Introduction
Teen gangs in the school is a growing problem that is threatening the well-being, safety, and the academic progress of the students, especially in the public schools. For instance, teen joining the gangs may end up changing their behaviors, and even engaging to drugs and alcohol abuse. In addition, the teen gangs have comprised the safety and peace of the schools and the community in large exposing many families to the threat. Over the last 25 years, the gang activities in schools have increased significantly, and the schools have not yet developed effective measures to mitigate this threat. According to National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XV: Teens and Parents, 45 percent of the high school students reported the gang activities or the students considering being the member of the gang in their school. Besides, 35 percent of the middle-school school students suggest that there such activities in their schools in 2010 (Arciaga, Sakamoto, & Jones, 2010).
Various studies have indicated that the problem of teen gangs in schools is more common to the public schools compared to the private ones. For instance, public schools were reported to have 46 percent of the students engaging in gang activities or considering themselves as gang members. This is a stark difference compared to the private schools, which constitutes only 2 percent of students engaging in gang activities and practices. In terms of gender, male students are more likely to be gang members or engage in gang activities compared to their female counterparts. Between 2001 and 2010, 7.6 percent of the male students belonged to a gang compared to 3.8 percent of female students (Arciaga, Sakamoto, & Jones, 2010).
Types of gangs
Various types of gangs in public schools include street gangs, drug gangs, troublesome youth groups, youth subculture groups, graffiti vandals, and Delinquent groups. Street-based gangs involve semi-structured groups of young adults and adolescents engaging in the criminal and antisocial behavior. Drug gangs are the teen criminals that concentrate on drug business in schools and to the teen in the neighborhoods. Troublesome Youth Groups involves adolescents and children that are involved in the minor form of crime such as fighting and petty theft. Delinquent groups are formed from small clusters of allies that come together to perform criminal activities like burglaries. Graffiti vandals or gang members focus on graffiti contests only. The youth subculture groups involve youth groups that have special interests such as "straight edgers,"Goths," and "anarchists" (Charlie, 2002).
Gang prevention
Before determining the gang prevention methods in the public schools, it is significant to look for the possible factors that contribute to gang prevalence. One of these factors is the background of the student. The students who come from the families that have low household income are high vulnerable to gang involvement that those from the wealthy families. According to Howell and Lynch (2000), at the lowest level of less than $7.500 household income, the largest percentage of 47 percent of the students were reporting gang activities in their schools. In addition, the gang presence in schools are also influenced by the size of the community. Communities with a high population of up to one million people received 51 percent of the gang reports compared to 54 percent of the communities with up to 51, 000 people (Howell and Lynch, 2000).
The other major factor contributing to the prevalence of the gang activities in school include the availability of drugs. The availability of the drugs such marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, crack, and heroin among other illegal drugs is the main predictor of the gang presence in public schools. Howell and Lynch, reveals that the percentage of the students who say that gangs were present in their schools correlated with the number and types of the drugs in their schools. For instance, 42 percent of students suggested the gang presence in their schools when one drug was available while 69 percent reported the gang presence when seven types of drugs were available. Issurdatt (2011) also suggests that substance use influence is among the factors including a family substitute, friendship, power status, and security that contributes to the increase of gang activities in public schools.
Although gang membership is associated with great sacrifices and risks, students join gangs for various benefits that these gangs offer. For instance, a teen that feel disengaged, isolated, sexually excluded by peers, misunderstood by loved ones, and unsafe from violence or harassment may join gangs to gain companionship and protection (Issurdatt, 2011). In addition, students join the teen gangs to overcome economic hardships. Therefore, if the effective measures are not put in place, to ensure that the risk associated with joining gangs outweigh the benefits the gang population will continue to grow.
One of the prevention strategies is empowering the social workers to help reduction of gang involvement. Understanding the dynamics of the reason teen join gangs, gang activity, and warning signs can facilitate the fight against teen gangs among the schools, families, and students. Therefore, the schools and the community should ensure they are updated with the latest dynamic change as the technology shifts and advances.
Another prevention method would be curbing drugs and providing financial support and guidance to the student from the poor backgrounds. Research has indicated that substance influence and low household income of the family are among the predictors of the gang involvement. With this light, schools can collaborate with the non-governmental organization and social worker to connect the students and families to the resource they require within the community. In addition, these groups can offer family, group and individual therapy, counseling, and guidance to mitigate the substance abuse among the teens (Issurdatt, 2011).
Other prevention measures include providing confidential reporting for the presence of weapons and students with warning signs such as poor academic performance and acquiring of questionable new friends. A school can come up with a toll-free hotline and confidential suggestion boxes where students can report potential violence or gang involvement. Schools should also provide an effective framework where students can be trained on how and when to report an incidence of a potential gang involvement among students (Arciaga, Sakamoto, & Jones, 2010). In schools, there has been a culture where students believe that telling or reporting another student is snitching. Emphasizing on eliminating this culture can help to reduce gang involvements.
The influence of the social media to the gang recruitment
Because of technological advancement especially on the Internet, social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Instagram, and YouTube have become a channel for the teen violence. According to a report made by the ABC News, gang members are using social network sites to spread the provocative messages and influence challenging gangs to answer. This report indicates that the police officers have discovered password-protected websites where gangs recruit their members, inform them about the parties, and meeting and even plans for criminal activities. For instance, the gang members, "send out taunting tweets, snide posts and homemade "diss" music videos to promote a tough image, make tensions rise between rival gangs and incite violence" (Effron and Janik, 2012). Consequently, such twits and post encourage teens who admire gang activities and use the same channel to communicate with the gang members for the recruitment.
The meta-analyses concerning the unhealthy impact of media violence have indicated that youth who are constantly exposed to the media-violence are vulnerable to develop antisocial behavior. With this light, social media websites are increasingly becoming the hub of violence through the violent tweets and post. The students that are exposed to social media sites that portray media violence are prone to antisocial behavior such as recognition of violent behavior, imitation of violent behavior, attraction toward violent behavior, and improved feelings of hostility. Therefore, the social media promotes violence; make threats, "diss" rival gangs, and subsequently contribute to the increase of the gang involvements.
The social media has enhanced connectedness where people can share their feeling, thoughts, and expectations. When stressed students share their feelings on this platform, some of the false counselors in the social media try to offer help based on false information. They give wrong advice to the victim and persuade them to engage in drug abuse or join gang groups where they are promised to be revived their stress. Therefore, because of lack of regulation of the social media concerning the posts, teens who believe and trust their friend on the social media may end up joining the gangs.
References
Charlie, M. (2002). Into the Abyss: Kinds and Names of Gangs. Retrieved from http://people.missouristate.edu/michaelcarlie/what_i_learned_about/gangs/kinds_of_gangs.htm
Arciaga, M., Sakamoto, W., & Jones, E. F. (2010). Responding to gangs in the school setting. US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance [and] Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Howell, J. C., & Lynch, J. P. (2000). Youth gangs in schools. US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Issurdatt, S. (2011). Gangs: A Growing Problem in Schools. Practice Perspective.
Effron, L., & Janik, K. (2012, October 19). Chicago's Gang Violence Fueled Through Social Media - ABC News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/US/chicagos-gang-violence-fueled-social-media/story?id=17464743
