STREET GANGS A Growing World Plague

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STREET GANGSA Growing World Plague

• LAS BANDAS CALLEJERAS
• Epidemia que Asola al Mundo

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A Growing World Plague
STREET GANGS

• LAS BANDAS CALLEJERAS
• Epidemia que Asola al Mundo

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• Why do so many youngsters join gangs?
• A que se debe que tantos jovenes se unan a las
  pandillas?
• Why is it so hard to get out of a gang?
• Porque es tan dificil dejarlas?
• How can you protect your children from them?
• Como puede proteger a sus hijos?

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What is a Gang?
The slang term gang has been fearfully and romantically used to indicate a group or band of persons bonded together because of common emotional and social needs, whose behavior is antisocial and criminal. Are groups of people who interact among themselves to the exclusion of other groups.
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Structural Characteristics

• Claim a neighborhood or other territory.
• Engage in antisocial behavior on a regular basis.
• Thrive on Membership, Codes and Loyalty (Gang is
  more important than anything) is Mandatory.
• Member are typically young teenager of similar
  ethnic or racial backgrounds.
• They have a Group Name.

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Why do so many youngsters join gangs?

• Needs not being met.
• Provide Youth with a sense of family.
• Acceptance.
• Maintaining strong ethnic identity.
• Lack of parental supervision or breakdown of
  family units.
• Lack of educational opportunities.
• Poverty

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Four factors are primary in the formation of
Juvenile Gangs
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First

• Youth experience a sense of alienation and
  powerlessness because of a lack of traditional
  support structures, such as family and school.
  This can lead to feelings of frustration and
  anger, and a desire to obtain support outside of
  traditional institutions.

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Second

• Gang membership gives youth a sense of belonging
  and becomes a major source of identity for its
  members. In turn, gang membership affords youth
  a sense of power and control, and gang activities
  become an outlet for their anger.

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Third

• The control of territory is essential to the
  well-being of the gang, which often will use
  force to control both its territory and members.

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Fourth

• Recruitment of new members and expansion of
  territory are essential if a gang is to remain
  STRONG and POWERFUL. Both willing and
  unwilling members are drawn into gangs to feed
  the need for more resources and gang members.

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Why is so hard to get out of Gang?

• Members have to undergo a violent beating by
  several members before they are permitted to
  leave a gang alive.
• Some may actually had to suffer being shot. If
  they survived, they were permitted to leave!

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What can we do about Gangs?

• Acknowledge the problem.
• Assess the problem.
• Understand it.
• Establish cooperative relations between schools,
  police, media, churches, and community
  organizations.
• Act on the problem.
• Involve parents and neighbors.

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How can you protect your children from gangs?

• Talk with them.
• Listen to them.
• Hug them.
• Be sure they know that they are very important to
  us.
• Teach them good things such as honesty, to be
  helpful, how to have a good life and how to be
  kind to others.

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• Let your children know that they can come to you
  at any time with any problem.
• Support your children by getting acquainted with
  their teachers and friends.
• Do not resolve problems by yelling or using
  violence.
• Be the family that they are looking for outside
  the home.
• Love them.
• Provide what they need.

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For more information, please contact

• STAR Program (Services to at Risk Families)
• 804 S. Main St. 3320 Loop 256
• Jacksonville, TX Palestine, TX
• [phone] [phone]
• Or Visit us at
• www.accessmhmr.org
• Link to STAR Program
• Brought to you by
• Universal Prevention Program
• Crisis Hot Line 1-800-621-1693
• Around the clock services In Spanish and English
• Funded by Department of Family Protective Services