Youth Gangs and Criminal Activity: An Analysis of Theories

This essay analyzes the theories behind youth gangs and criminal activity, discussing how they are formed and the activities they engage in.

Running head: CRIMINAL LAW
Criminal Law
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
Youth gang and criminal activity seem to flourish in the social communities in the
recent days. It is a universal truth that youth gang members facilitate the criminal activities in
any civilised society (Wu and Pyrooz 2016). Thus the problems imposed by them are
noteworthy and significant. The present essay is intended to analyse the existing theories of
crime and discuss them by throwing light on these youth gangs are formed and the activities
they are engrossed in.
Discussion:
Before the essay is elaborated, it is necessary to define the youth gang. Unless its
meaning is discussed properly, it is not possible to analyse it. Youth gang can be defined as
criminal group or organisation consisting of young age people (Franzese, Covey and Menard
2016). Youth gangs are generally well organised groups that have leaders, core members and
in some cases peripheral members. Most of the members of this group in general belong to
group of young age, particularly between the ages of 16 to 19 (Wood and Dennard 2017).
Apart from understanding the meaning of the youth gang, a clear as well as
comprehensive theory is needed to understand why these aged persons become a member of
such gang (Pyrooz and Densley 2016). Though there are ample theories available to discuss
this topic, light will be thrown on some of the most important ones having highest impact on
young gang.
At first, the theory of social disorganisation will be discussed. According to Robert J.
Sampson, the basis of this theory is economic destabilization (Sampson 2017). This economic
destabilization not only contributed to the social disorganisation but also paved the way to the
breaking down of conventional social bodies like church, school and most significantly, the

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family that fails to keep the boy within the control of the family, neglects him and finally
forces him to leave family and seek association with a gang (Smith et al. 2019). Slow yet
gradual erosion of these institutions showed that they become weak and fail to satisfy the
people’s needs so that the capability to control behaviour of the population of a particular
area is lost. Moreover, lack of parental support and care also forced the young people to get
dissociated thereby forming a separate gang. These types of youth gangs because of lack of
proper guidance and supervision involves into youth offending.
The next theory to be considered is the theory of cultural transmission. As per Charis
E Kubrin, apart from social disorganisation theory, cultural transmission theory is also of
significance to under the activities and offences committed by the youth gang (Kubrin 2017).
Families located in poor city areas exercise very little control and authority on the their
children who when gets exposed to delinquent type traditions, surrendered to delinquent type
of behaviour (Hirschi 2017). When school, church, family and even the government failed to
provide enough opportunities to the young gang, they will form their own gang in any
socially disorganised communities. The gang formation then passed from one generation to
other and thereby next generation young people also get deviated from the traditional norms.
Thus, as conventionality predominates the middle class places and thus young people of the
middle class families are not exposed to this type of delinquent traditions as they are
controlled by the parents and they live in stable environment.
In this part, the theory of differential association will be discussed. As per Walters,
G.D, the main aspect of differential association is that criminal behaviour is usually learnt
and such learning mainly comes from within personal groups (Walters 2015). People will
prefer to commit crime when they are more exposed law violating attitudes in early life.

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In addition to these, biological theories also play a dominant role in understanding the
youth offending of the young gangs (Matza 2018). This theory focusses on actual criminal or
offender and not on the crimes committed by them. It is believed that genetic traits also
contribute to the becoming young offenders. Studies made on children who are adopted also
support this. As per this theory, criminal offending is mainly genetic and not learnt. Hence,
youth whose father was once involved in gang offences, possesses high chance to get
involved into youth offending by becoming a member of young gang (Shoemaker 2018).
Though several studies have supported the theories discussed above, there are critics
too who opposed these theories (Fraser 2017). These critics are very fast at pointing out the
drawbacks of these theories. The members of the young gang use their ability to choose to
drift away from the traditional lifestyle and get involved into illegal labour market of drug in
spite of knowing its danger, low wages given and adverse work conditions.
Another theory that can be discussed in this regard is the strain theory. As per Hirschi,
T, the main principle behind this theory is that society makes same goals for everyone and
then gives the capability of achieving them to only few people (Hirschi 2017). The resulting
inequality results into strain imposed on the cultural goals. Strain occurs when people are
inappropriately socialized for accepting the legitimate options available to them.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion, a fair idea of the theories behind the youth offending led
by young gang is obtained. However, these theories are not absolute and often criticised. The
critics also pointed out that there lies no connection between low social and economic status
and the young gang membership. It is seen in many instances where the members often come
from rich family. Having in connected and association with the delinquent friend circle also
does not provide sufficient explanation for young gang membership. This is held by ().

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However, there is high probability that getting involved in a group where close friends or
family members are already present forms a key cause behind why young people joins these
gangs. Children who are raised in the same family are also found to prone to gang
membership in variable manner. One youth of the family may become member of a gang and
commits crime whereas another youth of the same family may not. Hence considering both
aspects, a preliminary analysis of how young people become part of gang and commit
offences and crimes is understood.

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References:
Franzese, R.J., Covey, H.C. and Menard, S., 2016. Youth gangs. Charles C Thomas
Publisher.
Fraser, A., 2017. Gangs & Crime: Critical Alternatives. Sage.
Hirschi, T., 2017. Causes of delinquency. Routledge.
Hirschi, T., 2017. Causes of delinquency. Routledge.
Kubrin, C.E., 2017. Cultural Disorganization and Crime. In Challenging Criminological
Theory (pp. 193-214). Routledge.
Matza, D., 2018. Delinquency and drift. Routledge.
Pyrooz, D.C. and Densley, J.A., 2016. Selection into street gangs: Signaling theory, gang
membership, and criminal offending. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 53(4),
pp.447-481.
Sampson, R.J., 2017. Family management and child development: Insights from social
disorganization theory. In Facts, frameworks, and forecasts (pp. 63-94). Routledge.
Shoemaker, D.J., 2018. Theories of delinquency: An examination of explanations of
delinquent behavior. Oxford University Press.
Smith, S., Gomez Auyong, Z.E. and Ferguson, C., 2019. Social learning, social
disorganization, and psychological risk factors for criminal gangs in a British youth
context. Deviant Behavior, 40(6), pp.722-731.

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Walters, G.D., 2015. Proactive criminal thinking and the transmission of differential
association: A cross-lagged multi-wave path analysis. Criminal justice and behavior, 42(11),
pp.1128-1144.
Wood, J. and Dennard, S., 2017. Gang membership: links to violence exposure, paranoia,
PTSD, anxiety, and forced control of behavior in prison. Psychiatry, 80(1), pp.30-41.
Wu, J. and Pyrooz, D.C., 2016. Uncovering the pathways between gang membership and
violent victimization. Journal of quantitative criminology, 32(4), pp.531-559.