I Search Rough Draft On Research Essay Example For Students

I Search Rough Draft On Research Essay 3-28-04 English The World Book Encyclopedia defines gangs as an informally organized group of people. It usually applies to a group of men or boys who do acts that are illegal or on the borderlines of being against the law. Although gangs may do things that are illegal and disrupt the public I think they do more than that. Gangs rip apart families, destroy friendships, vandalize the community, and kill people. Even though gangs do these evil accounts it cannot be stopped, and will not stop. The biggest problem that starts kids to have motives to be in a gang is discipline. Most of the kids that are in gangs are not disciplined enough so many of them think that they can get away with it easily. Is this true? Of course not. Statistics say that between forty and sixty percent of violent crimes and drug activity are responsible from gangs. Also in 1999 there has been eight hundred forty one gang related fatalities reported. These facts show that the kids that are in gangs do not have the discipline to care at all about their surroundings and just think of themselves. Another big problem that does cause these crimes are financing which has been related to the younger group of families than the older families. The younger group may have more financing issues but not by much. Twenty percent of the younger families vote that they do have problems because of this, while eighteen percent of those fifty and older said yes. This also has to do with the economic downturn also. During the 1990s while the economy has been booming the rate of all kinds of crime has been going down says David Curry, a professor at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. He also states that, The relationship between economics and crime is a very solid one. Former Pulaski County Coroner Steve Nawojczyk and is a nationally known gang expert, agrees that, when you have a downturn in the economy, crime goes up and that drugs are more prevalent in a poor economy. Steves most main concern is that if the economy dropping would cause community programs to lose funding and eventually disappear from the community. Which would further cause even more gang problems. Steve says that, I believes a gangs ability to recruit members is mainly due to poverty, calling those most eligible for gang life members of the ;5H Club,; teen-agers who are hungry, hopeless, homeless, hugless and helpless. Richard McCorkle, author of Panic: The Social Construction of the Street Gang Problem, states that this will not only affect gangs, but a more bigger problem. It would affect groups of men who dont have money or hope and cause them to start doing crimes to get money. The next thing that would cause gangs to continue and never be fully gone is the rivalry between gangs. Being that most of these gangs are in close distances of each other conflicts are most likely to happen. This would result in killing and lead to even more killing just over little things such as drugs and claiming land. These gangs keep trying the impossible going into extreme measures just to win even a gang war. These extreme activities that these gangs do also effect our economy in a sense that these gangs are making police departments use their budget to fight gang related crimes and other illegal events. Oakland Police Department is already ten million dollars over budget just to step up police enforcement efforts to reduce murder rates. These enforcements are set to target certain areas in Oakland known as hot spots, which are areas that have the most crime and drug activity. As of March 21st there has been already twenty deaths in Oakland just in 2004. In 2003 there has been 114 people killed and in 2003 113 people have been killed. This has made Oakland one of the highest places to have murder rates in the nation. Even though Oakland has gone over the budget, affecting the economy, they have to do so to keep gangs and other criminal activities under control because they do not have any other .