Prevention of Gang Violence

Amanda Thompson & Cheryl Baggett

The Fightby Kara Chernushin Riccitelli

This poem is about the unfortunate loss of innocence when a child dies. A mother watches her young child get beaten to death by gang members, feeling helpless and hopeless all at once.

The FightBloody, broken, bruised, and branded,

Fractured ribs, the punch has landed.

Battered, wounded, twisted legs,"Let me go!" the victim begs.

Now doubled over, spitting teeth,His mother screams, consumed with grief.

Show no mercy, fight to death,Till a broken body's all that's left.

There's no reason, none at all,To cause this high-aimed youth to fall.

"Help me! Help me!" He gasps and cries,But knows they'll beat him till he dies.

Pathetic soul left all alone,Bloody face, shattered bones.

The mother wails, "It's not his time!"They will pay for this vicious crime.

With no regret, remorse, or sorrow,The gang will strike again tomorrow.

Now roses lie upon the grave,Cherished friend we could not save.

Source: NC Department of Crime Patrol & Public Safety

Statistics say………• Over 50% of gang involved youth in

North Carolina are of Hispanic or African-American origin.

• 60% of gang members are male.

• The number of female gang members is on the rise.

• In 2008, 550 gangs were reported in 62 counties in North Carolina.

• These 550 gangs have a total of 14,500 members.

• 82% of these 550 gangs have links with larger groups or gangs outside of North Carolina.

• The average gang has 26 members.

• Gang members can be as young as eight years old.

Source: Governor's Crime Commission

A Gang is defined as:

• A group of three or more individuals.

• A group with a unique name and other identifying attributes (i.e. colors, hand gestures, symbols, and clothing).

• A group with a demonstrated commitment to crime by prior, or current criminal activity.

Source: Freeing Youth from the Grip of Gangs

Why Do Our Youth Join Gangs?

Family Issues:

o Weak support groups.o Absence of a male role model. o Family members or peers already

in a gang.o Inadequate supervision. o Unhealthy level of permissiveness

in the home.o A child's parents may be

incarcerated.o Physical, sexual, or emotional

abuse.o The child looks for a gang to take

the place of the family unit.o For some kids it's safer to be out

on the streets than in the home.

Source: Freeing Youth From the Grip of Gangs

Why Our Youth Join Gangs, cont’d.

Personal Issues:o Can include having low self-

esteem.o Not knowing how to deal with emotional problems in a

positive manner.o Drug use and financial need

are other personal.

Education Issues:o Low expectations on part of the

student and his/her teachers.o Undiagnosed learning

disabilities.o Have not received the proper

assistance for educational challenges.

o School seems intolerable.

Source: Freeing Youth from the Grip of Gangs

Why Our Youth Join Gangs, cont’d.

Community Issues:

o Youth grow up in neighborhoods where violence is common & consistent.

o Live in a community where gangs are prevalent; feel protected being in a gang.

o Community does not provide ample job opportunities or after-school activities.

o Communities with ethnic transitions; gangs fight to hold onto “territories.”

Source: What you Should Know about Youth Gangs

What are the Warning Signs?How might parents and educators recognize that children or

teenagers are in gangs? Keep in mind each person is different, and experts maintain

that theonly way to be certain is to talk with youth directly. There are

however, somesome general warning signs to look for:

• Decreased interest in school, hobbies, family, and non-gang friendships• Socializing with gang-affiliated peers• Changes in daily routines, such as being out late at night• Possession or use of large amounts of money• Wearing certain colors, bandanas, and tilted hats• Using a new name or nickname• Signs of fighting, such as bruises and cuts• Tattoos (for example teardrops, three dots, pitchforks, crosses, the numbers 13 and 14)• Presence of gang graffiti on notebooks, backpacks, or other personal items• Increased police involvement

Freeing Youth from the Grip of Gangs

The real truth about gang members:• They want to belong to something bigger than themselves.

• They are people often with a lot of hurt and pain beneath their unhealthy behaviors.

• They believe being in a gang can relieve the hurt in their life.

• They are often smart and talented individuals with wonderful personalities.

• They can change or do want to change their behaviors and life.

• They aren’t sociopathic because of their choice to be in a gang.

• They don’t see being in a gang as a positive thing.

• They can adapt or change behaviors to be a part of mainstream society.

• They have more similarities than differences to people in mainstream society.

• They are attracted to the real or perceived power of being in a gang.

• They are searching for a way to be successful.

