Week 4 Blog 2 Youth and Gang Violence

TRAINGLE

Explore some connections between the economic issues in the film and the data presented in the article.    

The first point that I enjoyed about today’s information was the cold hard fact that even though the life of a gang member looks identical to what one lives in society (making money, having people above you such as upper management, and consequences for not doing a good job) the cold hard truth is that it just doesn’t pay.  Just as was displayed in the film “Why Do Crack Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?” you see that these people generally do not get farther than home in life because they are too busy being addicts of their own market.  Generally these people health and safety are not cared for or jeopardized in a manner that keeps them from progressing or living life.

Next is how young people become involved in the lifestyle of gangs and drugs.  Generally these young kids are sold on the dollars and cars that they see.  Generally their upper management portrays a lifestyle of money and success even though in most cases the resources that they display them generally do not own.  These young kids become “foot soldiers” committing the acts and crimes that the older gang members no longer want to get into trouble for.  And even though they commit themselves to these acts and live life, generally these children are sold on a lifestyle that usually ends up owning them.

These children believe that they are buying into a lifestyle that will take care of them when generally the truth is that they are becoming part of a life that will kill them.  They are generally not as healthy because of drug use, being on the streets, fighting etc. and they are in more cases then not people that generally end up spending more time in jail then they do making money.  With all of this lower life expectancy, lower standard of life, and lower satisfaction of life is what these children really have to look forward to.

SQUARE

What is difficult for me to read about and see is how the media is portraying these lifestyles.  While we do have shows that educate and help show the realities of these lifestyles, in more cases then not children are watching and learning about these worlds in rap videos and gangster movies.  Many children get an idea that living this lifestyle is full of girls, and parties, great times and good friends that are better to you than your family.  They reinforce the lies of this dark world and in many way glamorize the very ways of life that can harm if not kill these young minds.

CIRCLE

In reading “Longitudinal Perspective on Adolescent Street Gangs” the writing represented that the only way to make a difference is in assuring that interventions on youth are effective and supported.  While it is unfortunate that many of these kids come from homes that parents either lack the attention or don’t have it to give, we need avenues of support to replace those.  A strong front on the truth of this lifestyle has to be taught, and the glamour of the lifestyle needs to be shown for the sad truth that it really is……a death trap.  If we can target and attack against all that makes this lifestyle look good we can start to make a dent into the number of children a year we are losing to drugs and gang violence.

Krohn, M. D., & Thornberry, T. P. (2007). Longitudinal perspectives on adolescent street gangs. In The long view of crime: A synthesis of longitudinal research. (pp. 128-60). New York: Springer.

TED Talks."Steven Levitt analyzes crack economics." Feb 2004. Online Video Clip. Accessed on July 27 2010.