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Violence and Gangs

An estimated 650,000 to one million American youths are members of gangs, a number of great significance since "membership in antisocial youth gangs represents a significant public health problem in the United States" (Lahey, Gordon, Loeber, Stouthamer-Loeber, and Farrington, 1999, 104). This statistic is at the beginning of the report of the authors' longitudinal study of gang membership in an urban school.

As the authors explain "In a representative sample of boys who were in the 7th grade of an urban public school system at the start of a 6-year longitudinal study, more African American boys (23.8%) than non-Hispanic White boys (3.9%) had entered an antisocial gang by age 19" (Lahey et. al., 1999, 104).

The authors established baseline conduct disorder (CD) behaviors that showed that among "African American boys, first gang entry was predicted prospectively by both baseline conduct disorder (CD) behaviors and increasing levels of CD behaviors prior to gang entry. This suggests that gang entry may be a further developmental step for some boys who are already on a trajectory of worsening antisocial behavior" (Lahey, et. al, 1999, 105). The implications of this research are yet to be comprehended, since it is one of many attempts to answer the critical question of why boys (and, more increasingly, girls) are joining gangs.

Schwab-Stone, reporting on violence among adolescents (ages 11 to 19 in most studies) points out that between 1970 to 1991, the homicide death rate for teenagers (15 to 19 years of age) increased 220%. However, as she observes, teenage homicide, although distressing, is not accurately representative of the incidents of violence. As she says:

Other less extreme forms of violence, however, have been found to affect a much larger group of adolescents. Various national and regional large-sample surveys have revealed that approximately one third of junior high and high school students reported hav...

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Violence and Gangs. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:33, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1695735.html