Lincoln Eggertz
Phil 1120
Case Study Paper
Gang Violence
The history of gang violence in the U.S dates back to 1783, as the American Revolution
was ending. These early gangs consisted of mostly non seasoned criminals and youths fighting
over local street turf. Street gangs took a more serious and organized turn around 1820 in New
York City due to large scale immigration. During the 1950’s and 60’s a third wave of gang
activity was documented when Latino and African American populations arrived to North
America “en masse”. (National Gang Center.gov, James C. Howell and John P. Moore)
When researching the early history of gangs, a lot of literature spoke of immigration being a key
factor that contributed to early gang formation in north eastern part of the United States. It
mentioned the different ethnicities that immigrated from northern and western Europe such as
Germans, Poles, Italians and Jews. These individuals were considered "outsiders", as they were
not American born and were discriminated upon, as well as being low skilled and therefore
earning lower wages. Again these suggestions tie back into the idea that economic pressures
can be prime breeding grounds, which I agree with. I feel like struggles on a large scale involving
numerous members of a community can cause members of that society to band together and
find alternative means of generating income, obtaining property and material possessions. The
street gangs in the 1820's were mostly concentrated in the Lower East Side of New York City
and the Five Points. It was mentioned that violence in this era was a normal way of life for
young men living in the city. While I was reading the article published by James C Howell and
John P Moore I could not help but be reminded of the film "Gangs of New York" with Daniel Day
Lewis. I feel like the movie did a great job portraying the historical accuracy of early street
gangs in New York City, in how they functioned with influencing local politics and using grocery
stores, and bars or "speak easy's" as hubs for conducting business. Other cities mentioned in
the history of gangs in the United States were Chicago and Los Angeles.
There is no generally accepted definition of a “gang”. “Street gang” is a more widely accepted
term. To be considered a street gang, typically the following criteria needs to be met:



Three or more members, generally aged between twelve and twenty-four
A shared identity linked to a name and other symbols
Members view themselves as a gang and are recognized by others as a gang


The group has some degree of organization
The group is involved in an elevated level of criminal activity
Street Gangs tend to cluster in high crime, socially disadvantaged neighborhoods (Thornberry,
2003), and become established or “institutionalized” when core institutions function poorly,
including families, schools and economic systems. (Moore, 1998, Virgil, 2002.) Homicides,
violence, and crime numbers related to gangs are difficult to determine due to the lack of gang
crime data. Nearly half of all law enforcement agencies report that they do not record any
criminal offense as gang related, and those that do most often do so only for violent offenses.
(Egley & Major, 2003)
Transnational gangs are also a sub topic of gangs and gang violence. There is no single
definition for the term transnational gang, but a loose way of describing a transnational gang
would be a gang with members that operate within two countries. Transnational gangs are not
new to the United States and have been known to have very strong political and business ties
within the communities they operate within. One of the most infamous and well known gangs
that could be considered "transnational" is La Cosa Nostra, or the Mafia. A second gang I have
seen documentaries on and had also read about while researching this paper is MS-13, standing
for Mara Salvatrucha, mara is the Spanish word for gang, and salvatrucha a slang word for
"shrewd salvadorian". MS-13 originated in Los Angeles in the 1980's within refugees of the
Salvadorian civil war. While reading about transnational gangs one of the topics mentioned that
helped spread the ideas, habits, and style was one of the policies held by the United States,
which was to deport convicted felons back to their original countrie of origin once they had
served time for crimes committed. In essence feeding an already well established problem in
Central America. These countries did not have the resources readily available to deal with these
individuals who were placed back into society and would shortly afterwards establish
connections with local gangs in the community and prisons. This would also strengthen ties
between gangs in the United States and Central America, as well as increasing drug trafficking.
From what I have read and heard, MS-13 is a particularly violent gang who will not think twice
about resorting to violence if any member of society, the media, political party, or rival is in
their way. Usually higher ranking members within penal systems of the US, southern California
and Central America will have large facial tattoo's representing their gang affiliation, as well as
adding to their shock value upon society. MS-13's main rival is the 18th Street gang.
Below is a list of Mexican and Central American Cartels:



