A gang is a group of criminals that takes control of a specific area and engage in either individually or collectively, in illegal, and possibly violent behavior. Gangs are involved in homicides, drug trafficking, robbery/theft for the purpose of making money. Similar to the Italian mobsters they are a group that try to take control of the city by making people intimidated by them. This matter has been happening for many decades in numerous different parts all over the world and will begin to evolve into a bigger issue if it isn't resolved. This problem also happens in cities, such as:
Mexico, Chicago, and London
Mexico is one of the biggest countries known for drug cartels and severe gang crime. Mexico recently reached its highest monthly murder rate over the past 20 years caused by gangs. From January to May almost 10,000 people were killed in the country.
Chicago is also a very common area for gang violence to occur. According to ABC news, up to 40% of homicides in Chicago between 2009-2011 were gang-related. Today there are 100,000 Chicago gang members compared to the 12,000 police officers, which results in the police being outnumbered and more crime to be released into the community.
London is a very large city with regard to gangs. London gangs are one of the most dangerous people on the planet as they will do anything no matter who it is. 1 in 4 London residents report that they or a friend knows someone who has been killed by a gun or a knife in the past 3 years.
The graph shown above represents how many major gangs there are in the world. The pattern in the graph shows gangs were decreasing from 1996-2003 due to lack of gang members. From 2004-2012 there has been a gradual increase of gangs due to wanting to make quick money through illegal behavior. Gangs are becoming more and more popular as people are wanting to make easy money by dealing drugs or stealing. This issue will increase until resolved which is why we need to put a stop to it.
The Solution
Gang prevention- There is no prevention really for gang violence but to get the youth out of being in a gang or even adults is to experience a jail visit. This is where you will end up if people continue to do gang violence. People think jail is this and that but if you are an active gang member, visiting a jail will give you an experience of how the inmates live in a prison Furthermore, an advantage of this method may include a chance that children/ teenagers will change their thoughts on gang violence and be less gang violence. This will mean that once we go through a generation of people there will be barely any gang violence as the adults now would have passed away but the new people being introduced into the world are not being affected by this urbanization issue. Some other further advantages may include safer communities and less overall illegal activity, (homicides, drug dealing/usage, theft)
The disadvantage is that sometimes it will be hard to reach out to some kids but what’s even harder is to help the college/adult people between their 20s and 30s as they won’t listen and this kind of behavior is almost permanent. Another disadvantage is that this won’t happen overnight, this may take a decade or even half a century as it very hard to talk and reach out to a major city on an issue but, as time will move on the numbers will decrease overtime there will also be some disadvantages of legalizing drugs and this may include fewer jobs, higher poverty rate due to lack of job opportunities
The war on gangs will continue until resolved, which is why rules and regulations need to be put into action, by legalizing drugs this will enable the gangs to be involved in more illegal activity and to create a safer environment.
Gangs are associated with many illegal activities and crimes, such as Drug trafficking, homicide and theft/robbery. Gangs revolve around drugs and that's the easiest way to gather quick drug money. This issue can be resolved by legalizing specific drugs which will decrease the amount of drug trafficking and gangs around the world and having a jail visit to open their eyes on where this issue can get you in life.
Youth.Gov released strategies and solutions to prevent youth gangs from emerging. Although they stated that there is no specific program developed for preventing youth gangs but they have listed many great tips on how to stop youth gangs before it’s too late. Governments from cities like Chicago and London should make an effort to really crack down on preventing gangs from emerging, especially the youth.