Gang Violence in the United States

¶ … Gang Violence on the United States

The occurrence of community crime is very rarely isolated or phenomenological. The involvement of individuals, communities and demographics in drug-dealing, substance abuse, gang violence and legal maladjustment of all variety does not occur in a vacuum, but is likely to be the product of patterned conditioning and sociological stimuli. A set of circumstances contextualizing a person, a family and a neighborhood will not just have a formative impact on the way the individual is able to integrate into mainstream society, but will likewise influence the decisions, behaviors and consequences shaping his future. This is the underlying reality which persists in the self-perpetuating cycle of violence and bloodletting that is America's ongoing and encompassing gang war. A core association between the negative conditions in which many Americans are living and the expansion of gang violence denotes a reciprocal relationship between American culture and organized street crime. Thus, a discussion is warranted to the reinforcement of the argument that the impact of gang violence on America as a whole is an aggressive perpetuation of the very conditions of poverty, despair and addiction which have inspired gang orientation.

A literature review conducted here illustrates the relationship between America's decline in economic fortunes, its diminished attention to policy matters impacting urban poverty and such factors as the War on Drugs and its Mexican immigration policies and the persistence of gang violence on its streets.

The Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles provides us with a useful point of initiation for the discussion, with a fact sheet credits to Weiss (2007) orienting us toward an understanding of the scope, scale and nature of the problem. This will help to frame an understanding of the way this problem reflects on American culture, living standards and lifestyle. First and foremost, the article denotes that gang murders occur with intent. Separating myth from fact, Weiss denotes that there is almost always an intended target relating to turf, reputation or revenge. This is to say that killings are rarely random and more often than not, they are incidental to the drug trade. We find that in general, though, the presence of gangs in urban communities does result in an increase in violence. As Weiss denotes, for instances, "in the San Fernando Valley, the murder rate spiked 60% in 2001 because of gang related killings." (Weiss, 1)

This is a compelling point in two regards, indicating both the relationship between gangs and severe violence and producing evidence that there is an increasing intensity of gang violence in far too many urban contexts. Weiss also offers statistical evidence that gangs are responsible for a majority of urban murders, with Los Angeles attributing 43% of all murders in 2004 to gang-related activity. (Weiss, 1) This is a compelling fact, pointing to such areas as Los Angeles as hotbeds for gang activity. However, Weiss does go to lengths to make the point that gangs are present throughout the United States and the world. Urban centers and, increasingly as we will explore later in this account, susceptible small towns, have been hurt by the presence of gang violence.

Another interesting point that Weiss brings to the discussion concerns the perception of gang activity as being inherently criminal. This is an interesting aspect of his discussion, as he makes an effort to dispel this as mythology. Instead, he argues that "youth join gangs for many reasons. However, while gang members commit more types of crime (and more often) than non-gang youth, many gang members are not heavily involved in crime. Most gang members are not drug dealers and most Los Angeles gangs are not organized drug distribution rings." (Weiss, 1) This is a distinct claim in our research, running counterintuitive to the marco-level conception by federal law enforcement groups that gang activity is part of a broad, syndicated and organized racketeering framework. The perception that urban American gangs rely on the drug trade for survival makes this argument by Weiss one consistently subject to dispute throughout the research hereafter. Indeed, even in his own research, he finds that as of 2005, gangs remained the primary avenue for the distribution of drugs in the United States. This is a crucial point of fact, illustrated one of the clearest effects of gang activity in general on the United States. It has come to serve as a crucial vehicle for the entrance of drugs into urban and street markets.

One point that Weiss makes to this end concerns the tendency toward entrepreneurial activity that is a result of certain perceptions of social and economic exclusion. Thus, the denotation that most gang members are not specifically criminal in nature underscores the idea that gangs are seen by their members and prospective members as a way to be included in an otherwise exclusive society.

The Savelli (2001) article reinforces this as a motive for gang activity with greater importance than the drugs themselves. Savelli provides a concise but useful look into the history of gang organization in the United States and helps to reinforce the idea that ethnic parameters have historically contributed to the sense of a need for such grouping. By offering a linear discussion on the formulation of gangs from the Italian Mafia to African-American territory wars and cross-border Mexican drug trade, Savelli establishes the implicit connection between the experiences of the array of otherwise excluded groups which had evolved toward criminal enterprise. This also denotes that, quite to the point, gangs are seen by their members and by those in law enforcement who have worked to stamp them out as enterprises with the capacity and the impetus to assume financial gain. Most typically, this is in the drug trade, which Savelli associates with the epidemic spread of such activities.

