Gangsterism and Personality: Exploring Causes and Consequences

This essay examines the phenomenon of gangsterism in Malaysia, focusing on its psychological and socio-economic underpinnings. It begins with an introduction highlighting the alarming rise of gang-related crime and its impact on society. The literature review delves into the definition of gangsterism, the role of the DISC personality test in understanding behavioral patterns, and the different types of gangs prevalent in Malaysia. It explores the influence of factors such as globalization, political corruption, and racial dynamics. The essay analyzes statistics on gang membership and the involvement of different ethnic groups, particularly Indians and Chinese, in criminal activities. It also discusses the impact of family structures, peer pressure, and societal pressures on youth involvement in gangs. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for robust legal frameworks and societal interventions to curb the rise of gangsterism and its adverse consequences on Malaysian society.

GANGSTERISM AND
PERSONALITY (PSYCHOLOGY)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
This dissertation gives insights on the birth of gangsterism due to personality disc and
socio-economic aspects that has led to the emergence of gangs working in this circuit of crime,
which has become the alarming issue in Malaysia. It will include about the antisocial
temperament of criminals and the overview of joining such gangs. This purpose of this research
will be to bridge the gaps that impact the society on the whole adversely.
LITERATURE REVIEW
This part is going to enlighten about Malaysia’s darker side of teenage gangsterism,
which is a serious issue since a decade. The government did take some measurements to
understand about student’s delinquency. Recently, MCPF (Malaysia Crime Prevention
Foundation) Senior VC requested the Ministry of Education to lay the foundation for a
committee which can combat this issue (Alagappar and et.al., 2018). Such criminal outbursts in
schools has threatened not only the young students well-being, but also has affected their
families and school environment in long-lasting bad light. The aim here is to curb this social
menace of gangsterism by effective steps taken by the Malaysian Police, Ministry of education
and Crime Prevention Foundation of Malaysia.
In regard to the above mentioned, firstly, it is vital to know the definition of gangster,
which can be referred as an individual in a group of people who are associated with illegal and
criminal activities. However, Gangsterism can be defined as the social phenomenon that leads
exclusively towards an opaquer direction of looking out for acknowledgement and recognition
by employing tactics and in terms of steering violence. It is a psychological procedure of deviant
behavior that affects the social learning of self-control and lead to the semi-structured framework
of exploitation. This includes vandalism, theft, drug trafficking, burglary, violence and more.
DISC Personality Test is refereed as the non-judgmental model which assist in
facilitating the identification of disparities found in people’s behavioral approaches, especially
towards gangsterism. It is the platform for knowing about the interaction between people
inclination and adaption towards this topic. DISC stands for dominance, influence, steadiness
and conscientiousness. This emphasis on the dominance of glamour life followed by gangster
that attracts potential misguided people towards joining gangs for quick money, fame and
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independence. These people have negative and steadfast influence on social conscious
population that forcefully persuade them to collaborate with these gangs. Their psychological
objectivity gets blocked by the impact of such wrongful oriented people.
This model helped in understanding the behavior and personality type of people joining
gangs. Their inclusion is based on lack of support and enthusiasm through action oriented results
shown by society’s stable challenges; consciousness, through compliance by steadfast and
dominant attitude of leaders of such groups who mis-communicate people and make them join
on false hopes.
Figure 1. DISC Personality tools
(Source: DISC PROFILING, 2018)
It has become like a prevalent disease of the Malaysian cultural backdrop that has led the
onset of various gangs, which have been classified into three types: School Hooligans, Traid
gangs and thug’s gangs. There has been a rise in the criminal activities by racial groups of
Chinese and Indians. The expatriate rate is also increasing leading to such formation of gangs in
absence of employment opportunities. Moreover, the intrusion of political corruption can
accelerate its growth in exponential manner. Mostly, gangs have persistent rivalry amongst
themselves that affect the overall competition in their high-level organismal crime. They pitch
against the standstill pillars of loyalty and trust of civilized society, that consist of education
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through school, college etc.; family environment, religious beliefs with the government
encroachment in the judicial system. Nevertheless, expatriate policies have revoked the feeling
of earning quick money on bad terms by the government because these people need to survive
who are residing either temporarily or in few cases, permanently. They must have some
assurance by the government who have the ability to formulate and enforce policies in their favor
of working and contributing to their economy.
Additionally, the Malaysian intertwined contemporary politics has played an active role
in the dramatic rise of gang culture over there. The porosity of spheres of triad effects that
overlapped the structural establishment of Malaysia and it includes the political culture,
encircling around the ruling party with state rulings and government; role of media and
contribution by NGOs and lastly, the financial situation that led to privatization of companies
with emergence of corporate world at standardized level (Daniels and Adams, 2010). There was
a favorable time for militants’ groups who got active in all the unfavorable development by
making the legal outline on flexible regulations. Nonetheless, it shook the corruption level on
another level and stretched in leaps and bounds and crept inside all the organizational operations.
As per Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Malaysia was ranked on 62nd place, out of 175
countries of the world by dropping of two points. This index gets published by Transparency
International (TI) on the basis of surveys and assessments by experts to put insights on the
perceived levels of corruption. In short, it tells about the estimation of misuse of public property
by few entities for their own private growth and profits.
