Research Paper on "Delinquent Youth Subculture Gangs"

Research Paper 6 pages (2410 words) Sources: 12

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Delinquent Youth Subculture -- Gangs

Gang and group aggression, while not a new development in Canada and U.S., is becoming much more difficult to just look the other way as just boys being boys. However, boys are not alone, girls are apparently becoming more involved in this subculture of gang violence, but the hostility of both gender appear to be becoming more erratic, more vicious, and more dangerous. While many academics will argue that violence among youth is on the rise, there are not many dispute the fact that gang membership importantly enlarges the occurrence and distribution of brutal and violent crime amongst both genders. The purpose of this paper is to deliberate at length one of the most important characteristics of the delinquent youth subculture movement, and that is the use of, occurrence, theoretical and criminal subgroups.

Definitions of a Gang

Are crowds of kids who remain on a street corner or at a shopping center a gang? Are groups who find themselves into isolated fistfights gangs? Are a bunch of teenagers who steal or vandalize a gang? If a cluster of adolescence uses a gun once, is it a gang? If a group uses bats and sticks but not guns or knives, is it a gang? A lot of people squabble over rather or not a group is eager to use enough intensity to murder others, whether in defense or aggression, then it should be thought of as a gang (Hagedorn, J.M. 1999). While others may reason that violence does not have to be a feature for a group to be deemed a gang (some police forces describe a gang as a group of three or more persons who develop an alliance for the intention of involving in criminal activity) the difference between a 'group' and a 'gang' should not be even an issue. As Delmont (2009) clarifies the term gang can be a misinforming process of defining various types of get-togethers of young people. The term gang is desired as an enhanced way of seizing the event; and psychiatrists and policy-makers should be thinking in conditions of a continuum extending from a group of friends who spend time collectively and sporadically get into trouble to more dangerous, organized criminal groups or gangs.

Origin and History

Ever since the start of time, youth gangs or groups have been in existence. These groups have had a lot of unhealthy impressions on society for several years. These adolescence groups or gangs, as they are usually called, have contributed in many unethical and unlawful deeds that have afflicted mankind. Several of the earliest activities of gangs go all the way back to the fourteenth and fifteenth century in Europe. A number of the activities that these youths had been chronicled as participating in have been burglary, robbery, coercion, and rape (Delmont, M. 2009). During the same time in London, a lot of the names these gangs went by were the, Hectors, Bugle, Dead Boys and Mims. These gangs did various kinds of vandalism to cities. Throughout the middle ages in France, there were groups that began fights with other cliques that came from other places. In Germany, all through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, gangs were a function of the society.

Gangs did not happen to have dispersed to the United States until the early 1800's. Numerous immigrants from Europe migrated to the United States, mainly the east coast; in determination of life that was much better than there previous state. After they arrived in the United States, the money that a lot of the Europeans had quickly became exhausted. A lot of these immigrants had to get out loans with local merchants just so they could survive. Bearing in that many of these immigrants had little to no money at all, these people also had very small fortune for any health care of any kind. Many people died because of famine and poverty from all over. Parents could not even take care of the children. It was very normal to see children drifting the streets looking of food, shelter, and clothing. These young people that wandered the streets were mostly in the New England regions like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.

Numerous gangs that are in continuation today were shaped in the course of the civil rights crusade during the 1960's. Throughout the early nineteenth century, gangs were largely put together of Irish, Italian, and Jewish people. Nowadays, these groups are comprised of variety of ethnic groups which involve African-American, Hispanic, White, and people from Asia (Barakett, J., & Leonard, J. 1999). Gangs are currently less worried with having power over the rights of terrain and are more concerned with drug trafficking. Gangs today seek more business like opportunities. All through the early part of the nation, limitless if not all of the gangs were made up of teenagers. These days the gangs are made up of old and young. As technology has been on the rise, so has the apprehension of gangs. Gangs now have simpler access to firearms and drugs and are more of a hazard and a threat to the community then they once were.

Criminal and Delinquent Subcultures

A subculture is a descendant of something, but not the same from, certain bigger referential society. The word is utilized insecurely to denote communal agreements of standards, ethics, or benefits that put aside some persons, crowds, or additional association of individuals from greater institutes and from wider ethnic structures. Familiar samples comprise of youth subcultures, local subcultures, ethnic subcultures and subcultures linked with particular activities, and subgroups that foster amid individuals who communicate special meanings such as, those that collect stamps, a criminal bird-watching or criminal behavior adaptation.

While criminal subgroups characteristically are correlated with an extensive range of unlawful behaviors, among criminal groups and subcultures there is innumerable dissimilarity in the character and power of group norms, standards, and advantages. Furthermore, the degree to which negligent behavior is attributable to these issues is challenging. Much negligent conduct of extremely delinquent gangs, for instance, outcomes from the procedure of group procedures instead of group customs as such (Wesley, J.M. (2010). The normative possessions of groups differ significantly, but sometimes the most aberrant gang dedicates comparatively a small part of group life to the interest of actions that are delinquent. Extra, when these youths contribute in delinquent incidents, some associates of the gang normally do not participate. This is because subcultures naturally contain of sets of instructions that are normative -- instructions and systems linked to a mutual worth (Ha, J.S., & Park, J. 2011) -- instead of norms placed around a solitary importance (like being "macho," "cool," or remarkably talented in some way). Moreover, persons who are related with a specific subgroup usually are linked with other subcultures. Merely being connected with a subculture therefore is improbable to be a good forecaster of the conduct of a certain individual.

Theory and Research

Psychological Theories of Delinquency

Psychology of the mind theory suggests that the lawbreakers percentages of receptive thinking as opposed to conditioned thinking is that of which controls his or her level of mental health as well as their jeopardy for law-breaking or delinquency (Alvarez, A., & Bachman, R. 1997). According to the Psychology of Mind theory, adolescent's actions are founded off of how aware they are of what they do or say. If a juvenile discovers them self in a condition and takes the time to deliberately think about their actions, they usually act in a certain way. It is when a juvenile is in a condition where they act devoid of thinking about the results where a thoughtful decision could be made.

Kelley states that a youth's level of insecurity straightforwardly relates to their design of how they think. If a wrongdoer feels insecure in a state and thinks reactively, they are more likely to contemplate reactively and involve in deviant or delinquent conduct. Whereas if an criminal feels unconfident in a situation and thinks instinctively, they will be less probable to participate in delinquent behavior. Kelley points to the fact that a teenager or youth with a self-esteem that is high will be a lot less likely to a bad decision than one with a small level of self-worth based. This is based on the statistic that one who has a higher level of self-esteem logically wants to uphold that higher level of self-assurance and will be less likely to participate in an act to endanger that level of self-worth. Whereas one with a lower area of self-confidence may be willing to commend a delinquent act to increase their self-confidence (1996).

Differential-association theory

Edwin Sutherland invented the expression differential suggestion to speak to the concern the way people perceive nonconformity. According to this philosophy, the setting plays a chief part in choosing which standards people discover to disrupt. Purposely, individuals surrounded by a specific group deliver norms of traditionalism and deviance, and consequently deeply influence the method other persons observe the world, comprising how… READ MORE

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