Gang is a very unfamiliar term for me. I did learn about various types of gangs in New York when I was in elementary but that was about it. Living in peaceful neighborhood, people often forget about people in those rough neighborhoods. My last impression of gangs remains in violence outbreaks and distinctive clothing. However, Christina Hoag gave us the most recent update on how gangs work now. The fist gang ever appeared in 16th century, England. In the United States, gangs first appeared after the Revolutionary War to gain territory. After the mass immigration waves, immigrants began to form their own gangs for protection. The most famous one was the Latinos gang. Their connection with other Latino gangs provided more issues here.

As time has passed on, gang become more sophisticated. They no longer relied on drug and illegal weapon dealings, they move their businesses to more lucrative trades. For example, more and more gangs are set their hands in prostitution, human trafficking, online fraud etc. According to National Gang Intelligence Center, there is a 40 percent increase in gang membership since 2009. They find that, “Gangs are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions and up to 90 percent in several others.” (434) Most violence incidents have connections to gang rivals. This directly cause to have more victims on the science because there will be more firearms and more use of synthetic drug. Teens are often the victims between the gang violence. They seek identity and protection which sometimes their homes cannot offer. Gangs become their second home. This is the case for both boys and girls. Experts has seen a rising number in female participation in gang activities. It is unknown why there is more female participation, but police often overlook the fact that women can commit violence acts as well. Additional to more female involvement, internet also become a strong weapon for the gangs. Because of the exponential growth of the social media, gangs start to use social media to recruit new members and wage wars against their rival gangs. Teens use internet a lot so it is easy to influence them over the internet. Rap and hip-hop music glorify the lifestyle of gangsters which can strike a false impression.

In order to prevent the growth of gangs, it is important to start with the youth population. They are often lure by the cool outlook of the gang. I find the Youth PROMISE Act is a good way to start because it teaches kids about the gangs and help rival gangs to negotiate when there is an issue. It is necessary to prevent kids from entering gangs because gangs are fueled by youth to commit crimes. At the same time, these youths can achieve higher education so they can bring their own family to a better neighborhood. It will also save taxpayer money from sending more people to the prison.