herrmann et al. are suggesting that in order to intervene against gang involvement, one’s self concept would need to be improved, but that just improving self-concept would not be enough to make a significant change. They recommend that several different strategies be implemented in order to have the most significant effect against gang involvement. Patricia M. Speck believes that “Real prevention will occur when gang and rape culture is exposed and understood by all” (qtd. in Dammers et al. 119). Essentially, Speck is claiming that only when the consequences, and what constitutes as gang activity, are understood by everybody will the problem actually begin to be solved.
An effective way to intervene against teenage involvement in gangs would be address the risk factors of why people become affiliated with gangs. According to Raby and Jones, school failure, low academic performance, low parental supervision, having family members involved in gangs, and poverty were some of the risk factors for teenage gang involvement (611-612). This shows that there are many different ways to attack this issue of youth gang involvement, ranging from all sorts of aspects including school and family. This paper, however, focuses its solution on the poverty aspect of life.
A very sound solution to counter gang involvement in young adults is to offer kids who demonstrate at-risk behaviors better jobs and opportunities to earn money. According to a study conducted by Raby and Jones, “Economic disadvantage was identified as a predictive risk. It was further suggested…that gang affiliation may appear to be an effective way of achieving financial gain in the eyes of vulnerable young people (who are also identified as having had limited opportunities to succeed financially through traditional means)” (615). Raby and Jones have identified that because these teenagers come from poor families, they don’t have much money, and so they turn to gangs because they believe that it’s the easiest way to earn money. Also, these teenagers aren’t given many opportunities to get a job and earn money.
The first step to making this solution work is by training teachers, parents and counselors to identify at-risk characteristics in teenagers. These are important figures in a teenager’s life because they are in the presence of kids for much of their day. These individuals, once identifying a young adult who presents characteristics similar to at-risk teenagers, such as low academic performance, would pull the student aside to talk to them, to see why they aren’t doing well in school. These people would then refer them to a phone number which will connect them to a professional. This program would be connected to many different companies, who would give these teenagers being referred a chance to work at their company.
This solution can be very effective because many kids become members of a gang due to the promise of extrinsic rewards such as money. One of the kids interviewed by Ward and Bakhuis explained that “The small children who grow up in poor circumstances, when they see what the gangsters have, then they say, I also want lots of money” (54). These teenagers, not having experienced much of life’s risks and consequences, are quick to misjudge the riskiness of depending on a gang as a source of income. They are also blinded by the promise of heaps of money. As Raby and Jones explain, many of these struggling teens turn to gangs as means of financial gain because they aren’t given many opportunities to earn money by any other means (615). This solution attacks that issue because it works with other companies and businesses in order to give these teens better opportunities to work for their money at a very low risk of death, instead of staying in a gang where the risk of death is very high.
Some readers may point out a hole in my solution- that this doesn’t cover the other aspects of why young adults join gangs. Yes, this solution only solves part of this issue, but in order to make this solution truly effective, it would need to be added as part of a comprehensive treatment plan, as was suggested by Herrmann et al.. Some programs that could be added to this comprehensive plan would be programs that revolve around mastery experiences and vicarious experiences. Mastery experiences are “life situations where one achieves success as opposed to failure” through art or sports (Herrmann et al. 191). These “mastery experiences” give the at-risk teenager something to do in their free time. Not only that, but it also gives these teenagers some sense of self-worth. Another program that should be a part of this comprehensive treatment program would be through guest speakers. According to Herrmann et al., vicarious experiences entail listening to ex-gang members speaking about their past and how they “have successfully resisted becoming involved in gangs” (Herrmann et al. 191). These kind of experiences can show young adults that life as a gang member is not as good as they think, and that it is possible to be successful in life without joining a gang.
More and more adolescents are becoming involved in gangs, because of many varying factors, including their attraction towards the rewards and peer pressure. However, gangs should be avoided because of the many risks that must be taken, such as death, when becoming an active gang member. Even though the idea of making easy money may be very attractive, especially towards the lower-class families, there are better options that have a much lower risk of death than being in a gang. This solution works to fight against youth gang involvement because it makes getting a job for a source of income much easier for people who believe that joining a gang is the best way to earn money, with a much lower risk of death. Just take a moment and imagine what you and your child’s life would be like if they hadn’t taken a wrong turn and ended up in the gang life.