Gangs and Violence in California Essay -- Gang Essays

Gangs and Violence in California This paper was done in response to an article that I came across in which a child was convicted as an adult for homicide. The homicide was supposedly gang-related; the young child that was only 14 years of age was painted as an entrenched gang member. This article made me think what contributed to this situation and how it can be eradicated from today’s society so this will never happen to any of our youth. The solutions provided in this document are a response to the growing need for schools, school districts, county offices of education, and state legislatures to address youth gangs. Children are our greatest asset in the world today: They give parents the greatest feeling in the world. Parents go through their children’s fears, disappointments and tears and still feel the great energy that radiates around them. Parents feel and shape every aspect of their children; however, the most influential program shaping children today is their educational system. Parents think that sending their children to get an education does nothing more than give their child a chance to succeed in life, what a powerful influence education is. When we think of power influences we want them to be the best, this tends not be the case. In fact schools are on a steady decline in the field of nurturing our children but rather they fill our children’s gaps in their lives with very harmful, manipulative themes. A prominent harmful, manipulative theme that is becoming increasingly a younger trend is gangs. Gangs, and more specifically, gang violence is a growing phenomena among children among middle school and even elementary kids. Gangs are becoming more attractive to our young ones. As a result, more childr... ...icano Fellows Program. Stanford, 1994. Gangs. 27 Feb. 2004 Online: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/jjbulletin/9804/gangs.html Goldstein, Arnold P., C. Ronald Huff, eds. The Gang Intervention Handbook. Champaign: Research Press, 1993. Hill, Sylvia. Interview with Assistant Principal, SCS of Charles Drew Middle School in Los Angeles, CA. Telephone Interview. 16 Feb. 2004. Kinnear, Karen L. Gangs: Contemporary World Issues. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1996. Sanders, William B. Gangbangs and Drive-bys: Grounded Culture and Juvenile Gang Violence. New York: Gruyter, 1994. United States. Cong. House. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Youth Violence. 105th Cong., 1st sess. Washington: 1997. United States. Cong. Joint. Joint Hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime and Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth, and Families. 105th Cong., 1st sess. Washington: 1997.