Adolescence is
defined as the transitional stage between childhood and adulthood, during which
one experiences uncountable psychological and biological changes. This stage of
“storm and stress,” as referred by Stanley Hall, is characterized by the seeking
of self-identity, the tendency to rebel, and the growing development of a
once-blurry sense of moral. For that reason, peer pressure and influence impose
considerable impact on youngsters, which are likely to lead them to criminal
and delinquent behaviors. In fact, many societies have long considered youth
violence and gangs as real social issues, and many studies have been conducted as
an endeavor to find answer and solution to this phenomenon.
First,
gang satisfies the lack of social organizations of youths, and is the remedy to their expeditions
to seek for self-identity. In truth, by providing to its members “a sense of
belonging, of pride and honor,” (Esperanza 20), gang plays the role of a interstitial society that youth created for themselves, in which they find the replacements
to what the family and/or the society fail to deliver. Moreover, during gang’s
activities, not only do its member find themselves living in freedom without
adult’s interference and acting above social anchorages and boundaries, but
they also obtain the “sense of power and control over a specific geographic
area, a certain group of people and even their own lives,” (Esperanza 20). Psychologists
often imply that “human struggle for existence and social preferment,” (Thrasher 217) is one of
the reasons youth join gangs. It is not quite surprising when members often
refer to their peers and gangs as “family.” In other words, gang can be
considered as the social space that youth carve out to supply themselves with
sentimental, material and peer supports.
Just
like any ordinary social organization, gangs possess their own and distinct
cultures. The majority of gangs is developed from spontaneous playgroups where
members have known each other since childhood, or is composed of strangers
connected one to another by mutual interests. There exists group consciousness and code of
honor within the gangs, in which their members have the tendency to attach one
to another throughout different activities, either violent or
quiet, and face-to-face relation is considered intimate and crucial. Moreover, the role
and status of each member are mostly determined by various gang’s activities,
which usually involve competition and conflict, as well as through different
social interactions. Furthermore, studies have found just as much solidarity,
loyalty and morale development among gang’s members as within any other social
organizations. However, gangs are widely observed as an “adolescent phenomenon”
due to its lack of longevity and the ease of disintegration. In truth, gang
solely occupies during a period of life when one is struggling to readjust to the liminality between childhood and adulthood and perishes when its members
find other social and familial attachments.
Finally,
violence plays a variety of roles in the operation of youth gangs. It is the
systemic behavior that is usually perceived as the manner to respect and
reputation, which in turns determines one’s status and position. In addition,
external conflicts tend to boost esprit
de corps and thus improve internal solidarity. Violence can also play the
role of emotional gratification when the gangs are mobs nucleus and fighting
becomes a sort of group performance or self-identification.
-Anh Ha-
Gangs 101
-Anh Ha-
Gangs 101
I believe Anh delves into the minds of the youth and why they are joining these gangs to begin with. We often try to fight gangs by limiting their reach and prosecuting its members. These youth are placed in impossible circumstances and forced to grow up far too quickly, with little to no help. Alienated by society, their family, and the institutions trying to help, youth join a collective, or youth gang, where they feel a sense of belonging. I feel that the adult-centered perspective fails to understand just how much that 'sense of belonging' matters and that may be the first step in getting urban youth out of these violent and counterproductive gangs. With a collective of youth that rely on each other and know nothing more than 'street life' where reputation and respect are important, it can be seen why youth would go to such lengths to protect their group. Much like people will fight passionately to protect their families when threatened, a gang member will do the same. There seems to be no simple solution, but in addition to prosecuting the effects of gang violence, we should also address the reason youth join gangs in the first place to effectively combat it.
ReplyDeleteI liked Anh’s essay, she did a good job or summarizing the readings. Also, she mainly agrees with Thrasher’s reading, which I also hold the similar position as her. Personally, I think she could have pushed her opinion stronger and further discussed the relationship between ‘storm and stress’ and the gang. For example, when I was doing the Thrasher’s reading, I could not agree more to his argument that the gang activity is one of the ways to express adolescence. He also mentioned about the family commitment of childhood and adulthood, which former was defined as child as a dependent of family and latter, as a marriage. Adolescence can be, in fact, defined as ambiguous and distressed phase where they belonged to neither of them. Therefore, all those like-minded-child-adult-in-between-gang, whom I would define as adolescents, could easily form another type of “social organization,” because they had a sense of belonging there. In addition to this, I liked Thrasher’s analysis of gang relating to territory and its inevitable mobility because of movement of people, because it was based on the fieldwork and depicted the reality well.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this essay as it gave a brief summary of the readings. The idea presented that gangs were used to satisfy the lack of social organizations seems to present to me that gangs were not a social organization but something different that was used to replace the non-existent social organizations described. I believe that a gang is a social organization, in that it is a group of people with a purpose. I would also argue that gangs did allow for a sense of freedom from adults and parents, however they did not represent complete freedom. Within gangs there exist leaders that create boundaries for the members of the gangs, and I agree with the essay in that youth tend to look for a family that was created in these gangs. The need for freedom from authoritative figures in everyday life led to the contradictory execution of a social circle that included these same authoritative figures. However the primary difference is the youth-centered perspective was being expressed and accessed through these gangs. This was something that was not accessible through typical family situations. I don't know if I would personally say that members are all part of the gang due to common interests of the gang, but rather common needs being met by the gang. The fact that this is something most common in youth displays the lack of various needs not being met for the youth, but with the increase in poverty rates within the last 15 years have demonstrated that this is not something that just ends with the youth growing out into "adulthood" but it now seen to transgress into the family upbringings.
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