Preventing Gang Violence: Juvenile Social Dynamics & Solutions

This report examines the issue of juvenile gang violence, focusing on the social characteristics that make young individuals vulnerable to gang involvement. It highlights factors such as family conflicts, dropping out of school, and socioeconomic disadvantages as key drivers. The report also discusses proactive measures that parents can take, including monitoring their children's behavior and fostering open communication. Furthermore, it emphasizes the role of communities and schools in providing support and guidance to at-risk youth, citing initiatives like the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention program (OJJDP). The report concludes that addressing these factors and implementing comprehensive prevention strategies is crucial for safeguarding juveniles from the detrimental effects of gang membership and promoting positive development.

GANG VIOLENCE
PREVENTION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Juvenile joins the gang................................................................................................................3
Social characteristics linked with the individual to enter in the gang.........................................3
Some ways that parents can do protect their child to join gang..................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Crime in the society can affect adversely. In the society people who have negativity in
their mind can form a gang through which they target innocent people (Connolly and Jackson,
2019). It need to be stopped for the betterment of the societal people. This report covers social
characteristics which enable the juvenile to join the gang, how parents and school, community
help juvenile to prevent from gang.
MAIN BODY
Juvenile joins the gang
A group of people who form the gang. juvenile is the youth who join the bad company
which affect their future. Gang follows the pull approach in which youngster started
becoming a part of the gang which drives them in a negative direction or also lead them to
do crime.
Social characteristics linked with the individual to enter in the gang
There are some characteristics which enables the Juveniles to become a part of the gang
which are as follow-
Conflicts with the family: It is the most common thing when child grows their opinion and
parent’s opinions does not match it started conflicting. Arguments with the family gives
negative impact on child’s mental health which drives them in a gang where people do
crimes.
Dropping out from the school: Child become sensitive at some age point they started
socialising with the bad company people therefore they feel unconnected towards the
education and join the company of bad people (Densley, 2018).
social and economic factor: If people does not recognise the existence of the person can
give a negative impact. Due to some social norms can also encourage the individual to join
the gang of bad people. As for some individual if their financial condition is not good as
their parents are not able to give them resources which they needed it disturbs their
mentality and forced them to connect with bad line to earn money from crime.

Some ways that parents can do protect their child to join gang
There are some ways through which parent can prevent their children from the bad
company. Parents need to track the activity of their children, if they found their children
indulge into bad company then they can stop them to go in that direction. some ways are-
Be aware of the behaviour of children:
Parents need to know if they are living the area where usually gang crime are
common therefore they need to track the behaviour of their child. in such situation it is
common for the children to join the gang. parents can track as if their children are wearing
dark colours having tattoos and no justification for the money then it gives an idea as their
children are might part of the gang. for that parents need to confront with the children they
can talk with them or can give them a advice to leave the gang and focus on their career.
To invest time or develop good relation with the children:
It is the most important factor through which parent can become a friend with
their children by spending some time (Hare, Guzman. and Miller-Graff, 2018). It gives the
positivity to the children and they started sharing their feelings with their parents so that it
helps them to prevent from bad company.
Communities and school efforts to prevent Juvenile to join gang:
Community can strengthen the parents whose child are in bad company; they can
strengthen the schools so that they can give special coaching to the Juvenile to not go in bad
direction. Schools can teach children about bad effect of joining the gang ( Dammert, 2017).
For example, Office of Juvenile Justice and delinquency prevention program (OJJDP) is
aim to protect the juvenile delinquency. Their mission is to protect the child from such activities.
for that purpose, they help the local communities to organise a program for the juveniles through
which they can inform them about bad effect of the bad company, or to give some other activities
so that juvenile focus on them rather than joining the gang. They sponsor program and functions
also conducts a special training for the juvenile so that they can develop their interest in other
things also started volunteer work for the development of their society. Such activities help
juvenile to become responsible for their family and for them too and started focusing on their
career.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that the involvement of the juvenile into the bad gang
can affect their family, beloved ones as well as their career. parents could detect the early
behavioural change in their kids to protect them from bad company. Community program
could also have helped the kids to move out from such bad activity.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Connolly, E.J. and Jackson, D.B., 2019. Adolescent gang membership and adverse behavioral,
mental health, and physical health outcomes in young adulthood: A within-family
analysis. Criminal justice and behavior, 46(11). pp.1566-1586.
Dammert, L., 2017. Gang Violence in Latin America. University of Santiago Chile: Santiago,
Chile.
Densley, J.A., 2018. Gang joining. In Oxford research encyclopedia of criminology and criminal
justice.
Hare, T., Guzman, J.C. and Miller-Graff, L., 2018. Identifying high-risk young adults for
violence prevention: a validation of psychometric and social scales in Honduras. Journal of
crime and justice. 41(5). pp.627-642.