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Figure 2. CPI’s Annual Ranking
(Source: Malaysia’s Corruption Perception Index worsen seven rungs, 2018)
Interpretation: This table is clearly showing the results on the scale of corruption at the
international level. Here, Malaysia has improved its score and, conversely it has jumped to 62th
position as compared to the 55th rank in the year 2016. Along with this, it can be seen that
Malaysia is sharing the same rank with Cuba.
The above ranking is reflecting to the topic that has been discussing here. Due to this
gangsterism, the perception of this country has come into poor light due to varied reasons such as
provision sharing in corporate liability for anti-graft laws, poor financing laws by the political
parties there and unresolved Malaysia Developmental Berhad project. On the lines of this, the
Malaysian government must enforce resilient and robust strings in order to enact laws which
should be complied with discipline and transparency.
This loop of gangsterism got evolved with globalization and advancements in the
technological sector. It has become easier and convenient for them to deal their businesses and
transactions on global level, and to do investments in terms of white money (Sumner, 2015).
Their businesses expansion is powerful as it ranges from distribution of liquor, loan sharking,
stealing, breaking of house, smuggling of drugs, gold or fake currency, pirated goods up till gang
war that has end up in murder or any such crime. Such criminal minded population feed on the
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pre-conceived notions of masculinity with a great disrespect towards existence of women. It
paved the disgusting path of rape, assault, prostitution and more. Subsequently, there is also an
involvement of gun culture as these activities have disregard to legalities and pitched against
moral policing due to the expansion of unsophisticated implementation of low education to earn
money through illegal means only (Paoli, 2011). The entire gang culture can be described in the
most interrogative arrangement where the geographical territory in the form of location or
residential areas, that must be defined to operate their control on the consequences due to such
enactment of violence and crime.
Gradually, there have been a steadfast rise in the Contribution of Indians in these
gangsterism operational activities. The statistics collected has shocking figures that showed their
presence is in upheaval side. Their population has meagre 7 percent, but almost 72 % have been
headed towards such secret formation of thugs and gangs as well. These are mostly Tamil
descent, having approximately 267 branches in 18 gangs and almost 4150 members who are
actively taking part in prospering this culture. As per survey conducted to find this motion in
context of Chinese groups, whose input is evident by 65 groups, and comprises of 23.2 percent
of total Malaysian population (Alagappar and et.al., 2018). There has been a deep linkage
between this side of the underworld with the police, who does support them by not attempting to
stop this hazardous side effect that crippling the Malaysian culture and ethnicity. However, this
inclination is not sudden and has a vast historical background for Indians getting accustomed to
this big bad world of corruption and crime. They were stuck between the vocational training
necessary for getting jobs and the urban poverty, promoted their interventions in this 360 degrees
shift of illegitimate employment. Similarly, the Chinese ruled the Malaysian organized crime for
decades and were relevantly visible on the economic dominance which tend to seeking them
additional political benefits by directly syndicating their alliance with the police and other
governmental bodies.
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Figure 3. Statistics of Population Percentage
(Source: Sim, 2015)
Although, the presence of Chinese and Indians did prove detrimental to the overall health
of Malaysia on the global map. They became also the major pusher of Tourism in this country
and supported in GDP but this aspect got neglected as they have done more hampering than
providing benefits to the socio-economic conditions of their society and has affected it in the
worst manner.
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In present times, nuclear families’ concept has become a dominant feature in Malaysian
communities. Parents are spending more time away from their homes in order to earn money for
sustenance. This led to feeling of loneliness with fear of intimidation, which forces them to jump
into this world of gangsterism, which will make them unable to focus on their education with
erratic behavioral pattern, leading to physical and emotional abuse. Their lives might be at a risk
of danger and they can fall prey to this vicious life cycle of crime. Besides, the surroundings play
a pivotal promoter in making these kids to shift towards such gangs. The pressures of fulfilling
academic excellence occupied a major percentage in approaching or getting in contact with such
gangs. There is a huge study conducted which reflected on the disparities of modern society’s
dilemmas on the role of upper level aristocratic involvement including the multi-dimensional
approach of politics and influence of local neighborhood (Permalink, 2011). The presence of
youth’s involvement, belonging to upper class or middle class families in this issue has raised
eyebrows and created a buzz in the media on the reasons for their inclusion. This is not just
jeopardizing their future but also affecting the reputation of this country at global level in
inappropriate manner.
According to Maphalala and Mabunda, 2014, there is mixture of factors like poverty,
weak connectivity with family members, unemployment, peer pressure, urgency to acquire fame
etc. influenced such gangsters’ viewpoint amongst teenagers. The sociologists laid emphasis on
examining the conscious make-up involved behind their participation in such arenas and
furthermore, it assists to explore the domes which forced them into this pit of joining gangs,
whose next stop is gangsterism (Paoli, 2011). When a misguided individual joined a gang, that
person gets attracted to the strong united group where disruptive behavior is promoted with
indulgence of redundant activities like smoking, cursing and drinking that increases the sense of
belongingness amongst the loners. It is creeping in the minds of young souls and single
immigrants like cancer affecting their character and attitude towards everything. This enhances
the decrease in capital of socio-economic development of a country. Moreover, there are many
supplementary factors, resulting in the formation of such groups involved in violence and crime.
