Social Forces, Gangs and Crime - Part 2

The burdens of social class, poverty, racism, poor schools, and dysfunctional families,

The sociologists do agree that social class, determined by the education, income, and the occupation levels are impacting on the families and shaping the lives and the opportunities. The poor families are having fewer material resources and opportunities. In the United States, there is the existence of a fair rigid class structure thus making it hard for the individuals to move out of their classes. According to sociologist Annette Lareau, the social class is playing a major role in the lives of the families most so children. The highly educated parents and employed individuals with good jobs have their children high likely to attend school and live with good morals (Miller, 2015).

In the lower class families, the economic resources tend to be much tighter and this makes it hard to even have access to the necessities such as foods. In the middle class, the families are highly likely to live in the neighbourhoods with a high tax based i.e. probably the well-funded learning centres. Studies also reveal that children from the parents with advanced degrees are more likely to acquire college degree as opposed to the poor neighbourhoods where the resources like schools are more limited (Guo & Metcalfe, 2019).

The Gangster Disciples is mostly composed of individuals from the African American communities. The underlying cause of the high rate of this ethnic community into this group of gangs is as a result of the high rate of unemployment. Majority of the individuals in this gang group are out of work and this is considered as a risk factor that exposes African American community members into this gang group. Majority of the African American youths are drug addicts. There is also high cases of breakdown of the families, especially in the urban areas. Therefore, the majority of children from this ethnic community are lacking good upbringing on moral behaviors. They are also less likely to join the school. The lack of education, lack of jobs, and poor moral backgrounds of the individuals lead to the increase in the possibilities of joining the crime gangs to help in meeting the financial needs (Tratsiakou, 2019).

How the negative social forces might be counteracted by the positive peer relations, supportive family, educational access, and the structural religious beliefs using the social and criminal justice initiatives.

The social isolation, the socioeconomic disadvantages, and the deprived communities are the negative factors that lead to aggression in children. Poverty is cutting across the racial and cultural boundaries and this leads to the conduct disorders that exposes individuals to join take part in criminal activities such as joining the gangs. The social forces limit the ability of individuals to access adequate and safe houses, employment, education, healthcare, and transportation. Parents from low-income families are forced to work for long hours to help in the compensation of their low wages. They are also highly likely to be present to play their parental roles and family led to their children. All these challenges contribute to the high rise in the number of reported crimes being committed by the gang groups such as Gangster Disciples (Tratsiakou, 2019).

The problems can be addressed successfully through positive peer relations, supportive family, educational success, and the structured religious beliefs that are focused on social and criminal justice initiatives. Majority of the impulsive children are more likely to be rejected by their peers. The positive peer relations is helping in ensuring that there is the existence of the self-control that influences peer relations and the delinquencies. It is therefore important to ensure that the positive peer relations are built to promote the self-control that is needed to reduce the number of the individuals who are at high risk of joining the gang groups (Guo & Metcalfe, 2019).

A supportive family is important in the provision of the moral guidelines that are supposed to be followed by the children. Family support through the efforts made by the parents is helping in ensuring that children are educated on what is considered to be moral and the immoral aspects of their conducts. Effective parenting and stronger family function involve successful monitoring and consistent discipline. These help in the protection of the children against the antisocial and the behavioral issues like the involvement with the delinquent peers and the subsequent possibilities of being a member of the gang (Bishop et al., 2017).

Education success is associated with the increase in the knowledge and the acquisition of the skills to perform specific tasks. Education is important especially to the parents since it gives them an opportunity of ensuring they access jobs to meet the needs of the families and pay for school fee for their children. The educational attainment is also helping the youths to acquire jobs and this reduces the chances of joining the gangsters Disciples groups (Berdychevsky et al., 2019).

The foundation of moral behaviors and conduct depends on the stable church foundations and the existence of criminal justice. The religious leaders help in ensuring that good teaching are taught and passed on to the youths. The criminal justice ensures that there are established rules to be followed to ensure that the actions or behaviors against the legislation are punished under the established laws. All these activities are important in the promotion of good behaviors among the youths. This helps in the reduction in the number of criminal cases and gang groups in society.

The overall relationship between social class and crime

The social class and crime are connected in a magnitude of ways. The individuals from the lower economic strata are at higher risk of being arrested, convicted, and incarcerated for various crimes than the affluent individuals. Most of the individuals who are arrested are unemployed and are earning less than the general population. Even though the crimes by the wealthy is posing greater financial cost to the entire society, the affluent population are less likely to be arrested and convicted of these crimes. The white-collar jobs have been traditionally been treated less severely by the criminal justice system as compared to street crimes (Miller, 2015).

References

Berdychevsky, L., Stodolska, M., & Shinew, K. J. (2019). The Roles of Recreation in the Prevention, Intervention, and Rehabilitation Programs Addressing Youth Gang Involvement and Violence. Leisure Sciences, 1-23. doi:org/10.1080/01490400.2019.1571966 Bishop, A., Hill, K. G., Gilman, A. B., Howell, J. C., & Catalano, R. (2017). Developmental pathways of youth gang membership: a structural test of the social development model. Journal of crime and justice, 40(3), 275-296. doi:org/10.1080/0735648X.2017.1329781 Guo, S., & Metcalfe, C. (2019). Religion as social control: A longitudinal study of religious involvement and substance use. Crime & Delinquency, 65(8), 1149-1181. doi:org/10.1177/0011128718787510 Miller, B. L. (2015). Social Class and Crime. Wiley Online Library. doi:org/10.1002/9781118519639.wbecpx150 Tratsiakou, R. (2019). The dysfunctional family as a factor of juvenile delinquency formation: actual problems in the Republic of Belarus. Pro Justitia, 2, 99-104.