poverty leads to gangsterism essay

Law and Crime

Poverty, broken homes, violence: the making of a gang member, how the need for community leads some teens to find it in gangs..

Posted August 24, 2013 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

Reposted from the online magazine, " The Trauma & Mental Health Report ."

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 5,750 people were killed in Los Angeles County alone in the past 10 years in gang-related violence, many of them children and teenagers . With gangs reportedly recruiting members as young as 11, 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 sexual or physical abuse, growing up in poverty, having access to weapons and drugs, and a lack of success in other areas of life, such as school. Having identified these risk factors, experts propose that young adults join gangs because they both act as a surrogate family, as well as provide a sense of belonging, power, control and prestige; all things that are commonly identified as absent in childhood among gang initiates.

The idea of a gang acting as a substitute family is supported in interviews conducted by Joe Killian, a writer for the News and Record; Killian spoke with 40 gang members from Greensboro, North Carolina. The men he interviewed reported that they considered fellow gang members to be family and that they took care of each other. Killian found that most of the gang members he interviewed had tattoos to publicly show their allegiance to their particular gang, and to show pride in belonging to the group. Several gang members said that being part of a gang meant you were never alone in the world, which is similar to how many people describe being part of a close-knit family or group of friends. Gangs provide members a sense of belonging and protection they do not receive from other relationships or experiences in life.

In addition to the intense feeling of family provided by gang membership, those gang members interviewed by Killian, also referred to the fantasy of a “Cinderella” story portrayed by films like Scarface, and rappers such as 50-Cent, Tupac Shakur, and the Notorious B.I.G. The media portray gangster life as one filled with excitement, power, fortune, and ease. Experts assert that many adolescents simply fall victim to the “rags to riches” fairytale glamorized by popular culture. Given that adolescents are joining gangs as young as 11 years of age, these children lack the maturity and critical thinking skills required to fully understand danger and negative consequences. Coupled with a lack of support and guidance from positive role models, oftentimes a life of relative poverty, and few alternate activities to occupy their attention , it becomes easy for these youth to be wooed by the false promise of a glamorous lifestyle and for older gang members to step into the role of mentor.

Unfortunately, gang influence can be rather difficult to control. The problem with gang prevention efforts is that many of the risk factors associated with membership are connected to complex social issues outside of the control of any one individual. A few positive role models may have only minimal effect within an environment where gang violence dominates the cultural milieu.

One demonstration project has been particularly successful in reducing gang activity with an impressive list of programs that combat a large proportion of the identified risk factors. The Harlem Children’s Zone project, pioneered by Geoffrey Canada in 1997, serves thousands of children and covers a 100-block area of Harlem, New York; a neighborhood known for broken homes, violent crime, and drug activity. Family support centers, private schools, parent training and after-school programs developed within the project have shown students that they can lead exciting and prosperous lives without having to be involved in crime. The project has provided them with a community of positive role models and has led to a significant increase in the number of youth that go to college and a decrease in crime and gang activity.

There are various other gang prevention programs in place as well, such as the Phoenix Curriculum and the Gang Resistance Education and Training Program (G.R.E.A.T.) which focuses on teaching a variety of skills, as well as offering mentorship and counseling for at risk youth. Unfortunately, the little evaluation that has been done has found this program to be of only limited benefit.

Still, with increased awareness, creativity , community engagement, and more programs* like the Harlem Children’s Zone, we may yet reduce the severe damage gangs have inflicted on our communities; one city block at time.

–Contributing Writer: Crystal Slanzi, The Trauma & Mental Health Report

–Chief Editor: Robert T. Muller, The Trauma & Mental Health Report

*In 2009, U.S. President Barak Obama dedicated $10 million to replicate the Harlem’s Children’s Zone project in 20 neighborhoods at risk for failure, crime, and gang activity.

Read more about the Harlem Children’s Zone project here .

Robert T. Muller, Ph.D. , is a professor of psychology at York University, and the author of the book Trauma and the Avoidant Client .

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

When we fall prey to perfectionism, we think we’re honorably aspiring to be our very best, but often we’re really just setting ourselves up for failure, as perfection is impossible and its pursuit inevitably backfires.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Download Free PDF

Gangs in South Africa the Root THE ROOT CAUSE FOR GANGSTERISM IN SOUTH AFRICAN A BRIEF ESSAY

2019, THE ROOT CAUSE FOR GANGSTERISM IN SOUTH AFRICA

This work briefly discusses the Development, Social Aspects, Gang Demographics. All the ideas demonstrated in this paper are as a result of the writers own experiences when working with gang members incinerated at the Cradock Correctional Facility between 2003 and 2005. There are references to work by other scholars in the areas of crowd dynamics and psychology.

