How Gangs and Gang Typologies Influence Criminal Justice as a Whole: Literature & Language Term Paper

How Gangs and Gang Typologies Influence Criminal Justice as a Whole
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Abstract
Gangs and gang typologies have been at the center of the US justice system for decades. However, it is only recently that stakeholders noted the need for new strategies to address the challenge that gangs instilled in American communities. Efforts are currently put to engineer criminals into productive members of their communities. The current changes in the criminal justice system stem from the notable failures of the traditional justice system. The focus is changing from punishing and killing criminals to preventing people from joining gangs and rehabilitating them into important community members. This study focuses on how gangs and gang typologies influence criminal justice as a whole. The study focuses on how gang activities have influenced stakeholders, including the law enforcement agencies, community-based organizations, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and legislators.
How Gangs and Gang Typologies Influence Criminal Justice as a Whole
Gangs keep posing threats to public safety even amidst developments in technology bearing the changing structure of communities. For decades, gangs threaten Americans' safety with few outcomes from the efforts implemented to reverse the statistics. Strained resources have been cited as the primary challenge in addressing gang activities. However, there are debates on prospects such as collective stakeholder participation, the use of the new technologies, and gang typologies' evolution as factors that have kept the outcomes insignificant. One agreeable prospect of this debate understands that gangs and gang typologies influence the criminal justice concept. The influence can be marked with significant changes in understanding the characteristics of the crime, incarceration, and reform efforts and options that the justice system keeps implementing to match gangs and gang typologies' evolution.
Gangs and Gang Typologies
Street gangs have been prevalent throughout the United States, and their numbers keep increasing, thereby posing challenges to law enforcers. Recent data from the law enforcement agencies indicate that there are at least 850,000 gang members and more than 30,000 gangs in the US (Gottschalk & Markovic, 2016). These gangs are known to threaten public safety by participating in crimes including threats and intimidation, robberies, street-level drug trafficking, and assaults. The primary targets of gangs and their members are law-abiding citizens and rival gang groups. Studies indicate that the impacts of gangs in a community extend beyond the confines of committing direct crimes. That is, gangs can instill disruption of the socializing power of communities, schools, religious groups, and families (Decker & Pyrooz, 2011). Also, gangs in communities instill fear that extends to affect the quality of life that individuals experience. By extension, gangs' presence in some communities even affects people's perceptions about policing and the justice system's activities.
The justice department and law enforcement are considered the first defense lines to confront the gangs. Despite the turbulent relationship between law enforcement agencies, the criminal justice system, and the gangs, these three stakeholders bear an advanced understanding of each other (Gottschalk & Markovic, 2016). Police officers have consistently attempted to stay ahead of the gangs by understanding their activities and profiling those who stand at a high risk of feeling the gangs' impacts. That has put the police in a unique position in instilling changes that foster intervention, prevention, and suppression of gang activities throughout the nation. As law enforcement agencies indulge in curbing the crimes, the legal systems and the incarceration units have also been indulged in changes to address the police's emerging efforts. In the long-term, the courts, the police, and the incarceration systems have changed considerably following the influx of gang activities in various neighborhoods.
Influence in the Law Enforcement
Gangs and gang typologies have influenced how law enforcement responds to aspects of gang violence. Law enforcement units traditionally focused on eliminating gangs and gang activities by focusing on the crimes' perpetrators. The police, hence, reacted to crimes committed by gang members. This strategy was ineffective, bearing gangs' evolution in response to police activities (Decker & Pyrooz, 2011). Presently, the tenacity that gangs have shown against the police instilled newer strategies in policing. The police are becoming more concerned with the prevention, intervention, and suppression of gang activities within communities. In their attempt to prevent the development and mutation of gangs, law enforcement agencies play a crucial role in preventing individuals from the risk of joining gangs. The police have developed primary prevention strategies that aim to discourage youths from joining gangs within their neighborhoods. Currently, primary prevention is broad, and its strategies and programs emphasize the management of gang activities throughout the community. One of the notable primary prevention programs is the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT), a nation-wide program to teach youths skills that should help them avoid indulgence in gang activities (Gottschalk & Markovic, 2016). The GREAT program has also been vital in eliminating peer pressure that effectively fuels participation in gang activities. Through primary prevention strategies such as GREAT, the law enforcement agencies have developed a platform for intelligence collection that should place them ahead in the fight against gang activities.
Law enforcement agencies have also evolved due to gang activities to instill secondary prevention programs within their profiles to fight against gangs. While primary prevention activities target the general population in the fight against gangs, secondary prevention programs are more specific and are aimed at individuals whose risk profiles are known (Decker & Pyrooz, 2011). The youths who are at a bigger risk of joining the gangs are the secondary programs' primary targets. The activities of the secondary programs are more defined and specific to managing elements of gang activities. In Los Angeles, the GRYD secondary prevention program is praised for having instilled influence in how gangs are managed in the state. GRYD indulges in employment training, tutoring, substance abuse counseling, and psychological counseling. These programs target youths who stand at a high risk of joining gangs, including the homeless and those who abuse drugs. The programs are rehabilitative and geared towards limiting susceptibility to gang activities. With secondary activiti...