Gangs and Organized Crime in the United States

Gangs and Organized Crime in the United States

Criminal Justice

Gangs and Organized Crime in the United States is on the rise. With the increase in turf wars, position and the financial gains, gang wars and Organized Crime are linked together in many ways. Within this paper, I will show how they are all tied together in. The M-13’s are the largest reported gang controlling large areas of our states. However, the largest area to which the MS-13’s control is within our own capital, Washington D.C. Their leaders rule all the gangs from inside El Salvador. I will discuss other gangs, and their ties into Organized Crime.

 

Gangs and Organized Crime in the United States

When I first began this research, I was stunned by the number of gangs that can be accounted for living on US soil. I wasn’t shocked by the type of activities that they are involved in ranging from drug trafficking, carjacking, murder, rape and kidnapping. The news media is constantly reporting the ages to which individuals join a gang, and the reasons behind their becoming involved. Most that join look for acceptance, and are often from families that have one parent, typically run by their mother who represents head of the household. While others join gangs because they believe it will make others respect them. Throughout our course study, we have discussed a number of things concerning the criminal justice system. In our last couple of weeks, we covered the various theories of criminal behavior, why people become involved, why they do the things they do.

Two theories that come to mind when discussing gangs and their reasoning behind becoming a member of one, these are the Social Control Theory and the Neutralization Theory. Within the Social Control Theory (SCT) “David Matza developed this to explain how delinquents drift between conventional lifestyles and delinquent lifestyles, Neutralization Theory (NT) states that offenders use techniques of neutralization to deflect feelings of blame and shame. These neutralization techniques are rationalizations, justifications, and accounts of how the offending behavior can be excused or explained away (Fuller 2006).”

With the NT, there are five stages in which the theory operates. The first stage, the denial of responsibility in which the offenders deny the offense was their fault. The next stage, denial of injury, where the offender believes their actions justify their means. Like with drug users, they believe if they are only harming themselves with their drug use, then why law enforcement should be concerned with what they do to their bodies. Stage three involves denial of the victim. Most thieves believe that those to whom they steal from are not actually a victim if what they take is insured. While a rapist believes that the woman wanted to have sex, wanted to be raped, therefore there was no rape. The next stage in this theory is condemnation of condemners. “The offenders claim a morally superior position from which they reject the legitimacy of those judging them (Fuller 2006).”

While the final stage of the NT is the appeal to a higher loyalty. In this final stage, the “offenders take responsibility for their actions but claim they were acting to satisfy their higher calling (Fuller 2006).” In this last stage, the gang member believes that the gang is their higher calling. Being with a gang is their life, their complete acceptance into society, where they are finally able to be someone, accepted for who they are when others, such as family members, never truly understood them. Gangs have a way to get into the minds of young adults, feeding them what they want to hear, and a way of brainwashing.

This is where the Social Control Theory (SCT) fits in. “SCT explores the pervasive conforming behavior that makes meaningful communities possible. Travis Hirschi speculated that the mechanism that accomplishes this is a social bond that links us to conventional society. Only when this social bond is weakened is crime likely to occur. He contended that this social bond has four elements; Attachment, commitment, involvement and beliefs (Fuller 2006).”

In the attachment, when children respect their parents, appreciate all that they do for them, they are less likely to be involved in criminal activity. However, when they do not have the proper guidance, lack of concern for their outside activities, they tend to stray, and seek out those who show concern for them. Often it becomes a role model, a close friend, someone to which they seek approval from. This becomes their attachment bond. In gangs, this often leads to the higher authority, a person to which they look up too, to whom they want to become. The level of commitment involves how far one will go to prove themselves. One is committed to a gang, to which they consider all members family. “People who have money, property, and good reputations are committed to the social system that allowed them the opportunities for that success (Fuller 2006).”

In a gang, being a member of a respected gang, means that they too will have respect by those outside of the gang, and will often be in fear of your presence. As in the MS-13, individuals who are quite familiar with this particular gang know that it is a matter of survival of their own existence to cross a gang member; therefore, the ordinary citizen will be wise to give way to the member. In the mind of an MS-13, this is the commitment to the family as they now have all of what they could possibly want; money, property, and the reputation...