Savelli's history delivers us to a crucial point which helps to define the current context into which we enter this discussion. Savelli tells that "by the late 1980's and early 1990's, drug networks were in full swing. Drug importation from Southeast Asia and Colombia were at its peak. The United States becomes known as the number one drug consumer in the world. Street gangs develop into drug gangs with businesslike operations. Violence becomes standard operating procedure for these gangs. During this time, gangs are spreading like wildfire. Super Gangs, like the Latin Kings, Bloods, Crips and Gangster Disciples have spread their influence across America." (Savelli, 1) Here, Savelli also does the service of affiliating gangs of differing ethnic orientation, illustrating the syndicated nature of business operations which makes naturally allies and enemies out of African-American and Latino gangs.

The implications of the Savelli study are important to the broader discussion on what impact gangs have had on America as a whole. In particular, it demonstrates that gang orientation has prone specifically excluded ethnic groups to violent forms of enterprising and social organization. Again, we can see that in this relationship, there is persistent evidence of a reciprocal effect whereby the cultural exclusions which extend to America's economy have produced circumstances facilitating territorial enterprising and social organization not bound by the laws and ethical codes presumed by mainstream organizations. This is an inevitable breeding ground for criminality, organized, incidental, wanton or discriminating. By consequence, the formulation of gangs produces a condition of perpetuating violence in the inner-cities and impoverished small-town communities where such activities are the norm. Savelli offers the discussion a retrospective view that helps to clarify the scope of the connection between ethnicity and gang related activity. Thus, with respect to the question of its impact on America and American culture as a whole, the permeating presence of gang-violence has precipitated a worsening of already dire living standards, conditions and vulnerability to either perpetration, victimization or both for many excluded groups, such as African-Americans and Latinos.

An article published in Associated Content by Craig (2007) also makes the case that America's history of gang violence is deeply entwined with matters of racial identity. Those groups either excluded or bent on aggressive exclusion of others would organized out of a perceived organic need for personal representation. In many ways, Craig builds the argument that gangs have been something of a counter-cultural movement in America, responding to discontent, despair and disenfranchisement through militancy. To the extent that many of America's racial issues had been magnified by an extension of economic hardship, particularly to those areas where oft-disenfranchised groups such as African-Americans and Latino Immigrants have resided, Craig adds the perspective to our discussion that gang violence is a residual effect of racial parameters still today. It is thus that he argues that "gang violence is one of the most rapidly growing problems. Many innocent lives are affected by these violent outbreaks between over gangs for such reasons as revenge, territory, or status according to the Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles." (Craig, 1)

The motives of which Craig speaks underscore the nature of the conflicts that have spilled outward from the core racial issues that have helped to perpetuate the conditions contributing to or enabling gang violence. As we use this literature review to explore such issues, it is with the understanding that said issues have contributed to an overall intensification of the problems which are the consequence thereof. That is, the argument will tend to suggest, gang violence is getting worse and more widely spread, due both to the increasing severity of many of America's social problems and to the increased degree of organization and syndication committed by gang members.

The evidence of this is stark and compelling according to recently available data on the subject. In 2006, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) -- invested as a matter of demonstration that this is considered a national and, to some extent, international law enforcement issue -- published the findings that "there are almost 30,000 gangs, 800,000 members in America, and over 2,500 areas of America are affected. This gang violence is not limited to the United States either." (Craig, 1) Indeed, as we have noted, one of the primary relationships in America's gang violence crisis is that to illegal immigration and penetration of the Mexican-American border.

Altogether though, evidence suggests that the lessons offered by Weiss above have not been heeded by a floundering justice system under the since disgraced Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. Gonzalez, as part of the now departed Bush administration's hardline stance on crime, adopted a conception of violence in American cities as resulting from gang violence. To the point, an article from the Associated Press (2007) quotes Gonzales as stating that "gangs and gun violence are partly to blame for the rise in crime that is on pace to increase for the second straight year." (AP, 1) Gonzalez was offering this as an argument in the stead of acknowledging the impact of increased poverty, lowered inner-city standards of living and fewer officers on the street. In many ways, this demonstrates the misconception of the problem by previous forms of leadership. Such flawed leadership also allowed for a gradual improvement in gang activity capabilities.

