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Deterring Gangs from Your Neighborhood Turf

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Coast to coast, crime prevention and government work to curb gang-related crime.

Yakima, Washington: “Innocent 6 year old girl shot outside home during possible gang shooting” (KAPP TV)

Washington, DC: “Police: Gang member killed for trying to quit MS-13” (The Washington Examiner)

Marion, South Carolina: “Two churches defaced with gang graffiti” (CarolinaLive)

Long gone are the Jets and Sharks of Hollywood lore. The headlines above ust three of hundreds from this past July alone—speak volumes about gangs and society. Gang-related crime and violence has evolved over the years in America, while no community is “immune” to the emergence of gangs. Most communities have no reported gang problem. According to the National Gang Center’s 2009 National Youth Gang Survey, an estimated 28,100 gangs with 731,000 members are active in the United States.

No longer focused solely on battling local rivals, some gangs have involvement in international drug cartels, prostitution and human trafficking, and other illicit activities. Yet, even homegrown groups threaten

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The Wisdom of Defense Mechanisms

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Like all living systems, we human beings have evolved multiple mechanisms for defending against threats to our survival and physical integrity. The immune system is one example; blood clotting another; the fight-or-flight mechanism embedded in our nervous system yet another. It, therefore, is intuitive to assume that similar defensive mechanisms have evolved in human beings to protect and promote the integrity of our psychological architecture—our sense of self, identity, and esteem.

Working at the turn of the 20th century, Sigmund Freud was first to describe a psychological defense system as part of the human psychic architecture. To understand Freud’s notion of ‘defense mechanisms,’ a quick primer on Freudian theory is in order. For Freud, the human personality emerged from the interplay of three psychic structures: id, ego, and superego. The id is the source of life energy (libido). The newborn is all id, wishing only to embrace sensory pleasure and reject painful, unpleasant stimuli. The problem is that ids lack a capacity for

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Defining Features Of Personality Disorders: Impulse Control Problems

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People with personality disorders tend to exhibit problems with impulse control. These problems can manifest as either over-controlled or under-controlled impulses. (Under-controlled impulse control is commonly called a "lack of impulse control". In the same manner that people with personality disorders may have problems with over- or under-controlled affective (emotional) regulation, they also tend to have problems regulating their impulses. Here, too, we can think of impulse regulation along a continuum ranging from over-control to under-control, with healthy personalities falling somewhere in the middle between these two extreme poles.

Consider the issue of self-control and the need for a healthy balance between overcontrol and under-control. On the one hand, we need to control our impulses and to consider the consequences of acting upon an impulse. Having considered the consequences, we then decide how to act accordingly. We determine whether to allow ourselves to indulge the impulse, or whether to inhibit it. The inhibition of certain impulses enables us to behave in ways that

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Confrontational Homicide A Final Report To The Criminology Research Council

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SUMMARY

This report is an analysis of forms of male-on-male homicide. It is a follow-up to an earlier study which, consistent with research elsewhere, found that males not only constitute a vast majority of homicide offenders, but further that slightly over half of all homicides involve males taking the lives of other males. The purpose of the present research is to establish, if possible, the patterns which characterize these distinctively male homicides. The data for the research are drawn from the files of the Office of the Coroner of Victoria, and include all homicides reported to the Coroner for the years 1985-1989. The files consist of an initial report of the attending police regarding the death, the brief prepared by the police for presentation at the Coroner's Inquest, the autopsy report regarding the cause of death, any relevant toxicology reports, and the report of the Inquest itself. For each of the 376 homicides reported in the five year period, a case study

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The Myth of the Street Gang as a “Family Substitute”

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Consumers of popular lore and many adherents to contemporary sociological thinking believe that affiliation with a street gang is psychologically motivated, at least in part, by a desire to belong to the family the individual never had while growing up. Ostensibly, the gang offers support, sustenance, acceptance, and a structure that the youngster lacked at home. Gangs offer a hierarchy of leadership and a path to gain approval and achieve success. In a highly structured gang, one can "earn" one's way and gain a sense of belonging, status, and power. Sociological determinists have contended that gang membership constitutes an understandable, even "normal," means of adapting to circumstances that are bleak, if not seemingly hopeless. If this were true, everyone who lives in an impoverished, decaying, and otherwise brutal environment would join gangs.

In nearly forty years of research and clinical practice, what has impressed me far more than the environment from which people come is how they choose to deal with whatever their circumstances are.