Interview conducted by Amanda Thompson

Interview with a gang member…

Q: What is the name of your gang?A: SET  Q: How did you get involved with your

gang?A: My cousins and friends

Q: What did you have to do to become a member?

A: Show respect Q: What are the benefits of being in a

gang?A: Having party's together for girls and

other people.

Q: What are the negative aspects of being in a gang?

A: Sometimes you have to fight, but that's life.

Q: How do your family and friends feel about your choice to join a gang?

A: They don't really say anything unless you get in trouble.

Q: What were a few reasons you chose to join?

A: To keep from staying in the house all day. We might play football and basketball or something.

Q: Approximately how many gang members do you think are currently students at your High School?

A: About 70% from what I see.

Q: How young are the children that are being recruited to join?

A: They are different ages but sometimes there are children as young as elementary schools in gangs.

Q: In your opinion what can a school do to help discourage students from joining a gang (sports, clubs, counseling, programs, etc.)

A: Sports. I would like it if they would have pick-up basketball or football after school sometimes.

Source: National Youth Violence Prevention Center

Prevention is being Proactive…

Recommendations for schools, educators, parents, and counselors:

Develop and implement professional development and in-service training programs for all school employees, including training techniques in classroom management and in dealing with cultural diversity, disruptive students and parents, and campus intruders.

Conduct leadership training classes to assist students in developing insight and skills that enable them to work harmoniously with diverse individuals and groups.

Implement dress codes designed to eliminate gang colors and clothing, publicize the codes at school and distribute them to all students and parents.

Source: National Youth Violence Prevention Center

Prevention, cont’d.

o Adopt school uniforms-particularly for elementary and middle school students. Financial assistance should be available to parents who cannot afford uniforms.

o Create a climate of ownership and school pride by including students, parents, teachers, and community leaders in the safe-school planning process.

• Stage regular campus-wide graffiti and vandalism cleanup campaigns and cleanup rallies in response to specific incidents of defacement and destruction.

• Organize crisis intervention teams to counsel students coping with troubling violence in and near school.

• Offer students, especially juvenile gang members, special outreach and after school programs as an alternative to gang membership.

• Reduce the length of time between classes to discourage loitering.

• Establish partnership academies, schools-within-schools, alternative schools, beacon schools, in-school suspension programs, and school-to-work programs in collaboration with colleges and businesses in order to relocate and continue educating students with histories of classroom disruption, lack of motivation, and gang membership.

• Implement victim/offender programs requiring juvenile offenders to make restitution to victims for damage or loss incurred or to perform community service.

Video Presentations- the following news-based video clips are both informative and preventative in regards to cities developing strategies to address gang-related challenges.

o Parents Urged to Watch for Signs of Gang Involvementhttp://www.wral.com/news/local/video/1246212/

o Growing Trend of Gangs Can Be Reversed, Wake County Groups Says

http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/148280/

o Wake County Towns Go On Offensive Against Gangs http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/146204

o Wake County Residents Want Gangs Out of Neighborhoods http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/1280411/

o Extraordinary Teen Doing Her Part To Keep Peers Away from Gangs, Drugs

http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/158135/

Get Students Involved!

The following organizations are resources that may be currently available in your community, or can be implemented:

G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance Education And Training); established in 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona. This organization is now national. The focus is to help students make positive life choices & develop life-long skills that will help them avoid gang involvement. The program has four education components: elementary curriculum; middle school curriculum; summer program; and a families program. Grants are available to assist in establishing a program in your community.

Visit G.R.E.A.T. to obtain more information and watch video clips that expand on the program. www.great-online.org

• SAVE (Students Against Violence Everywhere); established in 1989 by students with a vision that all students will be able to attend a school that is safe, secure, free of fear, and conducive to learning. SAVE’s purpose is to: engage students in meaningful violence prevention efforts within their school and community; empower youth with knowledge and skills necessary to provide service to their community and school; encourage positive peer influences within the school and community through violence prevention efforts; educate students about the effects and consequences of violence as well as safe activities for students, parents, and the community. Visit SAVE to learn more about this program and how to organize and implement a chapter in your school.

www.nationalsave.org

Source: Freeing Youth from the Grip of Gangs

Counseling a gang member

• Keep in mind that gang members scare people in general, they can also seem scary to a counselor.

• As with any other client, take care not to judge these clients before you meet them.

• Set ground rules for the sessions (i.e. no weapons brought to sessions, cannot come under the influence of drugs and alcohol, leave street slang on the street).

• Keep your personal values out of your sessions – gang members are accustomed to society telling them they are bad people; treat them with respect.