This condition alludes to the increasingly serious syndication of organization which has occurred across the last two decades. The power of the drug trade to generate enormous profitability has created a pressurized incentive for gangs to control territory, expand networks, establish contacts and make allies. Indeed, the failures of the United States to adopt an effective policy on immigration from porous Mexican borders has resulted in a continually vexing problem of controlling the Mexican gangs that smuggle drugs into the United States. The steady flow of fresh product brings in scores of immigrant gang members while simultaneously creating a booming distribution economy for the African-American gangs that control many parts of the country. The result, a study by Tsou would demonstrate as early as 1997, had produced startling evidenced of the bleeding effect of urban gangs on Americans everywhere. Tsou offers a wealth of statistical evidence to show that, indeed, such activities had expanded the drug trade to dangerous proportions, leading to increased visibility and pressure, and subsequently, increased diffusion into the national population.

As to the expansion of gang size and activity, "one study shows that 'during 1992 alone Los Angeles County, California, for example, saw more than 800 gang-related homicides, and over 12,000 injuries caused by gang activities' and that 'in 1987 such killings in Los Angeles County totaled 387 and had risen to 420 in 1988.'" (Criminology Today, Schmalleger, 249)" (Tsou, 1) This pattern of increase, the Tsou report would denote, was a demonstrate of the heightened tension in many urban contexts due to the increased population of rivaling gangs and, due to government imposition on smuggling activities, scarce product availability at times. These are factors that have inclined clashes and a severe epidemic of internal gun violence.

However, the perception that gang activity is retained to within the confines of inter-gang violence is incorrect. There is a cultural proclivity toward disinterest in the value of human life, with innocents often being considered necessary casualties in a never-ending turf war. The resolution to disregard the potential of harming innocents is evidenced by the expanding purview of gang activities in settings outside the conventionally presumed urban landscape. Tsou's primary contribution to this discussion is in the revelation that one of the core threats to American society as a whole through gang activity is in their increasing permeation of settings outside of the major settings. Indeed, Tsou cites, "for example, one small town, Lee, Massachusetts, which has a population of 6,500 and is served by an 11-member police force, has noted an increase in gang activity. The reason for this is that bigger cities, such as Springfield, which has a population of 160,000 and a 527-member police force, 'are placing a lot of pressure on gangs operating in their cities. The gangs have been forced to seek new territory and smaller communities seem likely places to go.'" (Tsou, 1) This produces a clear and problematic pattern by which such groups find the benefit of anonymity outside of neighborhood oriented cities. The infusion of gang activity into small towns, while decreasing tensions between groups operating in close proximity in the urban settings, has nonetheless rained down the presence of drugs and violence in communities often already haunted by economic woes.

These findings by Tsou are supported by findings given by law enforcement groups, intent on clarifying the patterns of permeation into American society. Kouri (2009), writing for the Law Enforcement Examiner, tells that, indeed, there are a great many communities outside of major cities are experiencing a previously unseen influx of gang members and activities. And given the newness of these patterns, many such contexts find individuals ill-prepared to understand or answer to the nature of such activities. Thus, Kouri offers some insight into the geographical and demographic patterns shaping the nature of the modern gang. He denotes that "law enforcement officers from communities unaffected by gangs until the 1980s or early 1990s often find themselves scrambling to obtain training relevant to what are called hybrid youth gangs in the 21st century. These include gangs with large memberships of illegal aliens from Mexico (Mexican Mafia), El Salvador (MS-13), the Dominican Republic, and others." (Kouri, 1) Again, as with the findings offered by Tsou, Kouri makes the primary argument that such factors as the organized syndication of gang networks, the ease of entrance for Latin gangs and the inept but disruptive pressure of law enforcement are producing the byproduct of inserting gang violence into smaller communities outside of urban hot spots. At to the effect of such a pattern on America as a whole, we find that there is cause for concern over its impact on the social structure of newly impacted communities. Indeed, evidence abounds from urban contexts where gang violence has been traditionally anticipated that the presence of such activities relates to a reciprocity between negative conditions and a cycle of violence.