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Labeling and Deviance: Fraternities and Gangs

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Gangs: Society and The Labeling Theory

There is a dichotomy that exists in today’s society between the privileged and the poor. Those who are wealthy seem to be able to commit violations and avoid punishment for it, while the poor bear the brunt of law enforcement. When you hear the word gang, what do you think of? Most likely, you do not think of a group of college students who belong to a fraternity. You think of a group of hoodlums who tote guns, sell drugs, and ruin neighborhoods. This is why it is necessary to understand the labels that society places on certain people and the effects that it has on behavior. Why are some people labeled as deviants? Who makes the labels? The Labeling Theory asks two questions: what is defined as deviance? and what is defined as a deviant? Different behaviors mean different things in certain areas, which makes deviance very difficult to define. Research has tried

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Homicidal Events Among Mexican American Street Gangs

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Abstract

This article examines the complexity of street gang homicides and focuses on situational factors that lead to gang members’ susceptibility to this violent behavior within the context of a disadvantaged minority community. This study is based on an analysis of 28 homicides involving Mexican American gang members. The absence of immigrant youth involvement in these types of violent crimes is discussed. Findings demonstrate how locally embedded social processes associated with specific gang types, ecology, drugs, circumstances, and motives unfold into homicidal events. These findings may contribute to the development of street-based social programs focused on gang mediation, dispute resolution, and crisis intervention.

Concerns have emerged about the association of United States (U.S.) Latinos and crime, especially because of the increased presence of street gangs among this population. However, many crime indicators for Latinos, including homicide, are often lower than for other socioeconomically comparable U.S. groups (Martinez, 2002; Sampson, 2008). This is often explained by the large proportion of immigrants compared with native-

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Definition And Classification Of Gangs Executive … – Oas

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. Introduction

In response to the growing concern among the member countries of the Organization of American States (OAS), the General Secretariat of the Organization has been engaged for more than one year in a systematic study of the issue of gangs and their various violent and criminal manifestations. The Department of Public Security (DPS) of the OAS has been assigned the mandate and responsibility to propose hemispheric measures on this problem, on the understanding that violence in general, and that generated by gangs in particular, has become a topic that resonates deeply in the inter-American system. The resolutions and mandates of the Organization urge the adoption of crosscutting and regional measures for prevention and control of violence in order to protect the political and democratic stability of member states. It soon became clear in the course of the General Secretariat’s work on this issue that a great deal of information exists, as well as a large amount of

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Gang Organization and Gang Types

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Gang organization has been an aspect of research that is often explored and debated. The concept of organization is intertwined with questions of whether gangs have leaders, whether gangs can be considered organized crime, which groups are actually street gangs, and other related questions. Though there are some crossover categories, street gangs are viewed as distinctly different than organized crime groups, prison gangs, outlaw motorcycle clubs, skinheads, stoners, and taggers.

Gang structures are widely varied, with a few being highly organized and most being loose networks of associates. The organization of a gang may change over time. There is an array of membership types that range from core members who might maintain affiliation well into adulthood to temporary members who only spend a short time in the gang. Gangs may have sub-group clique structures based on age-graded cohorts, neighborhoods, or criminal activity. Leadership roles in gangs rarely take the form of a recognizable figurehead.

These variations have led to a plethora of gang

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Understanding how Police Officers Think About Mental | Emotional Disturbance Calls

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Abstract

Police officers frequently respond to calls involving persons with mental illnesses and in doing so, they are key gatekeepers of access to mental health treatment as well as entry into the criminal justice system. Programs such as Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) are being implemented across the United States and elsewhere to train officers to respond more effectively and facilitate access to mental health services when appropriate. These programs would benefit from a thorough understanding of these encounters from the perspective of police officers. We take as a premise that officers develop frames of reference or “schema” for understanding and responding to these encounters that are shaped by socialization, training, and their experience as police officers. In this study, we examine police officer schema of mental/emotional disturbance (M/EDP) calls. Qualitative interviews provided the foundation to develop the Needs on the Street Interview (NOSI) to tap officer schema of four types of M/EDP scenarios. The NOSI was administered to 147 officers in Chicago and Philadelphia.