Related papers

Advances in psychology, mental health, and behavioral studies (APMHBS) book series, 2016

The African Review, 2018

In South Africa, gang violence continues unabated particularly in black and coloured townships. The question addressed in this paper is why youth continue to be involved in gang violence despite South Africa being deemed the most developed African country. The response to this question goes just beyond economic reasons and includes young men and the expression of their masculine power. In this paper we reveal the ways in which young men continue to be involved in gang violence and their consequences. The paper is based on an ethnographic study from 2017 to 2018. It draws on two black townships of Gugulethu and Nyanga East in Cape Town South Africa. Keywords: South Africa, Gang, Youth, Violence, Masculinity Godfrey Maringira, Senior Postdoctoral, University of Western Cape, Email: [email protected] Tyanai Masiya, Lecturer, University of Pretoria, Email: [email protected]

University of Fort Hare, 2018

Institutional gangs, also known as the number’s gangs, have become a severe threat to the effective administration of correctional facilities in South Africa. Prior to the 1980s, these gangs were active only in correctional centres, but due to modern trends in criminal activity and the gangs’ extensive drug operations, they have become active within communities too. The numbers gangs have a national network that controls activities in all correctional centres across South Africa; this network operates effectively and independently of geographical areas. The numbers gangs contribute a large proportion of all disciplinary offences (e.g., assault, smuggling, escape, sodomy, etc.) that take place in South African correctional centres. The purpose of this study was to explore the social and cultural dynamics of selected correctional centres in order to understand the extent to which institutional gangs’ control and manipulate the correctional environment. The study also focussed on the individual-level characteristics of inmates as a contributing factor for deviant behaviour. The social processes that manifest in institutional misconduct and violence in correctional centres have been explained in the literature according to three theoretical perspectives; namely, the importation, deprivation and situational, contextual perspectives. To develop a better understanding of the phenomenon of gang activities in correctional centres, this study is grounded in the Social Structure and Social Learning theory to explore the individual, social and cultural dynamics of the centre, referring to these three perspectives. A mixed research design, comprising both qualitative and quantitative aspects, characterised the methodology used in this study. The data informing the study consisted of primary data (observations, interviews and questionnaires) and secondary data (source documents), with 151 inmates and several centre officials in three Eastern Cape correctional centres participating. This study was substantial for several reasons. It confirmed the findings of prior studies concerning personal and social characteristics that inmates import into correctional centres, and, besides, it expanded the existing literature concerning how and why inmates import their deviant behaviour into correctional centres. It further brought a new element to the field of criminology, in identifying the demographic characteristics of inmates that contribute towards institutional gang membership and violence in correctional centres. The study also expanded upon prior findings regarding risk factors associated with institutional gang membership by developing a prediction model to predict possible gang membership before and after incarceration. Finally, this is the first known empirical study to examine the social and cultural contexts of gang membership in correctional centres in South Africa. Keywords: Social Structure and Social Learning, prison gangs, importation theory, deprivation theory, situational, contextual theory, the numbers gang, social learning theory, South Africa.

The Coloured township is seldom investigated beyond notions of poverty and gangsterism. The prevailing focus in gang-township research is to identify two distinct and dichotomous agents namely the gang organisation and the community. However much of the existing research errs in not locating these criminal organisations within and therefore as an intrinsic part of the community but rather distinct from it. A focus on gangs in the former Coloured townships is predominantly on the violence and the depravity, as well as their increasing economic success in the illegal economy rather than a focus on the construction of social identity in these communities. The question posed is how does identity construction and social cohesion in an abnormal environment correlate to the persistence of gang membership and socialisation? The objectives of the paper are to assert that violence, the community and racial identity in these townships are intertwined rather than separate concepts to be isolated and thus remedied. The aim is to demonstrate that the social relations in the former Coloured townships remain located in the racially defined past and in a perverse sense of social cohesion. The conclusions are that the salience of the gang structures in the normal framework of township society defines social behaviour, identity structures and perceptions of greater South African society. Due to the structure of community boundaries these townships remain marginalised, physically and psychologically, isolated from the rest of the country and operate as islands of poverty, violence and despair. Self-imposed perceptions of community exclusion create disconnections and distortions in terms of awareness and relevant information.

