19 Oct 2008
Essays on Youth Gangs
“What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?”
This, to most, may seem to be a quote out of yesterday’s New York Times or Saturday Evening Post, but it is credited to Plato, the Greek philosopher, about the wild youth gangs terrorizing the society in ancient Greece.
Various gangs and criminal organizations can be traced to wild youths such as these in virtually every society on Earth. The reasons youth gangs and major criminal organizations come into being, the mechanisms of their operations, and how many of them grow into multi-regional and even multi-national forces are a significant field of study, both for sociologist and criminologist academes.
Both groups agree that youth gangs and criminal organizations begin to coalesce in the basic need of youths to have a sense of purpose, community, and belonging, frequently giving in to peer pressure within the youth gangs to commit criminal activities from drug distribution, gun violence, and even rape, which is frequently used as a rite of initiation into the youth gangs.
The response to the growing threat of youth gangs has been sluggish as most communities seem reluctant or unwilling to believe their own children may be involved in such activities. This is particularly true in smaller, rural communities, who not only deal with the mental resistance that youth gangs have formed in their towns, but also lack the necessary resources to act once this mental resistance is overcome.
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How has the culture and attitudes of youth gangs affected our public schools? How have families responded when one of their children is found to be a member of the youth gangs? What resources are available for either?
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How have police departments responded to the crisis of youth gangs? Should crimes associated with youth gangs be “aggravated” by the courts, resulting in harsher treatment for the offenders? Should the RICO laws be applied to youth gangs?
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What alternatives exist for the youth of today? How do we redirect them into these alternatives and away from youth gangs?
Youth gangs are a growing threat in many communities. Yours truly was, many years ago, the victim in a gang-related assault. The questions of how best to respond to the crisis of youth gangs are as diverse as our society itself is. Our writers, being professionals, are ready and able to produce essays on the topic of youth gangs from virtually any aspect and angle. All we need is your order.