"Cleaning Up Gangs"

Young people join gangs for various reason such as lack of jobs, social isolation, desire for protection, domestic violence, peer pressure, poor parental supervision and lack of school attachment (Howell, 2011). These are some of the risk factors that motivate youths in joining gangs and it is important to understand them in order to implement effective measures.   However, young people should know that joining a gang is associated with negative consequences which affect the entire life. For example, when one joins a gang, the chances of engaging in drug abuse and addiction is higher which later leads to health issues.  In addition, gang members are likely to be injured, incarcerated and lack good employment (Howell, 2011). As a counselor, 4 pieces of advice that I would offer to a gang member are; one, young people believe that as they join a gang, they will make lots of money, have plenty of friends, live a happy life and be powerful. These are myths and the truth is that gang members are injured, killed, die at an early age and spend most of their life in jail. Second, everyone was born for a purpose and everyone is entitled to enjoy the lasting happiness. This happiness and inner peace cannot be found in gangs but it is found in the community, family, and friends. Third, there are many constructive things in the community that one can do to sustain life and become a productive member. For example, one can attend weekly games, attend computer training,   attend church activities, extracurricular activities, and attend life skills seminars and more (Howell, 2011). The fourth and important advice is to make wise choices when choosing friends.  One should make new friends and find a mentor who will act as a role model and who will encourage good habits and instill positive life skills.

 As a counselor, I would employ various methods to ensure that the gang member does not resort back to gang activities. The major methods include; wraparound intervention-this means that I would create a constructive relationship with the gang member to address the complex needs of the individual. I would plan for an in-home tutoring to meet his or her personal interest and have face to face communication in order to achieve positive outcomes (Howell, 2011). Second, I would create an intervention program designed for cognitive behavioral therapy to provide the individual with self-awareness and life skills. Third, I would connect the gang member with family, community and learning institutions to ensure that the individual spends time with important people doing constructive things (Howell, 2011). Among these methods, the most important method is a wraparound intervention where I would meet the gang member twice a week to manage the problems, change behaviors, make new friends and solve conflicts. This method will give the gang member an opportunity to view things from a positive perspective and live a productive life.

  I found some interesting points on law enforcement suppression. First, I learned that the law enforcement should be in the frontline to suppress gang and protect the community through arresting gangs to decrease the gang-related criminal activities. Another interesting point is that, for the criminal justice system to suppress gang, police/probation officers should conduct an investigation in the community to find out the gang-related crimes and share intelligence. Third, I learned that law enforcement suppression is associated with drug trafficking.  This occurs due to the higher criminalization of gang-youths in the prison (Kristol, 1998).

 However, law enforcement suppression is sometimes effective since the law enforcement focus on serious crimes and incarceration of serious offenders thereby reducing crime on the community. Second, law enforcement focus on enforcing community norms to deal with less serious gang-related behaviors (Kristol, 1998). Third, law enforcement works with probation and parole officers in developing programs and activities to address gang-related crime.

 The law enforcement employs various methods of suppression but the most effective method is prosecuting gang member using vertical prosecution. The latter means that the prosecutor who presents charges handles all the phases of the case.The purpose of this method is to deal with a specialized expert in criminal cases and who understands gang membership and provides sensitive treatment toward the case (Kristol, 1998).  By using vertical prosecution, gang members or offenders who are involved in serious crime receive long sentence thereby suppressing crime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 Kristol, W. (1998). Urban street gang enforcement. Place of publication not identified: Diane Pub Co.

 Howell C. James. (2011). Gang Prevention: An Overview of Research and Programs. DIANE Publishing.