About Juvenile Gangs
Juvenile gangs are no longer the "rascals" of the "Our Gang" comedies, nor are they filled with the romantic characters of "West Side Story." They're not even a uniquely American phenomenon. Juvenile gangs are composed of young people with a child's emotional maturity who wield adult weapons. Understanding the sources of alienation and isolation in these young people's lives is only the first step a humane society needs to take toward reintroducing them as productive citizens.
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Identification
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A juvenile gang is a group of minors who form a socially cohesive unit by creating a set of mores and taboos unique to the group. Juvenile gang members are typically alienated, low-achieving adolescents from dysfunctional families who find a supportive environment in the gang. Many gang members may come from affirming family backgrounds or be successful students, but bow to overwhelming peer pressure to join the gang. The first juvenile gangs hung out on street corners, but today's gangs have established complex territorial limits.
Misconceptions
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Most of the gangs we're familiar with today are not actually juvenile gangs--they are adult criminal organizations arranged on a corporate model. Most members of the adult groups, however, began their careers in juvenile gangs or as "wannabes" of the adult organization. Membership in a juvenile gang does not always foreshadow a life of crime--many exceptional individuals have risen beyond their gang roots--but it does make returning to general society more difficult. Lost educational opportunities and non-productive skill sets begin a cycle that is difficult to break.
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History
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In the 19th century, juvenile friendship groups replaced family and social ties that had been lost to industrialization, changing immigration patterns and poverty. Due to their members' limited options, the groups developed into factions that carved out "territories" and engaged in petty criminal behavior. With the rise of adult organized crime in the 20th century, these groups of disaffected youth moved into more aggressive criminal pursuits, with many "graduating" into mob membership. As the century ended, many juvenile gangs had become apprenticeship organizations for adult, corporate gangs, their members often serving as low-level functionaries in criminal activities.
Features
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The first juvenile gangs were social in nature, with the strange sets of rules that only uneducated adolescents could invent. Today, early gangs' criminal activities and territorial disputes would be considered "acting out." With the arrival of adult gangs and the proliferation of deadly weapons, though, juvenile gangs became more accurate reflections of the adult criminal model, and some of today's most senseless gang violence is committed by juveniles. Absent viable alternative paths offered by education and effective employment programs, many young people see no other option for survival.
Effects
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An individual's self-image and sense of self-worth are controlled by the group mentality of the gang, and are grounded in the desensitization caused by the violent life most gang members feel locked into. With nothing to lose, they are free to act in a way that objectifies other human beings who are not members of the group. The attitudes of society and the punitive nature of the "correctional" system do little to change this negative outlook, but tend to reinforce the bonds represented by gang membership. The romanticization of gang life and the continued isolation of gang members due to their lack of education and training have turned large areas of our cities into zones of inter-gang warfare, and have encouraged expansion of gang activity into suburban and rural areas.
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Resources
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