University of Fort Hare; Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2017

Institutional gangs, also known as the number’s gangs, have become a serious threat to the effective administration of correctional facilities in South Africa. Prior the 1980s, these gangs were active only in correctional centres, but due to modern trends in criminal activity and the gangs’ extensive drug operations, they have become active within communities too. The numbers gangs have a national network that controls activities in all correctional centres across South Africa; this network operates effectively and independently of geographical areas. The numbers gangs contribute a large proportion of all disciplinary offences (e.g., assault, smuggling, escape, sodomy, etc.) that take place in South African correctional centres. The purpose of this study was to explore the social and cultural dynamics of selected correctional centres, in order to understand the extent to which institutional gangs’ control and manipulate the correctional environment. The study also focussed on the individual-level characteristics of inmates as a contributing factor for deviant behaviour. This study was substantial for several reasons. It confirmed the findings of prior studies with respect to personal and social characteristics that inmates import into correctional centres, and, in addition, it expanded the existing literature with respect to how and why inmates import their deviant behaviour into correctional centres. It further brought a new element to the field of criminology, in identifying the demographic characteristics of inmates that contribute towards institutional gang membership and violence in correctional centres. The study also expanded upon prior findings regarding risk factors associated with institutional gang membership by developing a prediction model to predict possible gang membership prior to and after incarceration. Finally, this is the first known empirical study to examine the social and cultural contexts of gang membership in correctional centres in South Africa

Women are almost completely left out of South African research on gangs (as researchers and researched). There is also no clear conceptualisation of what constitutes a gang, with writers sometimes treating a whole range of collective behaviours as the same phenomenon. 1 Writers also refer to different types of gangs without always specifying how they are similar to or different from one another. 2 Further, despite an emerging body of work on African gangs, 3 media and public attention remains focused on coloured gangs in the Western Cape. Additionally, apart from Glaser's work on tsotsi 4 gangs (1990), writers on African gangs have focused even less on women gang members than their counterparts writing on Western Cape gangs. Inevitably then, information in this article is mainly about coloured Western Cape gangs. 5

African youth face deep challenges in attaining success in the USA today. Opportunities for academic and economic success are limited, constrained by today's neoliberal conservatism in public policy and facing a harsh environment for getting a foothold in employment. This report documents the risks such youth face for becoming gang-involved, drawing forth original quantitative and qualitative study of risk factors and perspectives of key local and national leaders on community needs, assets and ideas for service supports that are likely to protect African youth, and help them reach adulthood with their futures intact.

Blair, 2019

Indian Journal of Information Library & Society, 2024

The Study of Language: A Review, 2022

From Esztergom to the Urals and Syria. From the Early History of the Hungarians to the Crusaders, 2021

ASES BIOMECÁNICAS PARA EL ANÁLISIS DEL MOVIMIENTO HUMANO, 2005

kmgswrni, 2017

Dialog so vremenem, 2024

Journal of School Health, 2024

La frontera en el mundo hispánico, 2014

American Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 2023

Manuscript Studies, 2017

Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2012

Al-Rafidain Dental Journal, 2002

Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 2019

Dalton Transactions, 2017

Nature Precedings, 2011

Amity Journal of Economics, 2017

Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment, 2016

Applied Sciences, 2020

The American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 1997

arXiv (Cornell University), 2023

Related topics

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• Tools and Resources
• Customer Services
• Corrections
• Crime, Media, and Popular Culture
• Criminal Behavior
• Criminological Theory
• Critical Criminology
• Geography of Crime
• International Crime
• Juvenile Justice
• Prevention/Public Policy
• Race, Ethnicity, and Crime
• Research Methods
• Victimology/Criminal Victimization
• White Collar Crime
• Women, Crime, and Justice
• Share Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Article contents

Street gangs: a multiple marginality perspective.

• James Diego Vigil James Diego Vigil Department of Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.013.425
• Published online: 23 May 2019

Poverty is the central reason for the rise of street gangs throughout the contemporary world; poor people live in older, rundown areas and labor in the lowest paid jobs. The framework of “multiple marginality” is used to reflect these developments and their persistence over time, especially relying on qualitative time frames and insights. As a holistic or multidimensional overview, multiple marginality provides the basis for how and why macro (historical) forces are related to and shape meso (family, school) developments, which lead to micro (personal) outcomes.

The multiple marginality framework helps us to dissect and analyze the ways place/status undermine and exacerbate social, cultural, and psychological problems. There are striking similarities among place/status factors found in various ethnic groups, which contribute to the promotion of favored public policies and to concerted actions. With such policies and programs, we can assist and shape the future of families who, until now, have lost out. We can restructure and improve schools, which have obviously fallen short. Finally, we can develop partnerships to integrate peoples and communities into new criminal justice strategies that will help encourage youth to respect society and its laws, because respect is tendered to them in kind.

• multidimensional
• multiple marginality
• social control
• street gangs
• intervention
• suppression

You do not currently have access to this article

Please login to access the full content.

Access to the full content requires a subscription

Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Criminology and Criminal Justice. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 26 November 2024

• Cookie Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Legal Notice
• Accessibility
• [66.249.64.20|185.80.151.41]
• 185.80.151.41

Character limit 500 /500