Thursday, March 12, 2020

Family Risk Factors Essays

Family Risk Factors Essays Family Risk Factors Essay Family Risk Factors Essay Decker and Van Winkle (1996) view joining youth gangs as consisting of both pulls and pushes. Pulls pertain to the attractiveness of the gang. Gang membership can enhance prestige or status among friends (Baccaglini, 1993), especially girls (for boys) (Decker and Van Winkle, 1996). Gangs provide other attractive opportunities such as the chance for excitement by selling drugs and making money (Decker and Van Winkle, 1996). Thus, many youth see themselves as making a rational choice in deciding to join a gang. Apart from the attractive pulls, there are also social, economic, and cultural forces that push many adolescents in the direction of gangs. Protection from other gangs and perceived general well-being are key factors (Decker and Van Winkle, 1996). Some researchers contend that â€Å"underclass† status of minority youth serves to push them into gangs. To these youth, gangs offer a support system and a sense of belonging. Adolescents who feel marginalized in society join gangs for social relationships. To these young people, gangs give a sense of identity (Vigil and Long, 1990). There are some others who join gangs as a form of escapism from the trials and tribulations of adolescence. Gangs provide a way of solving social adjustment problems (Howell, 2006). In some communities, there is simply no choice. The youth are intensively recruited or coerced into gangs few are virtually born into gangs as a result of neighborhood traditions and their parents’ earlier or ongoing participation or involvement in criminal activity (Moore, 1978). : Professor Trompf, who recently retired from teaching, says that gangs are about belonging and about redressing powerlessness. â€Å"People who join gangs seek to mean something to other people and seek to feel empowered, to feel that they can effect change in their own lives and in the world. The dynamics of a gang, with all that intensity and connectedness, feels like a dynamo. It feels fantastic. † (Rossmanith, 2006) Long-term studies of large samples of urban adolescents in Rochester, NY (Thornberry, 1998), and Seattle (Hill et al, in press) have identified causal risk factors for gang membership. Both studies measure risk factors in the community, family, school, peer group, and individual attribute domains. In the Rochester study, Thornberry (1998) found predictors of gang membership among males in all five of the domains Community Risk Factors: The most important community risk factor is growing up in neighborhoods in which the level of social integration or attachment is low. Neither high levels of neighborhood disorganization nor high levels of violence predict gang membership. Family Risk Factors: Among family variables, poverty, absence of biological parents, low parental attachment to the child and low parental supervision all increase the probability of gang membership. School Risk Factors: Three school variables are very significant risk factors: low expectations for success in school (both by parent and students), low student commitment to school, and low attachment to teachers. Peer Risk Factors: Along with school factors, peers have a very strong impact on gang membership. Associating with delinquent friends and unsupervised â€Å"hanging around† with these delinquent friends are a potent combination. Individual Risk Factors: Important individual risk factors identified in the Rochester study are low self-esteem, numerous negative life events, depressive symptoms, and easy access to drugs or favorable views toward drug use. Drug related Risk Factors: Finally, youth who use drugs and are involved in delinquency- particularly violent delinquency- are more likely to become gang members than are youth who are less involved in delinquency and drug use. In sum, â€Å"youth who grow up in more disorganized neighborhoods; who come from impoverished, distressed families; who do poorly in school and have low attachment to school and teachers; who associate with delinquent peers; and engage in various forms of problem behaviors are at increased risk for becoming gang members† (Thornberry, 1998:157).

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