Gangs have greatly evolved over the years and are making use of technology to extend their influence over people. For example, the gangs of today have their own websites and YouTube videos or use even use Facebook and Twitter to communicate with others, especially those of the younger generation who would be susceptible to their influence. After all, gang members on average are only about 17 years old so its not so much a surprise that many of their members are taking advantage of social media. It’s much easier for a gang to spread a message and taunt another gang through social media than to actually do it in the opposing gang’s territory. This leads us to the question, how do we reduce the amount of gang activity in our local neighborhoods?

One of the strategies used was to impose injunctions on gangs and prevent members of those gangs from meeting in public. This was controversial because gang members who would only be in a gang for a short amount of time would have an injunction imposed on them that goes on for the rest of their life. There’s also the chance that someone who has been labeled a gang member is actually not and has never been a gang member at all. However, this method can be effective because it increases transparency and strengthens enforcement of the law in crime hot spots or gang territories. It is simply less likely that someone is going to carry around a gun or have drugs on them if there is a significant police presence in their vicinity.

While this could be a solid strategy to counteract gang activity in our neighborhoods, I don’t believe it is enough to get rid of gangs. Gangs are getting increasingly smarter, and are participating in crimes that are harder to track by the police due to their non-violent nature, so it would only be appropriate if the police improved their methods for gathering information and made better use of technology. If done so, the police would fare much better at stopping a crime before it happens or at least being able to gather enough evidence to find the culprit and punish them for their misdeeds. However, in the end, due to the very nature of gangs, it is very unlikely that we will ever see them go away.