Societal pressure has such a tandem effect that there is creation of ripples in the Malaysian
judiciary system. Strong political connections help these gangs to flourish and started a
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recruitment channel through funding and donations they acquired after committing heinous
crimes like smuggling, human trafficking etc. youth fell prey and get involved as greater and
quick rewards are given with a weapon to fulfill their materialistic lifestyle. Such organized or
say groups target the rebellious and aggressive people, who might respond to them due to the
lack of availability of economic possibilities for their sustenance and maintenance of standard of
living. Along with this, they not only exploit the local immigrants but also give them the greed of
job on seasonal basis, along with giving prospective of making quick money in short span of
time.
Consequently, the utilization of specified philosophies of Social Control Theory which
was postulated by Hirschi’s in 1969 has a valid presence in this juvenile repercussions on the
society. It can be considered for understanding the social control and its components to anticipate
the behavior of teenagers. As per this theory, there are major four parameters that has an impact
such as Attachment, Involvement, Belief and Commitment. The starting point for this law-
breaking misbehavior of gangsters is the acceleration by breakage of an individual’s social
learning as per the societal customs prevalent in the society that gets weakened due to
inescapable approaches that leads to hostility. In addition to this, it can be clearly inferred that if
any of these parameters (attachment, commitment, involvement and belief) get disturbed by any
inhibition or entry of new causative outer agents, then it might have major implications which
will encourage any devious and unwanted behavioral uniqueness. The attachment here refers to
norms, beliefs and values of family who support criminal minded people for survival.
Commitment has a wider meaning in relation to conventional activities such as occupational as
well as educational commitments which requires an investment of time and money to spare to
make gangsters feel valuable and of utmost importance. This aids in choosing those
arrangements, which might be constrained due to societal moral grounds. Furthermore, an
involvement of morality by these gangsters will help in building a covalent connection between
them and others, through conducting sociable accepted activities as per their traditional and
customary outlooks of Malaysian culture. Lastly, belief can be considered as those regulations,
moral values and rules that has been followed by society and criminals must be abided for
maintaining the equilibrium between immoral or evil deeds and good legal works. If this theory
is accepted widely on operational measures so that Malaysians must also control and measure its
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principles and ideologies to fight this gangsterism issue which is affecting their country’s and
their tourism undertakings image badly (Sumner, 2015).
Figure 4: Components of Social Control Theory
However, on the other side, establishment of a contemporary framework must be laid and
examined on timely basis to highlight this issue’s ambiguities and loopholes attached to such
operations. Parents, teachers, non-government bodies, along with the governmental organizations
must provide counselling and try to build an amiable rapport so that children, especially
teenagers can feel at ease to discuss about their insecurities, hardships and struggles through this
establishment of proper communication channel. Maturity level at adolescence is in its
developmental stage which needs holistic approach to get molded towards optimism and a
transparent understanding in context of critical viewpoint to laid the theoretical background for
having a dynamic and transformational interaction between the community educators and
population, who are vulnerable enough to get attracted by the gangsterism.
According to Mezirow, when a vulnerable individual gets the learning on this process of
criminal confinement due to the mutual relationships with social networking on the outer
environment, it has various diversified complications that might undergo negative transformation
and painful isolation from the society (Naidoo and Naidoo, 2016). Furthermore, there are four
types of control, which led individual towards this crime pathway to escape the above mentioned
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Att
ach
me
nt
Involvement
Belief
Commitment

isolation with feeling of aloofness or spending lives in prison of own insecurities. Moreover,
Resilience is one of those qualities which can enhance the transformational learning to get
disentangled from this dark world of gangsterism and crime. There have been two determinates
which has come into existence to support this Resiliency Theory. These are Psychological
aspects with respect to coping and physiological stress component. Their contribution will
support in vanishing the skepticism prevailed in young minds of Malaysian society.
Figure 5. Contemporary framework on Types of Control related to Gangsterism
CONCLUSION
It is summarized that the Malaysian government must implement strict and legitimate
regulations and guidelines to fight back this menace of gangsterism on larger scale. They must
focus on strengthening of their communities by implementing welfare schemes for ensuring
employment by incorporating daily wages plan. Along with this, specific development of
programs related to preventing youth and immigrants to join such gangs can be done by initiating
projects like GRASP (Gang Rescue and Support Project), etc. Furthermore, families especially
elderly people and parents must be vigilant to stay connected with their kids who might get
distracted by the glamour of money and fame.
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Direct Control
(Punishment for
wrongful acts and
compliance by
authoratative
figures)
Internal Control
(Delinquenct
youths due to
super-ego)
Indirect Control
(Identification of
misbehaviour that
affects
socity,relationships
in painful order)
StisfactoryControl
(When indivdual
satisfied then no
occurence of
criminal activity)