Family and Community Violence: Globalization and International Gangs, Week 4, Blog #4

The concern over gang membership and consequently gang violence has become more a global than a local concern in the United States and abroad. This is because in recent years, a substantial number of gangs have come from and have been established in all other areas of the world. Unprecedented worldwide urbanization has created fertile conditions for the growth of gangs, particularly in Latin America, Asia, and Africa (Hagedorn, 2005). 

Social disorganization, including poverty and residential mobility are risk factors that contribute to the recruitment into gang involvement. Research suggests that these risk factors are attributed to the increase in gang activity in those less developed countries identified. In developing nations, slum dwellers make up 43% of the total population compared with 6% in developed countries (Hagedorn, 2005). 

The terms used in the United States like "gang members" and "at-risk youth" are not generally used in other areas of the world. The World Bank and other organizations identify gangs as "street children, "child soldiers," and "children in organized arm violence" (Hagedorn, 2005).  The article defines a gang as "unsupervised youth developing organization through conflict with other groups and authorities".  However we identify these groups, they are organizations of the socially excluded that participate in the underground economy.

Gangs are prevalent in most all large and small cities across the country. Prisons both receive and create gangs that spread back to their communities, as in South Africa, California, and Rio de Janiero (Hagedorn, 2005). This creating and involvement of gangs inside the prison system was depicted in the film, "Nuestra Familia, Our Family."

The study of gangs, identifying risk factors in youth, increase in law enforcement and identifying current/active gang members are all ways of limiting and reducing violent offenses committed by gangs. Understanding the factors underlying the institutionalization of gangs and the persistence of violence are among the most pressuring reasons for studying gangs (Hagedorn, 2005).


References:

Hadedorn, M. John (2005). The global impact of gangs. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 21(2), 153-169.