GUN AND GANG CULTURE

Gun and Gang Culture



Gun and Gang Culture

Introduction

In the United States such contradictions have led discourse about violence down various confusing paths. Arguments arise about ways to reduce violence, but solutions typically only redistribute violence, taking it off the streets and concentrating it in prisons (Klein, 1995, 25-37). There is uncertainty about whether violence in movies and television desensitizes viewers to violence, making them more violent, or acts as a healthy escape valve, making them less violent. The rhetoric about violence becomes even more intense and contradictory when the discussion turns to children. On the one hand, children are sometimes a source of violence as they prowl the streets in youth gangs and construct pipe bombs in their basements

The Concept of Identity

Identity is defined primarily from psychology, understood as that which conforms core self. Is a fixed core, consistent with the reason that allows the human being to interact with others present in the medium (Abrams, 2005, 99- 138). The formation of identity is a process that begins to take shape from certain conditions of the person, present from birth, along with some basic facts and experiences. From the above, the identity is giving us a complex picture of ourselves, which allows us to act consistently as we think. The benchmark in the performance of the gang is primarily the neighborhood in which they have grown, where they feel at home and, somehow, safe. There will also, under certain circumstances, taken as enemies by adults dealing with the good reputation of their neighborhood, but is generally in the neighborhood, in your neighborhood, where they find sympathy and help, especially his mother, and move on familiar ground (Abrams,2005,99- 138). Membership in the neighborhood gives them a sense of identity. Not coincidentally, the gang struggles to defend a given territory, district or some of its blocks. This may also mean that in the same neighborhood, usually against adults who refuse to young people or treat them with hostility, they fight for supremacy (Henry, 1999, 558-581).

Identity and Gangs

For many people, the gang has become a source of identity, social status and economic survival (Decker and Van Winkle, 1996). In the early 1800s, street gangs, like the Long Bridge Boys and Fly Boys, were not very involved in criminal activity (Valdez, 2000). These early gangs were committing most harm and acts of exploitation for financial gain. Shortly after, there were reports of the onset of criminal gangs in the United States (Henry, 1999, 558-581).

Gang Membership and Identity

Closely related to the problem of defining what constitutes a gang is the issue of deciding the criteria for gang membership. In part, the difficulty stems from the fact that researchers use different methods to obtain measures of gang membership. The clearest measure of gang membership is self-nomination; that is, individuals identifying themselves to researchers as belonging to a gang. Yet, this kind of estimate relies on individuals sufficiently trusting researchers to acknowledge gang membership (Decker, 1996, ...