Jim Mork wrote:
A broad-ranging discussion of the gang phenomenonLike Wizard Marks, there is a family on my block associated with the Rolling 30s Bloods. At least three generations reside in this home. The usual population in the 2 BR house is three adults and five children but frequently, another 2-5 family members stay there as well. The families on Wizard's block and mine are closely related.
can be found
at:http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/family/g1294.htm#S&ECONDOne of the things they discuss is
behavior-modeling (50 to 85% of gang members had
parents with gang experience).
IMHO, evaluating the gangster problem from a social service or quality of education perspective won't work. This is a clan who chose the drug trade as their family business. It might help to think "mob" instead of "gang" - because that is what we are dealing with. (And I assume that the clan does have some ties with a larger organization that imports drugs to the U.S. for they have to get their inventory from somewhere).
Think of a clan where knowledge of how to break the law - how to steal, how to deal, how to get and use a gun - is passed on. It's a clan where doing time is an accepted part of the job. Aggressive behavior, verbal and physical, is taught because it is needed and it often succeeds. Children are told what to tell the police (and others?). Education is not valued. Respect for authority is directed to the family/gang and away from institutions like police, courts, and schools. Some of the young teens have an economic role in the family - they can make deliveries on bikes and if they are caught, they go into the juvenile justice system, not the adult system.
In the short-term, the rewards for participating in the drug business are immensely greater than education and legal employment. Teens and 20-somethings have incomes of hundreds up to thousands of dollars a week. The hours are flexible, the work is relatively easy, the work environment is sociable, and the job often involves partying. Their work is valued and respected within the family, the clan, and the larger gangster (criminal) subculture.
Some family members receive government assistance - the profits from illegal activities are off the books, not counted as household income. This income is truly a safety net. Some family members hold straight jobs - especially when on probation. And certainly, some family members leave or never enter the business. But we do have a clan operating a drug distribution business - with all the attendant violence and ugliness. The clan has suffered losses: members away in prison, injury by gunshot, death. Even so, they stay in the business. They must judge it more rewarding than alternatives.
Schools and social services aren't going to solve this problem. We need to put the clan out of business and just as the legalization of alcohol ended the associated street violence in the 30s, the legalization of drugs would do that today.
Shawne FitzGerald
Powderhorn
