Gangs are generally considered one of the main practices of violence troubling the contemporary Mexican communities in the United States. Gang involvement has become an important issue in today’s Latino community, and the increased presence of gangs among the Mexican population associated with crime has raised concerns. Research shows that gangs are not intrinsic to any nationality, ethnicity, or race, but it is developed through social groups based on particular situations. It is evident from the history of America that gangs emerge from communities that are struggling with their political, social, and economic status. Examples of social groups at risk of becoming gang members include immigrants and marginalized social groups in the U.S. The high rate of gang activity in the Mexican community is due to different contributing factors such as culture, poverty, low education attainment, and the environment in which they reside. Latinos represent the largest minority population in America, and the high rate of gang activity poses significant threats to the broader U.S society.
Mexicans swamped into Southern California in the era of World War II in search of industry jobs. They congested into poor Mexican neighborhoods, which contributed to the growth of Mexican street gangs. In the 1980s, the Latino gangs began selling drugs to make money, which was profitable and thus luring many young Mexicans who wanted to join. By the year 2000, the Latino gangs became organized crime gangs, operating in cities across the U.S. The national street gangs pose profound threats to the country because they engage in the smuggling and distributing huge quantities of illegal drugs across the country and are very violent. Gang membership promotes the use of drugs resulting in addictions among gang members. Drug use among Latino gangs is on the rise, which impacts negatively on families and society. The Latino gangs started as a small organization, which was highly disorganized. In the 1980s, the gang systematized its process and increased the ages of members to 12-40years. The networks grew to groups with identity symbols and colors, practiced initializing rituals and gave members nicknames (Vigil, 2018).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Researching on this issue will enhance our knowledge of Latino gangs in the U.S and be able to identify appropriate interventions to address the problem. Therefore, this paper discusses gangs as a social problem affecting the Mexican community in the United States and identifying appropriate solutions to address the issue.
Literature Review
The 1998 National Youth Gang Survey showed Latinos were the major ethnic group among gang members in the U.S. They represent 46% of all members of the gang. Such findings are indicators of property destruction, violence, and crime inflicted by the gang. Most importantly, the issue is troubling because youth form the future of our community and the broader society. The rising number of Latinos in the U.S has been attributed to a combination of factors, including a high rate of natural increase, migration from other states, and international migration. This means the growth of the Latino population could mean an increase in gang membership and activity in this community, which is threatening to society. Historically, gangs in the U.S comprised Polish youth, Jewish, Italian, and Irish. However, in the mid-1900s, four-fifths of the gang members consisted of Latino or African American. The neighborhood Latino gangs have been in existence for over 75 years. The subculture of the Mexican gangs in the U.S emerged in the early 1900s. The study suggests that these subcultures developed as a result of marginality experienced by Mexican youths, exploitation, and poverty (Scott & Bennett, 2021).
Estrada et al. (2018) identified the risk factors contributing to gang involvement among individuals in the Mexican community. The household income among the majority of Latino communities lives below the federal poverty threshold. According to 2013 data, 5.7 million Latinos below 18 years live in poverty. This represented 35.4% of all the young population that is poor in the community. In addition, the resident population aged 25 years and above represented 37.5% of Latinos who have some college degree, compared to the rest of the population in the U.S. Many Latinos reside in neighborhoods at-risk, which play a fundamental role in gang activity. Violent neighborhood conditions facilitate the development of a conducive environment for gang activity, especially among youths who may perceive gang involvement as a possible solution for protection. This raises concerns because many recent migrants tend to move into neighborhoods with high gang activities in urban and rural areas due to a lack of resources. The association between Latinos and gang affiliations has been on the rise in the U.S. Involvement in gang activity often results in the development of illegal and risky behavior. Evidence reveals that Latino adolescents involved in gang activity are at risk for drug use and addiction. Moreover, they are at high risk of being incarcerated; in every ten white men incarcerated, there are 26 Latino men. Therefore, poverty, lack of educational attainment, violent neighborhood conditions are risk factors that contribute to the rise of gang activity in the Mexican community.
