Class and Culture in Urban American Essay -- Gangs Crimes Cultural Soc

Class and Culture in Urban Ameri squirt A aggroup is a loosely organized group of item-by-item people who join forces for social reasons. Or anti-social reasons depending on how one looks at it. A person may join a gang for numerous reasons. These reasons include the need for identity, discipline, recognition, love, money, and belonging. 5 Today there argon virtually 274 Blood and Crip gangs in Los Angeles County alone. 1 The gangs that are often in the tidings are usually made up of African-Americans. African-Americans first formed pass gangs in the late 1920s and early 1930s on the due east side of Los Angeles near Central and Vernon Avenues. They were also forming in the bulgetown expanse of Los Angeles around the same time. 4 Los Angeles is not the only area where gangs are visible, but it is often the area that will be associated with the topic of gang violence. During the years to follow the early 1930s, African-Americans began to move south from downtown Lo s Angeles, down Central Ave towards Slauson Avenue. 4 Whites primarily occupied this area during the 1920s, but African-Americans started travel in when the 1930s began. As the years went on and the time became nearer to the present, these old gangs faded away, and new gangs surfaced. These new gangs were a more violent, unsafe type of group. Confrontations that would have led to fistfights in the 1930s progressed into fights that included chains, knives, and guns during the seventies and 1980s. The two main label that will be associated with gang criminal offense and activity these days are the Bloods and the Crips. These two names raise consternation in most members of the community in the United States. The Bloods and the Crips are names that are synonymous with bloody ... ...ls, and parents to do their part. Together maybe we can put a halt to gang activity all together. Bibliography 1James Haskins, highroad confederacys Yesterday and Today. (Hastings House, Publishers of New York, 1984).2www.th-record.com/1999/09/14/hygangs.htm3www.cnn.com/US/9708/27/crips.bloods/4www.streetgangs.com/history/history.html5www.gangwar.com/dynamics.html6G. Larry Mays, Gangs and Gang Behavior. (Nelson-Hall, Publishers of Chicago, 1997).7Mary G. Harris, Ed. D., Girls and Gangs. (AMS Press, of New York, 1988).8Susan A. Phillips, Wallbangin Graffiti and Gangs in L. A.. (The University of Chicago Press, 1999).9http//web.tc.Columbia.edu/monographs/uds107/preventing_location.html10www.expage.com/page/cripinfo11www.streetgangs.com/topics/2000/062300deathsen.html12www.streetgangs.com/topics/2000/081400upturn.html