A gang is composed of a group of members with a defined leadership and normally engage in criminal activities. The Emergence of gangs in America is evident in the four main gang regions because of immigration. Firstly, gangs emerged in the Northeast region in the 1820s, mostly in New York City. Secondly, it was in the Midwest region among the White immigrant youth in the 1860s. Thirdly was the West, where gangs developed later than New York City. While in the south, the gang did not emerge prior to the 1970s. They started terrorizing the neighborhoods ( Howell, 2011). The paper examines gangs and immigration in America.
The Americas regions have, in the past, experienced an increase in the size of gangs and mostly composed of immigrants. They considered immigration policies to help them suppress gangs in the regions. The creation of gangs often followed certain patterns of migration, and people joined with reasons depending on time and place they also joined for protection and economic gain. The Hispanic gang grew mostly in the northeast and the southern regions due to high immigration, and the local authorities used these immigration policies to remove gang members in the regions ( Howell, 2011).
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The comparison and differences in the pattern of immigration in this region are seen in different aspects. The gangs had similar goals for forming, like access to luxury goods and protection ( Howell, 2011). However, the racial composition of each gang varied with time; as new groups arrived, they teamed up with the existing gang and formed a new group. Today New York and Chicago gang composition have a greater number of Latino and black members. For the West region gang history, unlike the Midwest and Northeast, the Western gangs did not have white people, and it remained that way ( Howell, 2011).
In conclusion, the presence of gang activities in the Northeast, Midwest, West, and South regions of America was mainly due to a lack of necessary skills for the immigrants to adapt to the new homeland. They needed to find other means of survival in order to get the necessities they needed. The immigrants came to American due to difficulties in their previous homes like violence.
Reference
Howell, J. C. (2011). Gangs in America's Communities . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