A similar study by Sanders (2021) pointed out why youths in the Mexican community join gang groups. According to Sanders (2021), youths are drawn to gangs due to combined dilemmas at an individual, familial, and societal level. The influence could be a response to factors from the broader society, family or personal problems. The study revealed that many youths in the Mexican community join gangs in response to a need to belong. The need to gain social acceptance, want to be in a group of friends, and gain respect among peers are motivating factors to join gangs. In addition, the need to have a protective identity is a motivation to join a gang. Gangs offer a protective identity to their gang members, and thus youths are motivated to join to feel safe and protected from victimization or violence. In a broad sense, gang membership provides protection from socially threatening experiences such as not being part of a group, being alone, or being unentitled in society. However, being in the gang makes the communities, families, and youths less safe. Another reason why youth join gangs is because of a lack of something to do. Therefore, gangs provide them with a way to keep them busy. Youth who lack direction in life would perceive gangs as something that offers a sense of confidence and purpose. Being a gang member is perceived to open up opportunities such as having something to channel their energy to, having a sense of brotherhood, having access to status among peers, excitement, money, fun, girls, and parties. From the study findings, the reason for gang involvement takes place due to the process of marginalization in society. Marginalization experiences plus associated issues of belonging and identity occur mostly in schools where children spend most of their time, which is also a key environment for socialization. The majority of the Latino youths may not feel a sense of belonging and identity in schools because of status as “undocumented,” low academic achievement, and language barriers.
When examining the contributing factors to gang involvement among youths in the Mexican community, fundamental points become noticeable. First, these people have poor academic achievement. Second, these individuals have a poor and disenfranchised backgrounds. As the youths seek a network of protection and support, they tend to join groups whose culture is violent. They find support in the gang both emotionally and financially. Gang involvement puts an individual at high-risk behavior and situations. Putting all these factors into consideration enable us to identify alternatives that can be provided to youths, such as support networks and opportunities, to deter them from feeling the need to join gangs (Schuliger, 2021) .
Proposed Problem Resolution
Gang activity in the Mexican community can be resolved through developing alternative rehabilitation youth programs other than the legal system of punishment. In addition, society can establish programs for youths at risk in low-income communities to provide network support that is not found in outreach programs or traditional education systems. Moreover, funding collaborative research comprising youths, schools, community members, and law enforcement would contribute to developing comprehensive solutions for youths.
Developing inclusive programming ensures it is diverse and inclusive of all people regardless of race/ethnicity or economic or social status (Riel, 2020). Establish structures that will support Latino parents, such as community-based systems, to respond to circumstances affecting youths in the community. In addition, increasing parental responsibility, awareness, commitment, and involvement in their child’s life will help to minimize the chances of their child joining gang groups. The family-communication programs could be modified in culturally appropriate ways for Latino families to offer support to youths who want to leave gangs. Youths trapped in gangs often find a hard time leaving the gangs safely; therefore, offering them support is vital.
Youth-oriented Non-Governmental Organizations need to connect and collaborate to offer the youths opportunities and support in the long term. This can be achieved in actual ways, such as the leader gearing for youths in schools to collaborate with programs that offer activities for youths to improve on themselves and mobilizing the community through incoordination of agencies, community groups, and youths who were former gang members across agencies.
Another resolution is providing youths with opportunities such as developing different education, training, and employment programs geared towards youths involved in gangs. Educators can play a significant role in deterring gangs by educating the youth by reaching out to those who may lack a sense of the future. Creating gang awareness and repercussions of engaging in gang activities helps to deter youths from joining gangs. This can be done in after-school programs that offer students academic challenges to improve their performance and thus deter them from gang involvement. Educators should constantly send a message to students that gangs are unacceptable by banning gang symbols within the school premises. Schools can work actively with parents by informing them about any suspicious gang behavior identified in their children. It is believed that informing parents about gangs serve as a preventive measure to deter youths from gang involvement. Schools can identify students at risk of joining the gang and invite parents, community groups, and law enforcement officers to school and provide them with information regarding gang-related activities observed within the school (Lam, 2019).
Providing social interventions by involving criminal justice organizations, faith-based organizations, grassroots groups, schools, and youth-serving agencies to reach out to youths involved in gangs and connecting them with the needed services is also a resolution to gang organizations. In addition, implement informal and formal social control procedures such as close monitoring and supervision of gangs through agencies of the criminal justice system and community-based agencies would also solve the gang menace. This can be done by establishing and implementing policies that would promote the effective use of available resources within and across agencies to address the gang issue.