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Police Work and Its Effects on the Family

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INTRODUCTION

Police work and how it effects the family is an extremely complex subject. The role of a police officer is ambiguous and requires one to use discretion to perform their duties. While researching this paper it was found that there is minim to no education for officers during their training to guide them in the use of discretion or how to handle stress. Nor is there education offered after assuming their professional role as a police officer on effective techniques to use discretion or handle stress. This in turn causes stress to the officer. The stress that officers incur in their profession can be transferred to or shared by his/her family. Stress can be thought of as a state of extreme difficulty, pressure or strain. To be more precise, stress can be a mentally or emotionally disruptive or upsetting condition occurring in response to adverse external influences and can be capable of affecting physical health (Merriam and Webster, 1980).

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Mental Disturbance in the Law of Torts- A Problem of Legal Lag

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INTRODUCTION

In an era when the frontiers of psychology are steadily retreating before the inexorable advance of science, in an age when the average man is increasingly concerned with the impact of his emotional problems, in a society whose best-selling books include such tides as Peace of Mind and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living -in such a time and in such a culture, the courts have not yet extended a full measure of protection to the interest in mental and emotional tranquillity. It is perhaps the most under- protected interest in the law of torts. If it be true that positive law is the product of the numerous conflicts of interests which characterize every society, then tort law is the product of a specific conflict, that between individual freedom of action on the one hand and individual security on the other. The degree of protection afforded to various interests logically ought to be an index of the value placed

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Gang Behavior, Law Enforcement, and Community Values

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Btween 1960 and 1990 crime rates in the United States increased dramatically: murder rates rose from 5.0 to 9.4 per 100,000; aggravated assaults increased from 85 to 424 per 100,000; and auto theft was up from 182 to 658 per 100,000. The response to this upsurge has been increased law enforcement activity, with the incarceration rate more than doubling. Has this policy been the correct response? Are there policy alternatives that have not been adequately pursued? The “bricks-and-sticks” approach to crime ignores the possibility that changing community attitudes toward crime and law enforcement play a role in the current crime wave and that the proper response must involve a conscious attempt to alter those values. This essay focuses on the role of community values in controlling crime. Community cooperation with local police is essential to law enforcement. Community members decide to cooperate either with the police since the criminals have violated their values or with the criminals,

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Poverty, Broken Homes, Violence: The Making of a Gang Member

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Sylvester Akapalara, 17, Hanzel Saucedo, 18, Genaro Ramirez, 19, Alexander Ibarra, 17, Aljoven Canalete, 19, and Ebony Huel, 16 were all found murdered in gun-related shootings in the past two months. Some of these teens were members of gangs, others were innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Approximately 5750 people were killed in Los Angeles county alone in the past ten years in gang-related violence, many of them children and teenagers. With gangs reportedly recruiting members as young as eleven, this is a social problem that mustn’t be ignored.

There are many risks associated with gang membership including exposure to violent crime, and possible incarceration. Why are so many adolescents willing to join? Several risk factors have been identified that increase the likelihood that a teen will join a gang including the presence of gangs in the neighborhood, having gang members in the family already, histories of

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Preventing Gang Violence and Building Communities Where Young People Thrive

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Introduction

The proliferation of gangs can bring fear and violence to every block of a city. In addition to suffering unacceptably high numbers of deaths and injuries, gang-besieged neighborhoods are plagued by intimidation, economic and physical decay, and withdrawal from civic engagement. As these neighborhoods decline, the bonds that hold communities together weaken: children fear going to school; parks become unusable; shopping and taking a bus to work become dangerous ventures. Fortunately, cities are experimenting with a wide range of new approaches that not only seek to suppress gang violence, but also build communities that do not produce gangs in the first place. According to noted gang expert James Howell, gang-plagued jurisdictions have learned that enforcement and other police actions are not an adequate answer, and that city leaders need to involve the entire community, including neighborhood organizations and residents. “Police should not be expected to assume sole responsibility for youth gang problems. Broad based community collaboration is essential...

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Think It’s Hard Being a Cop? Try Being Married to One.

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These are troubled times for cops and their families. There's an almost constant stream of bad press about law enforcement, a rash of unthinkable acts of violence against police officers, repeated anti-police protests, horrific mass shootings, and the ever-present threat of terrorism that hangs over all our heads. Dash cams, body cameras and cell phone cameras have charged the atmosphere and changed the way officers work. In light of all that is happening, the job looks more dangerous and appears more brutal than ever. But just when things look like they will never get better, there's a stream of good news: demonstrations of love and support from the public and heartwarming praise from unexpected sources on social media. The only thing that is predictable these days is change itself.

The following 10 ideas may help police families navigate these turbulent times.

1. Distinguish between what you can control and what you can't. Consider the doughnut as a way to model the distinction between what you can and can't

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