Gangs

Gangs Inclusive Community Practices- CJS304 written Reflection appellation Submitted by Vanessa B. Smithers Submitted to Professor Treisha Hylton Date Submitted Friday, November 30, 2012 Inclusive Community Practices- CJS304 Written Reflection Assignment Vanessa B. Smithers Gangs/Youth GangsThe Service depolicede la Ville deMontreal (Montreal Police) take hold defined a youth clique as An organised group of adolescents and/or young adults who rely on group intimidation and fierceness, and commit criminal acts in order to gain power and cognizance and/or control certain aras of unlawful activity ( frequent preventative Canada- subject atomic number 18a Crime Prevention Centre, 2007).Youth large numbers dupe become an urban phenomenon and since the mid 1980s youth family violence has increased in amplitude and severity, although the disgust rate amongst twelve to seventeen year olds has been decreasing. The Canadian Police lot on Youth Gangs states that youth anchor r ings atomic number 18 a present and festering c at oncern within Canadian communities, but we have not in time reached the magnitude of severity that is present in the United States of America.According to various Canadian studies, it has been demonstrated that youth becoming involved in faction associate activity be getting younger in years the direct of violence within these groups is rising that more female youth ar joining cliques civilize boards are reporting more gang violence within their institutions school yard bullies are being replaced with groups of youth who fulfil acts of swarming and that extortion and drug dealing are becoming daily routines in some(a) Canadian communities.I chose the division of Gangs/Youth Gangs because it peaks a very high invade for me in regards to my genuine career as well as my hopes for my forthcoming career endeavours. Currently I am a Youth p government agency at a shelter for male youth in the downtown Toronto core. Each and every day I encounter a get along of youth who have gang involvement or who have antecedently been involved with gangs, some leading to involvement in the Ontario arbiter System. Also, for my current Humber College placement I chose to work at Carleton Village Junior and old Sports and Wellness Academy located at Weston Road and St.Clair Avenue West. by engagement and interaction with a variety of multi-cultural youth and children, I have learned that there are a number of students within the school who are in contemplation about joining gangs, some whose siblings and parents are involved in gangs, and a number of children who are on a path to becoming involved in gangs in the future. I have always had a fascination and a keen interest in acquiring knowledge as to why muckle, more specifically, children and youth drive to become active gang members and what in their lives are catalysts and causes them to resort to gang activity.When I think of the topic of gangs, it brings sadness to me because I am alive(predicate) that more or less gang members become involved in gangs during their adolescent years, continuing into their adult years. Although this is a reality for some, through having an abundant amount of discover in working with children, as well as youth with a large amount of potential to be amazing, law abiding citizens, the topic of gangs is something that I feel very passionate about.The part about gangs that brings the most sadness to me is the fact that there are children who strive to be gang members, children who at the age of seven find the idea of gangs to be a phenomenon. They walk around with red bandanas to represent the Bloods and blue bandanas to represent the Crips without in reality knowing what it is to be in a gang, until they reach an older age and recruit themselves into the gang life. inwardly the text book circumscribed require Offenders in the Community, Jeff Rush and Rob Hanser state numerous cardinal points whi ch I will briefly touch on.The authors say that working with gangs is difficult because individuals renounce that there is a gang problem, ignore the problem, and delay a retort to the gang issue, also known as the DID syndrome. The authors also state that the chase characteristics are ones that are used in defining a gang formal organization structure, identifiable leadership, identify within a territory, perennial interaction and engaging in serious or violent behaviour. Within the text book it also states that prison gangs are referred to as protective covering threat groups. They mention that most prison gang members were street gang members at one point. The authors extenuate the fact that company collaboration (police and community members) is extremely important in tackling the issue gangs. Unfortunately the book states that gang involvement is usually life-long. The individuals have an abundant amount of forces pushing them to live within the gang life, undermining mo st