Street Gangs

There are a variety of ways that “Street Gangs” can be defined. So to get a little idea of what a street gang is let's focus on one of those definitions. According to the California penal Code 186.22, a street gang is defined as "any ongoing organization, association, or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, having as one its primary activities the commission of one or more of the criminal acts enumerated in paragraphs (1) to (8), inclusive, of subdivision (E), which has a common name or common identifying sign or symbol, whose members individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity." (Klein p. 17)

Where I grew up there was no real concept of gangs. You herd of them on movies and television, but never really saw the impact or understood why people would want to join a gang. When I started to learn more and more about gangs it becomes very clear as to why people join these gangs. “A police sergeant in Miami commented during an interview that gangs fulfill members’ needs for identity, recognition, protection, love, and understanding (perhaps missing at home), status, money, and opportunity.” (Conly p. 18)

When you think of street gangs, what is the first thing that comes to mind? To me it is a variety of different ethnicities that come from the same demographic that turn to each other for acceptance. When street gangs first were documented it wasn’t always like this. According to a piece written by James Diego Vigil, “prior to the 1970’s gang violence was still popularly associated with white ethnic enclaves in the cities of the Midwest and East, and gang incidents were typically brawls involving fists, sticks, and knives.” (Vigil p. 225) This excerpt from Vigil is a far different picture these days, “Gangs exist in all ethnic categories. Although African American and Hispanic members are predominate there are also gangs with white and Asian members.” (Conly p. 16) Not only is there more of an ethnic variety, but the violence and weapons have become more sophisticated as well.

Conly, Catherine H. "Chapter 2." Street Gangs Current Knowledge and Strategies. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, 1993. 16-18.

Klein, Malcolm W. "Section #2." Chasing after Street Gangs: a Forty-year Journey. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 17-18.

Vigil, James D. "Urban Violence and Street Gangs." Annual Review Of Anthropology Vol. 32 (2003): 225.