Gang+and+School+Violence

Overview
 Gangs are a very serious problem that are relevant in the United States. Each year up to 10,000 people will die from gang violence. There are at least 24,500 gangs in the U.S. today and 1,000,000 members within those gangs (Hernandez). A gang is classified by the FBI as a group with as little as three members that commits crimes with some level of organization. They are present everywhere from urban areas to rural areas. There are a lot more in urban areas however. It’s estimated that 40% of gang members are under the age of 18. Adults make up the other 60%. Between 90-94% of gang members are men, while the others are female. 47% of gang members are Hispanic, 31% are African American, 13% are Caucasian, 7% are Asian, and 2% accounts for any other ethnicity. Even Native American gang members are an increasing problem on reservations (Hernandez). Whether they’ve affected you personally or not, gang violence is still an applicable epidemic that shouldn’t be ignored. School violence is almost always a direct result of gangs. Physical bullying also fits into this category. 2,000 students worldwide are attacked every hour in school. It’s also estimated that 1 in every 8 teenage students in the United States carry a gun for protection. School violence generally happens in high school and in college more than in elementary school or middle school. All in all, up to 67% of killings between young men are gang related (Duane).

Problems
 The problems that people deal with every day as a result of gang and school violence are thousands of dollars in damages, death, school dropouts, etc.. Everyday people are ruthlessly murdered at the hands of gang members, sometimes in school. Sometimes they’ll get lucky and walk away with minor injuries. Other times they might not be so lucky. Some children will get put behind bars at a young age before they learn to know any better. In summary, it’s not good. School violence and gangs can disrupt innocent kids’ learning experiences. They can strike fear and anxiety into the hearts of good kids. The violence may even push other kids to be violent, resulting in that much more violence. This madness has no end and it will continue to happen if nothing changes. Thousands of adults and kids die each and every year, and for what? To impress a so-called family of criminals and juvenile delinquents? It’s ludacris, blasphemous, and preposterous behavior that is incomprehensibly pointless and inapplicable to everything that is good in this world. Something needs to be done, and it is us (the people) who have to do it. == ==

Solutions
Finding solutions to a problem maybe one of the hardest things to do and finding solutions to a worldwide epidemic is even much harder to find. But somehow there are solutions they are not the best but they are good enough to keep out young out of the streets and into the books. One organization that helps young teens and children keep their life straight as an arrow would be the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and for short (OJJDP) Prevention programs and Intervention programs are used to help out teens that are committed to the gang life or are thinking about committing to the gang life so they can at least try and get their life back on track to become successful. The prevention programs mainly target early childhood, school-based, and after school activities. And the intervention programs work on older kids and having them discuss what they are going through with gang related activities and a lot of those teens are in a gang or participate in gang activities (Kathleen) So if there is a teen in a gang and they participate in the in the intervention group they try and help them forget their differences with rival gang members so that they can learn that gangs are not the only way to live their life. (Kathleen)

Reference Section
"4 students injured in gunfire at Ohio high school." American School & University  [Online Exclusive] 27

Feb. 2012. Student Resources in Context . Web. 8 Mar. 2012.

"5 injured in melee at Washington, D.C., high school." American School & University  [Online Exclusive]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">20 Nov. 2008. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Resources in Context <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Community works to end violence at Detroit high school." <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">American School & University

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[Online Exclusive] 5 Jan. 2009. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Resources in Context <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Hotline will let Chicago students inform police about potential violence." <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">American School & University

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[Online Exclusive] 10 Aug. 2010. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Resources in Context <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">McManus, John F. "Thoughts about Virginia Tech." <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The New American <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 14 May 2007: 44. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Resources in Context <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Duane, Daniel. "Straight outta Boston: why is the 'Boston Miracle'--the only tactic proven to

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">reduce gang violence--being dissed by the L.A.P.D., the FBI, and Congress?" Mother

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jones Jan.-Feb. 2006: 60+. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hernandez, Arturo. "Gang Statistics." Helpinggangyouth.com. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.

Hyperlinks
**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/__] ** **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://crispusattucks.org/__] ** **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.gangpreventionservices.org/__] ** **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://gangs.umd.edu/__] ** **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.nccev.org/violence/school.html__] ** http://yorkcountygangbusters.weebly.com

==<span style="font-size: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;"> ==