Gang Violence and Families

There are two types of families to consider when discussing gang violence, the actual birth family of the gang member, and the gang community. Most gang members however, only consider the gang as their family. Children feel lost and abandoned from their birth families, so they join a group that will always be there for them. The group they join is a dangerous one. It is a gang.

Conclusion For Community vs. Gang Violence

Overall, people have to stick together to keep gangs from causing harm to the families that live in the gang ridden communities. Children should be able to go outside and enjoy themselves instead of worrying about whether or not they will get caught in cross fire gang activity. If neighborhoods want their communities to be a safe place, it’s up to them to stop the gangs. More and more workshops are beginning to come up to show neighborhoods how to work and live in a gang infested community. If the public sticks together to help fight the gangs, one day all of these children will be able to go out and have fun instead of living in fear of accidental death by gang activity.

School Community vs. Gang Violence

The schools in the gang affected area are also part of the community. If the community is threatened by gangs, then the schools are threatened as well. I know from personal experience, about gangs in schools. My high school had two gangs that always fought each other at school and some days I was afraid to go to school because I feared the gang fights.
In a survey taken by my group for this project, we asked 100 people questions about gangs and if they knew people in a gang, or had problems with gangs during school. One of the questions we asked was if gang violence ever broke out during school hours. Out of the 100 people we asked, 50% said yes, that some type of fighting broke out because of the gangs in the school.
When children fear going to school because of the gang violence and what can happen, the results from an academic stand point can be awful. In my third text I read for this class, And Still We Rise, Miles Corwin discusses the point that children who go to school in gang ridden communities fall to the pressures of gangs all the time. If these children in gangs go to school at all, they go to hang out with the other gang members. The children that actually go to school to learn have a hard time doing so when every day; a fight breaks out because of gang competition.

How To Make The Communities Safer

Acts are being done however to make the communities safer. In 1992 an ordinance was created that stated that gangs were not allowed to loiter with other gang members in certain public areas. This helped to eliminate some of the cross fire gang violence because it decreased the chances of gang rivals getting in fights when they were seen loitering around each other. However, the issue of freedom is brought up because people believe that every person has a right to be anywhere they want. Does it cross the line when innocent civilians’ lives are in jeopardy? This is why gang violence in the community is still so common today. Due to the fact that people believe they that should be free to hang out where ever they want, gang fights continue to break out. With the continuous break out of fights, cross-fire activity occurs, resulting in serious injury and death for the civilians.