• Help them to challenge their beliefs and learn ways in which to meet their needs

• Work with a client’s self-identity and help them to define goals.

• Assist them in exploring ways to meet their needs in nonviolent ways.

• Encourage hope.• Don’t gloss over the violence inherent in

a gang culture.• Empathize with your client and work

towards seeing the world from their perspective.

• Work to see the person hidden under the gang persona.

Source: Freeing Youth from the Grip of Gangs

Counseling a gang member cont.d• Ask your clients to explain gang elements of life to expand your learning.

• Have a solid understanding of gang culture, norms and values.

• Develop trust with your client; it may take months for them to be open and honest with you.

• Remember, until a connection is built with your client, they may lie about their experiences and level of involvement in a gang.

• Focus on the underlying issues, not gang involvement; this is key in the early stages of the relationship.

• Talk with your client about the choices he/she is making; help them examine why they are making the decisions they have.

• Focus on the void your client is trying to fill by joining a gang.

• Help your client see what other life options they have available (i.e. completing or continuing their education & job opportunities).

• The counseling agenda should be about what they want to accomplish in the session and life, not what you want to accomplish.

• Practice patience, patience, and more patience! Gang life can pull on your client for weeks, months, and even years.

Gangsta’s Paradise Video

The following words have been taken from rapper, Coolio’s, music video, “Gangsta’s Paradise.” The words depict the challenges and desperation felt by people in gangs. Click on the link below to watch the video clip from the movie, “Dangerous Minds,” which features this song. Gangsta’s Paradise

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of deathI take a look of my life, and realise there’s nothing left.

‘Cuz I’ve been brassin’ and laughing so long that, Even my mama thinks that my mind is gone.

But I ain’t never crossed a man that didn’t deserve it.Me be treated like a punk, you know that’s unheard of.

You'd better watch how you're talking and where you walking,

Or you and your homie might be lined up with chalk.I really hate to trip but I gotta lope.

As they croak I see myself in the pistol smoke, FOOL.I’m the kind of g that little homies wanna be.

Like on my knees in the night sayin prayers in the street light.

Bin spending most their lifes livin in a Gangsta’s Paradise.Bin spending most their lifes living in a Gangsta’s

Paradise.Keep spending most our lifes livin in a Gangsta’s Paradise.Keep spending most our lifes livin in a Gangsta’s Paradise.

The ghetto situation they got me facein’I can’t live a normal life, I was raised by the strip.

So I gotta be down wit the hood team. Too much television watching got me chasing

dreams.I’m a educated fool wit money on my mind.

Got my ten in my hand and the glim in my eye. I’m a loped out gangster set trippin banger.

And my homies is down so don’t arouse my anger, FOOL.

Death ain’t notin but a heartbeat away.I’m living life do or die, what can I say.

I’m 23 now but will live to see 24.The way things is going I don’t know.

Tell me why are we so blind to see.That the one’s we hurt are you and me.

Power and money, money and the power.Minute after minute, hour after hour.

Everybody’s running but half of them ain’t looking.What’s going on in the kitchen, but I don’t know

what’s cooking.They say I got to learn, but nobody’s here to teach

me.If they can’t understand, how can they reach me.

I guess they can’t.I guess they won’t.I guess they front.

That’s why I know my life is out of luck. FOOL.

Resources

• Combating Fear and Restoring Safety in Schools. Retrieved November 24, 2008, from National Youth Violence Prevention Center. Website:

www.safeyouth.org/scripts/faq/prevgangs.asp

• Davis, J., Hayes, R., Yearwood, D., Klopavic, J., Hisu, Y. A Comprehensive Assessment of Gangs in North Carolina; A report to the General Assemby. North Carolina

Department of Crime Control & Public Safety, Governor’s Crime Commission . Retrieved November 20, 2008. Website: www.ncgccd.org/pubs/gangs2008.pdf

• Frabutt, J., Buford, A., What you Should know about Youth Gangs in North Carolina, Fostering Perspectives, 2006, Volume 10, No. 2.

http://ssw.unc.edu/fcrp/fp/fp_v10n2/gangs.htm

• G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance Education And Training). www.great-online.org/

• North Carolina Gang Investigators Association www.gangcops.org

• Rollins, Jonathan. Freeing Youth From the Grip of Gangs, Retrieved November, 23, 2008, from American Counseling Association. Website:www.gangcolors.com/pdf/ACA.pdf

• SAVE (Students Against Violence Everywhere) www.nationalsave.org