Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member Street

¶ … Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member

Street gangs have been a menace in the United States for the better part of the century, and this has prompted researchers to attempt to identify the specific factors that drive youths, some as young as ten, to join criminal gangs. Different books have put forth different accounts to explain what exactly drives gang membership and gang involvement in the American context. Sanyika Sakur's Title, Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member, is one of the most widely-accepted texts in the area of criminology. It details the story of Kody Scott as a member of the notorious L.A-based Tray Eights Gang -- how he chose to lead a gang life, what drove him to becoming a member of a gang, what he encountered as a gang member, and what finally influenced him to turn a new leaf and lead a normal life. In the book, Shakur moves from a small boy to a Monster capable of killing mercilessly to defend his gang, and then to a reformed Sanyika Shakur. He dwells on several key themes, including poverty, race, and religion and focuses his attention on explaining how these could have contributed to his getting involved in gang activity. This text reviews Shakur's book, with particular emphasis on his key themes. The author links these to widely-accepted criminology theories with the aim of showing why there is need to adopt an approach that addresses the underlying causes of crime and gang involvement as opposed to one based on punishment if we are to be successful in the fight against street gangs and crime in general.

The Role of Poverty in Gang Involvement

Sanyika Shakur, then Kody Scott, was born in a female-headed household with five siblings. He mentions that his mother brought him and his five siblings up alone, working double jobs to make ends meet. I would argue, however, that although Shakur paints a vivid image of the expectation of moving from rags to riches as one of the reasons why he chose to get involved in gang activity, poverty was not so much an influencing factor in his case as was familial disorganization, particularly the issue of single motherhood and having a working mother.

Coming from a family headed by a single mother, Shakur lacked an appropriate male figure to act as a role model, and this is probably why it was easy for him to be lured into gang activity by false promises of a glamorous lifestyle. Moreover, owing to the large size of the family, it is likely that Shakur's mother was in no position to pay particular attention to the attitudes and behaviors of each of her six children, and the fact that she had to work and at the same time provide leadership most certainly made it difficult for her to notice Shakur's change in behavior. It is likely, therefore, that Shakur was not as attached to his family and more so, his mother, and this made it relatively easy for him to be wooed into gang membership. I believe, therefore, that one of the key weaknesses of Shakur's book is his failure to give the issue of familial disorganization the attention it deserves as an influencing factor in delinquency and gang involvement.

This ideology is supported by the social disorganization and social control theories of criminology, both of which attribute youths' involvement in gangs and crime to the disorganization of social regulatory structures such as family and religious entities. Human beings are naturally born with criminal tendencies -- what restrains one from engaging in the same, however, is the attachment they share with their families and religious units (Wood & Alleyne, 2010). As a matter of fact, religion, particularly Islam, is one of the main reasons why Shakur finally decides to turn away from gang membership and lead a normal life. The book creates a strong image of how Islam, contrary to popular opinion, can be used as a tool for fighting racism and colonization in a peaceful manner. This aspect is relevant to the modern-day society, where Islam, particularly the Jihad concept of 'Struggle till Death' is widely associated with violence and terrorism. Shakur, therefore, perfectly illustrates the fundamental role of religion and religious entities in shaping youths' behavior. It can rightly be interpreted, therefore, that one way to make the fight against youth gangs more effective is to make the role of religious entities in the same more pronounced.

Race

Race comes out as a risk factor for one's involvement in crime and gang activity. Shakur was black and he portrays blacks as a race that is colonized by, and still remains inferior to the dominant whites. He feels that blacks are not accorded equal opportunities as whites, and are not given the respect that their white counterparts enjoy. For this reason, Shakur joins a gang with the ambition of becoming an Original Gangster (O.G), the highest possible position in the gang, which attracted the most respect, power and fame. He looked to the gang to provide the power, authority and respect that the community had failed to provide, and for this reason; he was willing to protect and defend it all costs. He shows his loyalty to the gang as his source of power in numerous instances -- in the preface, for instance, he expresses that "I have shot numerous people and have been shot seven times myself" (p. xiii).

Shakur's decision to join gangs as a way of obtaining power and authority aligns with the strain and rational-choice theories of criminology. According to the rational-choice theory of criminology, an individual is likely to engage in crime only if the benefits of such engagement outweigh the costs. This implies that one will often consider both the risks and the potential benefits of their intended act when deciding whether or not to act. In this case, Shakur noting that most of his peers who were involved in gang activity received fame, power and recognition instead of punishment, concluded that the risks associated with gang involvement are less than the potential benefits; and this informed his decision to join the same.

The strain theory, on the other hand, attributes criminal behavior to inequality of opportunity, and consequently, status frustration (Stretesky & Pogrebin, 2007, p. 308). According to Wood and Alleyne (2010, p. 109), strain theory rides on the concept of rebellion, where a child becomes rebellious as a result of experiencing tension and frustration from "the unequal opportunities offered in a meritocratic society that claims to operate on egalitarian principles of equal opportunity"; and he commits himself to fighting the cultures of the favored group (p. 103). Whilst strongly supporting Shakur's perception of the influence of race and colonization, I am of the opinion that from a deeper insight, the book is stereotypic, unfairly painting blacks as aggressive people who use crime as a tool for expanding opportunities for themselves against the white community. Moreover, it portrays blacks as a people who shun responsibility -- Kody impregnates his girlfriend, Tamu, and then abandons her and the child she is expecting, and although he returns and becomes a good father later, the image of irresponsibility has already been created.