The Causes and Effects of Gangs

Young people growing up in Compton, East Los Angeles, and other communities with high rates of poverty, social disorganization, and anomie are exposed to a number of risk factors that are conducive to gang membership. Those risk factors include "poverty, immigration, discrimination, social isolation, limited educational opportunities, low parental monitoring, drug use," and some degree of positive reinforcement for gang membership (Freng & Taylor, n.d., p. 135). Moreover, gangs have historically been entrenched in Los Angeles, and some contemporary gangs can trace their historical roots to the early 20th century, which imbues those social organizations with a relatively high social status coupled with nostalgia and family pressures. Research has shown that tradition plays an important role in multigenerational gangs in that "the long history of multigenerational gangs, coupled with parents' former involvement with the same neighborhood gangs, brings a sense of tradition to the gangs," ("Gangs, Family, and the Gang as Family," n.d.). Older brothers, uncles, and even parents and grandparents who were or are members of a specific gang might "expect" the young men in the family to become members of the same organization ("Gangs, Family, and the Gang as Family," n.d.). Those expectations may be communicated using direct verbalizations or more subtle social pressures including simple behavioral modeling in which children model their behavior after their elder.

Lack of access to alternative social organizations or options can be a major hindrance to breaking the cycle of gang membership and the role gangs play in some communities. Poverty is one of the most important causal factors of gang membership, as lack of access to legitimate means of earning money or achieving upward social mobility precludes young people from exploring other options. In addition to the lack of access to cultural and economic capital, risk factors for gang membership include the relative isolation of gang-ridden communities. In Los Angeles, there were an estimated 200,000 gang members in 1999 (Hoover, 1999). Gang membership cuts across lines of race and ethnicity, and can be more effectively and empirically linked to factors like poverty and social isolation than to other demographic factors. Unfortunately, gangs have become so thoroughly entrenched in affected communities and the lives of their members that it has become difficult to mitigate or minimize their harm.

The harm caused by gangs typically includes violence, drug abuse, delinquency, and truancy, all of which compound the problems that cause gang membership in the first place. Intervention programs have tended to focus on root variables and causal factors such as parental neglect or abuse, condoning violence as a subcultural norm, and poor educational resources. For example, the Freng & Taylor (n.d.) research partly profiles the Strengthening Families Program, which helps teach at-risk youth anger management, emotional intelligence, self-esteem, and drug awareness. Similarly, the Los Angeles Gang Reduction and Youth Development Program profiled by Cahill et al. (2015) included specific family and community programs offered often in conjunction with local schools to help offer young people alternatives to gang membership. Both of these programs have revealed concrete and statistically significant results in their piloted communities, showing that addressing the root causes of gang membership can be helpful in preventing future problems and reducing the prevalence of new memberships. Mentoring, individualized counseling, and other methods may also be helpful in strengthening families and minimizing some of the core variables that are implicated in promoting gang membership among young people in Los Angeles.

However, there may be extraneous variables that cannot be ameliorated by external interventions. Gangs do provide what Muller (2013) calls "a surrogate family, as well as provide a sense of belonging, power, control and prestige." Without a stable home environment young people in at-risk communities may be easily swayed by the promises of social support and material gain through gang membership, particularly when they receive messages from friends and family that gangs provide the only viable means by which to gain desired outcomes like status, money, or power. Gang membership becomes inter-generational when erroneous beliefs about achievement interfere with the child's willingness to participate in prevention programs or do well in school. Moreover, once a child has joined a gang, it may be difficult if not impossible to extricate the person from the situation. Gang membership brings with it tremendous responsibilities in terms of maintaining codes of silence. Other gang members may threaten violence or act violently against a former member who wishes to remove himself (or herself) from the environment. Likewise, extrication from gangs is unlikely in situations in which a person has few to no other options.