Jake O’Brien
Mrs. Zurkowski
Yellows
October 10, 2011
Gang Violence: Increasing In Numbers for Over Twenty Years.
Gang violence takes almost 5000 deaths every year, and you or one of your family members is most likely directly or indirectly influenced by it. A gang is a group of people who get together and often violate the law (“Hartlage”). Teen gangs are reported to be in over 75% of large cities and also in 50% of suburban cities (“Teen Gangs”). Gang violence can be in several places, in the schools, on the streets, or even in prison, and everyone should take a stand to stop all of them. Gangs in schools are a huge thing nowadays and gang violence will continue to grow unless someone puts a stop to it. Teen gang violence has been steadily rising annually for the last decade (“Teen Gangs”). Not only do gangs involved themselves in robberies and shootings but in drugs, which can tear apart families and ruin people’s lives (Cressey). Gangs are a very bad thing that teens get themselves into and we should take major actions to stop them.
Gang violence in schools definitely poses a threat to the school systems and their students. No one would deny that gangs in schools are a major issue. In 2005 25% percent of schools nationwide reported gang activity in their schools, which was a 3% rise from 2004 (“Teen Gangs”). Those statistics are way too high and should be lower. Also, from 2006-2007 there were 27 homicides in schools that year which is double than it was in 2005-2006 (“Richards”). Another reason gangs in schools should be acted upon is that approximately 3 million thefts or violent crimes occur every year in schools, which is about 16,000 per day (“Teen Gangs and Crime”)! Also there’s a huge increase of gang members in the last 3 years. Obviously something is being done wrong either by the police or by the school systems. Major acts should be done to prohibit and stop gang activities in schools.
Gangs are a major threat to the streets as well as it is in schools, because street gangs can directly affect family’s and other nearby surroundings like neighborhoods and businesses. There has been a significant increase in gang activity and gang members over the past few years. In 2007 there were a total of about 750,000 gang members and now in 2011 there are about 1 million gang members, a huge increase just over the past 4 years (“Gang Statistics”)! Police need to enforce more laws and arrest more people to stop gangs or else everyone who’s not in a gang will be afraid to go on the streets. Most gang members join gangs because they don’t have much family support or a low income. Learning disabilities also contribute to people joining gangs, because about 70% of people in gangs have some kind of learning or emotion problems. Street gangs contribute to about 60% of gang activity throughout the country, while school and prison gangs make up the rest (“Gang Statistics”). A lot of times when people join gangs it’s hard to get out of them, which is bad because a lot of times life in a street gang is terrible (“Gang Life”). Most of the time when someone tries to leave a street gang, the consequence is death or a terrible beating, and when you’re in that gang you would be always scared of rival gangs trying to kill you (“Gang Life”). Obviously gang life is terrible, but people can’t get out of them, so we need to take action to stop gangs and give the gang members help.
Gang violence on streets and in schools takes many lives and harms many people every year. Approximately 69 out of every 100,000 teens are killed due to gang violence (Tsou). Those numbers have increase by 10 percent in the last few years and they are projected to keep rising (Tsou). Having that many teens dying of gang violence is terrible, and those numbers are significantly too high. Also the amount of teens caught doing crime is increasing too. There are about 506 teens out of 100,000 who commit crime in the country (Tsou). These numbers are most likely affected by gangs and their influences on other people. Also in every city in America with over 250,000 people has gang activity in it which is an increase from 2009 when not every city with 250,000 people in it had activity (“Gang Statistics”). If nothing is done to stop gang activity, the numbers will continue to rise in members and deaths.
Some people would criticize my statement to stop gangs. Some people believe that kids who don’t have many friends or don’t have support from parents should join gangs for help or for independence (“Joining a Gang”). Or, some people feel the need to join a gang for acceptance or to be cool (“Joining a Gang”) Or even another reason people think its ok to join is because they are sad for a loss of family and they want to feel love of a family (“Joining a Gang”). But, it is never ok to join a gang because you will be always at risk of being injured or getting killed. Also if you’re feeling sad about a loss of family, go stay with a friend or with extended family. Another reason is if you want to be accepted, try joining a sports team or maybe even boy scouts, because it is never okay to join a gang. It is never ok to join a gang because you are constantly put at risk or injury, drugs and even death and if you are feeling sad or want to feel accepted there are other options besides joining a gang.
We all know now that gangs are bad and that we should stop gangs and convince kids to leave them, but how? Well first, all the schools could ban gang symbols and gang clothing (“Ways to Stop Violence”). By banning those, new people who want to be accepted by someone will not join the gang, because they wouldn’t know about the gang. Also another thing we could do to stop gang violence is to stop airing TV shows and music that talk about gangs (“Ways to Stop Violence”). Because if we don’t air those TV shows or play that music, people might not think it’s that cool to join a gang and they might not join it. Also another way to stop gang violence may be to put harsher punishments on people in gangs, so people will be scared to join them, in fear of getting caught (“Ways to Stop Violence”). If all those things get changed around maybe gang violence could stop once and for all.
Gangs are large in Schools, cities, and on the streets and they should be ultimately stopped because they take many innocent lives. Gangs are obviously a terrible thing that influences kids to make bad choices. People should care about this issue because a lot of innocent kids get killed or injured due to gangs. Also a lot of times people will join gangs without realizing that it’s almost impossible to make it out alive. So, if we ban gang symbols, and bad TV shows that influence people into joining gangs we might be able to stop this issue before it becomes so large to handle.
Works Sited:
Cressey, Donald R. "Gang." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, 2011. Web. 22 Sept. 2011.
""Gang Life"" HowStuffWorks. Web. 06 Oct. 2011. <http://people.howstuffworks.com/street-gang2.htm>.
"Gang Statistics." Helpinggangyouth. Web. 06 Oct. 2011. <http://www.helpinggangyouth.com/statistics.html>.
Hartlage, Faith, and Gennaro F. Vito. "Gangs." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online, 2011. Web. 25 Sept. 2011.
"Joining a Gang." Gangs and At-Risk Kids. 28 May 2010. Web. 07 Oct. 2011. http://gangsandkids.com/gquestion0j.html
Richards, George E. "School Violence." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online,2011. Web. 25 Sept. 2011.
"Teen Gangs and Crime." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 9 Feb. 1996. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. <http://www.2facts.com/article/i0101470>.
"Teen Gangs." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 9 Apr. 2009. Web. 19 Sept. 2011. <http://www.2facts.com/article/i0501120>.
Tsou, Amy S. "Gang Violence in the United States." Wright House: Frank Lloyd, Orville and Wilbur, Steven... University of Maryland. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. <http://www.wright-house.com/ac/papers97/Tsou-ac1.html>.
"Six Ways To Stop Violence In Chicago Without Using The National Guard." Ways to Stop Gangs. Web. 07 Oct. 2011. http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2010/04/six-ways-to-stop-violence-in-chicago-without-using-the-national-guard/
On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this graded academic work.
Jake O’Brien
