PREVENTION PROGRAMS

           Youth gangs have been an issue in the United States for decades.  Since the early 1980, the growth in youth gangs had increased tremendously.   Each time new immigrants migrate to the United States, a new youth gang emerges.  Conversely, new youth gangs are emerging as the American children are becoming teenagers.  Both immigrants and American teenagers are joining gangs for similar purposes.  Whatever the purposes are, these issues need to be resolve.  The government has to create more prevention programs to prevent the growth of youth gangs.  As the increase of immigrants and teenagers escalate, the numbers of youth gang prevention programs need to expand to keep up with the new youth gangs. 

           Youth gangs are emerging quickly in our country.  What should we do to prevent these individuals from joining gangs?

-          Youth are emerging so quickly that it is impossible to reach out to every teenager and prevent them from joining gang.  What the government should do is expand on the creation of youth gang prevention programs for children at a younger age.  In addition, the government should provide prevention programs for parents.  Due to the fact that parents are children’s first instructors, they can begin educating their children and steer them away from joining gangs at younger age. 

-          One of the best prevention programs in the United States is the Montreal Preventive Treatment Program (Wilson 1, 2000).  This program is design to target potential gang members from joining gangs at an early age.  The program targets individuals ages seven to nine who have a history of disruptive problems and behaviors in their earlier years.  During this program, the parents need to finish an average of seventeen training courses involving monitoring their children’s behavior, using punishment effectively, and managing family crises (Wilson 1, 2000).  These skills are use to better and prevent the children from joining gangs.  On the other hand, the children need to finish an average of nineteen training courses.  These courses are given to teach self control and improving social skills (Wilson 1, 2000).  Once both the parents and the children completed the courses, the chance of the children joining gang is very low. 

-          Gang members are overflowing in our school systems across our nation.  In schools today, we are seeing an increase of gang related fights between students.  These problems are usually caused by gang members who are also students.  They bring their preexisting gang conflicts to schools and create more conflicts at schools (Wilson 1, 2000).  Schools can prevent students from getting involved in gang by providing in school safety, control procedures, enrich procedures that will make school more enjoyable, meaningful, and effective, and have programs that involve the community (Wilson 1, 2000).  For example, creating more activities for students and getting the community to join the students in these activities might prevent the conflicts between the gangs.  Another method that the school system could do to prevent youth from joining gang is to provide school vouchers.  The voucher system works when the government issues school vouchers to the students.  Then once the students choose the school that they want to attend, they need to bring the vouchers to the school so the administrator could notify the government of their attendents.  With this system, students can choose a school that does not have gang issues.  This can prevent students from joining gang. 

-          One of the largest youth gang prevention program in the United States is Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T) program.  This program is developed to engage students in grade school to the correct path.  This program is consists of three sections.  The first section is the conflict resolution skills portion.  The second section is the cultural sensitivity portion.  The last section is the negative aspect of gang life portion.  Due to the length of the program, it usually takes about nine weeks to finish the program (Wilson 2, 2000).  At the end of the program, the individuals should have the knowledge to use many resists skills to stop the pressure needed to  join gang (Wilson 2, 2000).  This program is proven to be effective to many youth.  After the completion of the G.R.E.A.T. program, the students are reported less problems in lowering the rate of gang involvement, higher school commitment, and greater positive outcomes (Wilson 2, 2000).  By having more programs like G.R.E.A.T., the United States will have a lower youth gang involvement.

-          Another large program that is effective at preventing youth from joining gang is the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA).  BGCA is a club that uses different tactics to engage youth to the right path in life.  The program purpose is to prevent youth from feeling the needs to join gang.  BGCA uses technique such as recreational activities to educate and teach life skills to the youth.  The purposes of these skills and educations are to teach the youth how to enhance their communication skills, problem solving techniques, and decision making abilities (Wilson 2, 2000).  Once the youth learns these skills, they have a great chance of making the correct decision such as not joining gang.  Statistic shows that individuals who completed BGCA will avoid gangs and strongly improve in school. 

           These are a few of the many programs that are provided by the government.  Although these programs tend to work, the government needs to provide more programs.  The youth population is still growing rapidly and the access to gang is getting easier.  The government needs to create more prevention programs to effectively prevent youth from joining gang. 