Tijuana cartel
Gulf cartel
Juarez cartel

Sinaloa cartel
Homicides related to drug trafficking in Mexico more than doubled from 2007 to 2008, with
2,275 reported homicides in 07' and 5,207 in 08'. Again, these statistics and figures are not one
hundred percent accurate as there is no consistent or reliable data reporting source. It is
acknowledged that the cartel and gang problem in Mexico, Central and Southern America is
deeply imbedded in society, law enforcement and political parties within the countries. The
cartel's mentioned above are comprised of different families that battle over drug smuggling
routes that begin in Southern America and travel up through Central America, Mexico and
throughout the United States. The involvement of Mexican drug trafficking organizations and
gangs within the United States, especially gangs in border cities is not extremely clear, nor are
there direct ties to these border gangs, research and reading suggested that the cartels will use
these local gangs as independent contractors to move loads, but reading also says that this is
usually not the border gangs only source of income. The conflicts between these Mexican drug
trafficking organizations are extremely horrific and bloody, aside from rival gang and cartel
members, they will often involving members of the media that choose to report on the
activities in their local cities, the law enforcement agencies that decide to stand against them,
and often and tragically, their families. Recently torture and beheadings have become common
practice and used as scare and shock tactics by cartels in Mexico. MS-13 and the Mexican
Mafia (also known as La Eme) are the largest street gangs that work with distribution of
trafficked drugs north of the border. The Mexican Mafia is active in the majority of drug
distribution points in Mexico and Central America. (Howell & Moore, 2009)
Findings from the NYGS (National Youth Gang Survey) show a twenty five percent increase in
the number of jurisdictions with gang problems from 2002 through 2007. The percentage of
change in jurisdictions with reported gang problems are as follows:




+12% in larger cities
+33% in suburban cities
+27% in smaller cities
+24% in rural counties
(NYGC, 2009)
According to law enforcement agencies in the 2007 NYGS, forty-nine percent of all documented
gang members are Hispanic or Latino, thirty-five percent are African American, and nine
percent are Caucasian. Based on law enforcement reports in 2009, there were an estimated
28,100 gangs and 731,000 gang members throughout 3,500 jurisdictions nationwide. Other key
statistics:




The prevalence of gang activity increased from 32.4% in 2008 to 34.5% in 2009
Larger cities and suburban counties accounted for more than 96% of all reported gang
related homicides
66% of the 167 responding cities with populations of more than 100,000 reported a
total of 1,017 gang related homicides
Drug related factors, Inter-gang conflict and the return from confinement make up the
top three factors in influencing local gang violence
(NYGS, 2009)
Gang violence is a small but serious and relevant part of violence as an overall topic, and
statistics show that it has a large impact on the societies affected by street gang cohabitation.
One of the things I found most interesting researching the topic was that the data available
about gang violence is hinged upon the law enforcement agencies that report violence and
crime. Whether or not they decide to categorize a crime or violent offense as gang related
determines how much we really know about gang violence and how much of a problem it really
poses to society. Another point brought to my attention through research was the US policy of
deporting known, involved transnational gang members who had been convicted of federal
crimes, allowing them to serve their time in United States federal prisons, institutions that have
reputations of furthering criminal involvement and producing and fostering repeat offenders,
and then deport these individual to their country of origin. Countries with government and local
authority who are less adept to dealing with this type of criminal activity, as well as already
possessing pre-established drug and cartel problems, only to worsen the problem in our
neighboring country by increasing the pool of qualified candidates to grow these organizations
and stretch their already long reach. And ultimately enhancing our own problem of drug
trafficking, gang involvement, crime rate and violence. I understand the want to deport these
individuals, and am not saying that I have a better solution, but I'm not sure how this problem
was not foreseen when discussion were being held in regards to the policy. Obviously gangs
have been a part of society for centuries, and I'm sure they will continue to be prevalent for the
foreseeable future, the question is how to educate younger generations and provide productive
nurturing environments within societies across the country and world that will show young
people that there are alternatives to criminal lifestyles and gang involvement.
Research Citations:
-Egley Jr., Arlen, and James C. Howell. "Juvenile Justice Fact Sheet." NCJRS.gov. Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, June 2011. Web. 03 Oct. 2011.
<https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/233581.pdf>.
-NationalGangCenter.gov. Frequently Asked Questions about Gangs.
-NationGangCenter.gov. History of Street Gangs in the United States : James C Howell and John
P Moore