Communities can implement multiple services and strategies that would help prevent youths from joining a gang. Examples of these strategies include training teachers on how to effectively manage disruptive students, training parents on how to identify and handle a delinquent and disruptive youth, and reviewing the school “zero” tolerance policies to minimize expulsions and suspension, supporting students who perform poorly in school through tutoring, and enhancing adult supervision of students after school. In addition, the community can address the high-risk factors that motivate youth to join a gang, minimizing conflicts among youths by offering interpersonal skills to these students, which helps them address conflicts, strengthen families, and create awareness about the dangers of a gang.
According to Riel (2020), a combination of prevention, intervention, and suppression approaches is crucial for promoting success in a community. Prevention programs target youths at an increased risk of joining a gang and minimize the number of youths joining gangs. Intervention programs offer services and sanctions to youths who are part of gang members to deter them from the gangs. Law enforcement suppression approaches and services focus on rehabilitating violent gang members.
Conclusion
It is evident that gangs are a response to the dysfunction in the community. The Mexican community needs to acknowledge the existence of a gang problem before embarking on a meaningful journey to resolve it. The gang intervention approaches and strategies focus on supporting the community efforts to provide youths with a safe and prosocial environment to live and grow. It is evident that gangs lure youths into joining them with promises of offering them a sense of identity, economic opportunity, belonging, and safety. The majority of the troubled youths in contemporary society tend to look for alternatives to gang involvement. However, the day-to-day challenges of poverty and social isolation push some to choose gangs as their best option. Designing a program that will direct the troubled youth in the right direction would help save them from falling into the temptation of gang involvement. It is important to assist this community in doing away with false promises and replacing them with real opportunities for youths.
I believe that my resolutions to the gang problem will be received positively. First, I will help the community members understand gang problems experienced in their community, establish successful collaboration with community members to execute the interventions to curb gang problems, and determine their impact. Selecting an appropriate response to gang problems in the community will help the community members examine the problem and understand factors contributing to the persistence of the problem and how we can work together to eliminate the issue. I believe there will be resistance in my community because some people may not understand there is a gang problem or may fear that their children could be part of the gang and thus may end up in jail. In addition, I might get resistance from people who believe the gang is not all about crime and violence. However, I will explain to them the definition of a gang, what it entails, and its impact on society. In addition, I will why there is a need to curb gang problems so that we can mold our youths to be better people in society and that they are our leaders in the future. Many communities experience challenges in defining or recognizing their gang problems due to the diversity of gangs and their activities. Therefore, overcoming the barriers of resistance will help to address problems associated with gang involvement and activities.
The ethical considerations for the implementation of these community interventions include confidentiality. This involves keeping the information provided by a participant confidential and cannot be shared without their permission. Consent entails the participant in the program providing consent to share their information with others for the purpose of providing service. In addition, consent entails community members agreeing to the operation or location of intervention in their community. Finally, competence helps to ensure that the program or interventions provided are the best and are offered by competent people for the good of the community.
References
Estrada, J. N., Huerta, A. H., Hernandez, E., Hernandez, R., & Kim, S. (2018). Socio-ecological risk and protective factors for youth gang involvement. The handbook of violence in education: Forms, factors, and preventions , 185-202.
Lam, K. D. (2019). Critical Perspectives in Youth Gang Formation in the United States. In Oxford research encyclopedia of education .
Riel, K. (2020). A Culturally-Sensitive Resource Manual for Treatment of Gang-Affiliated, Mexican American Adolescent Males (Doctoral dissertation, Pepperdine University).
Sanders, B. (2021). Gangs, Drug Use, and Drug Selling in the United States. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice .
Schuliger, B. (2021). Bridging the Gap: Reconciling Research and Reality on Street Gang Prevention. Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/hsgconference/2021/conference_papers/34/
Scott, D., & Bennett, S. (2021). Endorsing the Street Code: the impact of neighborhood gang activity on incarcerated youth. Journal of Youth Studies , 1-21.
Vigil, J. D. (2018). Gangs, Poverty, and the Future. Urban Life: Readings in the Anthropology of the City , 245.