treatment regimens that are assigned to them once they are released from prison.Drawing from the manifestation and the text book, I found most of the reading presented important although, the most important ideas in sexual relation to the Community Justice field I found were the DID syndrome discussed earlier ( denying that there is a gang problem, ignoring the problem when it arises, and delaying a response to the problem), prison gangs, and the various stages of the comprehensive problem-solving exemplification the scanning stage ( looking for and identifying problems), the analysis stage ( to develop a further understanding of a problem), the response stage (developing response options that are consistent, and implementing the responses), and the assessment stage ( provides useful feedback on how well the response is working). I also mat as if studying the gangs sward is an important factor for prevention and suppression programs in the city.Lastly, I felt as if the Gan g Exit Program is a very important strategy where there is an assessment and intake, gang member intensive bringing up and personal development and gang member case management. Within a Canadian context, all of the above points are very prevalent. In relation to the DID syndrome, there are many agencies within Canada, more specifically Toronto and the great Toronto Area, that do not ignore or practice ignorance pertaining to gangs. There are ones that focus on identifying gang related issues and determining an appropriate response. such(prenominal) agencies and programs consist of Project Prevention & Intervention, Breaking the Cycle and Operation Springboard. on the whole of these listed agencies try to implement comprehensive problem-solving models, prevention, interventions and gang-exiting strategies.In regards to prison gangs, correctional facilities take proactive moves towards preventing any prison gangs and they do this through segregation of prison members who step to t he fore to be in the same gang, keeping a besotted pump on the inmates through direct observation and surveillance, acquiring knowledge regarding gangs locally, provincially and country wide, as well as having the skills to pick up on cues that may be identifying key factors of gang activity. During the classs presentation on Gangs, amongst all the interesting points, there were two that I took a keen interest to. Firstly, it was stated that the last Canadian Police look back on gangs was in 2002, and it reported that Canada has tetrad nose candy and thirty four youth gangs with Ontario ranking the highest and British Columbia next. Ontario has two hundred and xvi youth gangs with a total of three thousand three hundred and twenty members, almost half (48%) of all youth gang members are under the age of18 of which (39%) are between 16 and 18 years old. The second one was regarding the Labelling Theory.Due to stigmas created by media such as newspapers, magazines, movies, books , and music, people have conjured up a set of ideals and norms about races, ages, religions and genders and use these ideals and norms to expect how that specific group is going to act. According to the book, Issues and Perspectives on Young Offenders in Canada, Franklinn Tanenbaum developed the social-reaction/labelling theory where he states that once a youth has been identified as having committed a delinquent act, the person becomes the thing he or she is described as being (p. 38). In conclusion, the topic of gangs is something that sits close to my heart. It is my job as a future Community Justice actor to not turn a blind eye to gang activity.In my opinion, it is the role of me, community members, families and caretakers to lay down and model the fundamental building blocks at a young age to ensure our children feel safe, creative, motivated, cared for, respected, heard, not labeled, not judged, powerful, intelligent and self-empowered. With this approach individuals will ho pefully not resort to international means in order to obtain these feelings artificially within gangs. Bibliography (2003). Canadian Police Survey on Youth Gangs. Canada Minister of Public Safety & Emergency Prepardness. Hanser, J. R. (2007). Gang Members as Special Needs Offenders. In R. D. Hanser, Special Needs Offenders in the Community (pp. 229-243).New Jersey, United States Pearson Prentice Hall. (2005). Youth Gangs in Canada A Preliminary Review of Programs & Services. Calgary, Alberta Canadian Research Institute for law of nature and the Family. Public Safety Canada- National Crime Prevention Centre. (2007). Youth Gangs in Canada- What do we Know? Canada Government of Canada. Wynterdyk, J. A. (2005). Issues & Perspectives on Young Offenders in Canada. Canada Thomson Canada Limited. 1 . (2003). Canadian Police Survey on Youth Gangs. Canada Minister of Public Safety & Emergency Prepardness. 2 . Victims of Violence. (2011, February 28). Gang & Group Violence.