Bibliography

1.    Wilson, J. (September, 2000).  Preventing Adolescent Gang Involvement.  Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.  https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/182210.pdf

2.    Wilson, J. (August, 2000).  Youth Gang Programs and Strategies.  Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.  https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/171154.pdf

VIOLENCE

           In the 1970’s, gangs began to change their way of resolved issues with rival gang members.  In this era, the fists fighting between the gangs had a tremendous decline, but the homicide rate escalated.  The cause of the escalating homicide rate is because the gangs are using weapons such as knives and guns to resolve their problems.  The result of the use of these weapons ended many lives (OJJDP, 2011).  Gangs no longer fight with their fist.   Killing is the new way of warning rival gang members of what would be the consequences if they disrespect the gang.  This is the beginning of getting honor and pride for defending territory (OJJDP, 2011).  Overtime, gangs changed their motives and their use of weapon.  Brass knuckles were getting unpopular and guns became the new choice of weapon.  The use of firearms escalated.  Gang members began carrying firearms in public.  Because of the easy access to firearms, violent confrontations between rival gang members were being resolved by shooting and killing.  With these weapons, youth gangs started practicing the new ways of eliminating their enemies.  The most common method is drive by shooting.  According to Violence Policy Center, drive by shooting occurs when rounds of ammunitions are fired from a vehicle (VPC, 2009).  Majority of the time, the shooter or shooters are in the vehicle as they are rapidly shooting at their targets.  Due to the rapid firing, the shooters usually miss their targets.  That is why the results of drive by shootings are usually innocent bystanders getting shot and killed.  Only a small percentage of the multiple times, the rival gang members get hit during these rampages.  Due to the drive by shootings and violence that occurred, the homicide rate escalated.  Los Angeles County recorded over twenty-seven homicides in fifteen years (VPC, 2009).  All the homicides occurred from the late 1970’s to the early 1990’s (VPC, 2009).  The majority of the homicides were gang related.  Los Angeles was not the only city that was experiencing these gang problems.  Most Major cities across the nation were also experiencing these undesirable behaviors.

In Seattle, Washington, youth gangs were known to committing more serious and violent acts.  The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention recorded an increase in a variety of crimes in Seattle (OJJDP, 2011).  The majority of crimes were committed by youth gang members.  The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention also recorded youth gang members committing five times more crimes than youths who are not affiliated with gangs (OJJDP, 2011).  In Denver, Colorado, there were many changes after 1970.  Youth gang members began committing more seriour crime than ever.  After 1970, youth gang members were responsible for the majority of crimes in the city.  This involved crime such as homicides, attempted homicide, and much more.  These acts were usually committed with the use of firearms.  The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention recorded youth gang members committing seven times more serious crimes than non gang affiliated individuals (OJJDP, 2011).  The use of firearm changes in the way gang members deal with their issues and the choice of weapons changed history forever.  The most violent era starts here in the 1970’s.  

Gang method of operation changed forever, since firearms were introduced to the gangs.  The lethal weapons became the number one use of choice.  Out of the different types of firearms, nine millimeters handguns quickly became the number one choice of handgun (VPC, 2009).  Gang members favor this weapon because of the size and the rounds that the gun holds.  The size of the gun made it more convenience to carry and easier to conceal.  The rounds that the gun holds also made it more convenience for the shooters.  Unlike revolvers, nine millimeters handgun holds up to sixteen shots.  With the multiple rounds, a person is more likely to get shot during a drive by. 

In a national trend data on gang homicides, it recorded a total of six hundred and thirty-three gang related homicides involving firearms in the major cities from 1980 to 1982 (OJJDP, 2011).  Imagine what would happen as time passes and the firearms multiply in the streets.  In Los Angeles, gang related homicides increase tremendously over the years.  In 1979, Los Angeles only seventy-one percent of the total homicides were gang related homicides.  In 1994, this same survey was conducted and there was a big increase from 1979.  The gang related homicides involving firearms in 1994 jumped to ninety-five percent (OJJDP, 2011).  In Chicago, Illinois, gang related homicides also had a huge increased over the years.  In 1987 to 1994, the homicide rate increased almost five times.  Firearms were the cause of increase in homicides.  As a result to these homicides, more and more gang members are carrying firearms.  As for youth gang members, their purpose for carrying a firearm is to protect themselves.  They fear that rival gang members might catch them without firearms.  Youth gang member believes that by having a weapon they are more secured and less likely to get killed.  They are more secured with weapons, but by having weapons, they are more likely to use them.  This creates more homicides and it had increased the crime rates in our nation.

Bibliography

OJJDP.  (2011).  Youth Gang and Violence.  Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.  http://www.ojjdp.gov/jjbulletin/9808/youth.html

VPC.  (2009, February).  Youth Gang Violence and Guns: Data Collection in California.  Violence Policy Center.   http://www.vpc.org/studies/CAgang.pdf