How Educating Public Gang Crime Prevention

Gang Prevention

As education levels go down, gang-related crimes rise. There are more organized gangs in the lower income inner cities than in the surrounding, more affluent suburbs. This is mostly due to and highly correlated with the socio-economic status of these respective areas (Howell, 2010). In order to attempt to equalize these situations, a successful educational system needs to be implemented in order to emphasize the importance of gang crime prevention. The public residing in areas that are more prone to gang violence need to be educated on ways to reduce this type of behavior, while the surrounding communities need to be educated on how to best deal with these types of situations. Regardless of who is on the receiving end of the education, prevention strategies need to be implemented to reduce the negative impact on either community.

In order to reduce the crimes associated with the formation of street gangs, effective education strategies need to be implemented. Education is believed to be the equalizer of all social classes and socio-economic status (Howell, 2010). However, the educational systems in these respective areas vary in quality. Those individuals attending schools in the suburbs are exposed to many more resources than those students attending educational institutions in the inner-cities. It is these differences that contribute to the discrepancies in crime rates (Esbensen, 2000). Providing the public who live in the poor urban communities with better educational opportunities and eventually employment prospects, will increase their possibilities by reducing their chances of getting into destructive habits.

Education is the key to exposing children to a better life. By providing individuals from the lowest socio-economic status with the same educational opportunities that those from a well-off area are exposed to, the number of crimes committed will be vastly reduced (Esbensen, 2000). As people are exposed more to what they could potentially have if they worked hard enough, motivation to uplift oneself and one's family out of violence, crime, and poverty kick in. Educational opportunities also mean that individuals will be able to get better employment offers and will be able to experience the world from a different perspective (Howell, 2010). As individuals grow up being exposed to a certain environment or ambiance, they develop accustomed to what they know. Educating these individuals on the vast opportunities that exist outside of their bubble will allow them to want more for themselves because they know that more is possible (Howell, 2010). This will reroute people's need for survival from one that is based on gangs and violence, to one where education could be seen as a savior.

Rehabilitation services are modeled after an educational system. That is, people who have already experienced the negative effects of gang crime, or who may have even participated in these illegal activities have had the chance to improve their lives through educational programs. Educating the public on ways that they could avoid getting into trouble either again or for the first time, will reduce the number of violent crime and misdemeanors that are associated with or attributed to the rise in street gangs (Esbensen, 2000). These programs have had success in the past because it emphasizes the need to reroute the thinking of many of the individuals residing in lower income communities. They are trained to think that violence is not the only means for survival, despite the contradiction from their environment and surroundings.

The need to educate the public on gang crime prevention does not solely exist in the communities that are constantly battling gang violence; the need also exists in suburban or middle to upper class communities. Much of the lack of support toward improving the educational system in the inner city communities is due to the misunderstanding of the aspects that lead to gang formation in the first place. Because most of these urban communities are occupied by a large majority of ethnic minorities, individuals living in the richer towns associate violence with ethnic status. Although both concepts are correlated in the sense that income level is highly tied to race and ethnicity, one does not cause the other (Esbensen, 2000). It is the environment and lack of proper financial support that lead inner city individuals to become members of gangs and participate in illegal activities. If the public who are not directly experiencing these daily occurrences were to become more aware of the actual situation, as well as ways to reduce these occurrences, then more resources could be diverted to places that actually need them.