1 / 10

Gangs

Gangs. Role of the police. Definition. No one definition Common elements Persistence over time Appearing in a group publicly Self-Identification as a gang Symbols Claims over turf and criminal activity. Gangs.

eris
Download Presentation

Gangs

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Gangs Role of the police

  2. Definition • No one definition • Common elements • Persistence over time • Appearing in a group publicly • Self-Identification as a gang • Symbols • Claims over turf and criminal activity

  3. Gangs • Over 26000 gangs, 780,000 gang members (broad estimates, usually based on police data) • Traditionally common in urban slum areas • Migration to smaller communities? Occurring, does not appear to be planned • Provides sense of belonging, status, success, self-esteem and cohesion, protection

  4. Studies • Thrasher (1920s) • Cloward and Ohlin (1960s) • Do gangs cause delinquency? • Recruitment of already delinquent youth • Or, do gangs make it easier to become delinquent? • Increase in violence in gang, esp. lethal

  5. Studies • Considerable drug use • Sale of drugs for profit varies from gang to gang • Increase in autonomous female gangs • Traditional: “auxiliary” groups • Increase in females as members of predominantly male gangs

  6. Interventions • Suppression (CJS) • Intervention: detached workers, outreach workers, social work orientation • Organizational change: units that deal with gangs that are specialized, trained (often police) • Community organization: community mobilization, outgrowth of social disorganization theory

  7. Interventions • Opportunity: providing alternative opportunities to gang members • Suppression: Harsher penalties, making gang activities a crime, not particularly effective • Detached workers: rather mixed results • Gang units: an evaluation indicated that police actually receive little training

  8. Interventions: GREAT • Gang Resistance education and training • Sme positive results: better attitudes toward police, more negative views of gangs, less victimization, less risky behaviors • However, gang participation was not reduced

  9. Gang units • Most focus on intelligence gathering and description and investigations of crimes committed by gangs. Not particularly effective • Boston Gun project: targeted firearms among gang members—if a gang member commits a crime with a gun, all members are given increased attention (stop and question,

  10. Gang units • Loitering ordinances, check on probationers and paroles, (legal harrassment)

More Related