Drive-by Shootings

Drive-by Shooting

Drive-by Shootings

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Drive by Shooting

A drive-by shooting involves a gang member(s) driving slowly by a resident, establishment, or even street corner and shooting people they have targeted. Drive-by shootings are a tool used by gang members in order to get revenge on fellow gang members or gang members from another gang who has intruded upon their territory. The problem with drive by shootings is it is part of a much larger problem involving youth gangs in lower class, poverty stricken urban communities. While gangs have emerged in other neighborhoods, such as middle class communities, this is extremely rare.

There are many reasons why a gang might decide to use drive by shootings as a tool but the main goals is to insert their power over other gangs or gangs members. Drive-by shootings are committed when one gang member betrays another gang member or an opposing gang begins to do business on their territory. This usually means they are selling drugs or engaging in prostitution in an area considered to be another gangs. Another reason for drive-by shootings is because another gang has disturbed the business of another gang or failed to follow through with n established deal. For example it is common for gangs to sell each other guns. If a gang feels ripped off by the other gang they will get revenge with a drive-by.

The problems with the drive by is once one gang commits a drive by shooting in revenge there will be retaliation which usually come in the form of another drive-by shooting. Drive-by shootings result in the death of innocent bystanders who have nothing to do with gangs especially children. When gangs commit drive-bys the police have difficulty investigating the crime because the people in the community are too scared to talk. If a gang will shoot someone in the street in front of everyone they will kill anyone at anytime. This makes any witnesses leery of providing testimony against these criminal offenders.

Police Strategies

Police have difficulty identifying who did the shooting resulting in innocent victims never getting justice. Many drive-by shootings involve multiple suspects and multiple victims (Dedel, 2007). When police cannot solve the drive-by because members of the community refuse to cooperate, it results in community members angered with the inability of police to solve crimes. Because of the many factors associated with the drive-by shooting by gang members there have been many different approaches employed by law enforcement to stop the problem.

Due to the fact that fear of crime causes community members to fail to assist police in part due to a lack of trust in the ability of police to keep them safe, especially from the drive-by shooting, and in part due to their fear of retaliation of the gang. In order to recue this fear and reduce gang violence different approaches have been employed from community responses, to legislative response, to responses by police department. The police have responded to drive by shooting by gangs with new policing approaches.

Community oriented policing is an approach that emerged in the 1970’s and is currently embraced by a majority of police departments across the country. This approach involves police establishing relationships with communities to develop effective responses to crime problems. Police establish relationships with community members so when a drive-by occurs they trust the police to do their job and arrest the offenders. When there is no relationship between police and the community members there is no trust. This relationship serves to ensure when drive-bys occur the police are called and community member’s act as witnesses.

Legislative Response

According to the 1999 National Youth Gang Survey, 90 percent of gang members are male. Seventy-one percent of these members are between the ages of 15 and 24, and 16 percent are age 14 or under (Dedel, 2007). The first response to the gang problem was a law created in California, the Street Terrorism Enforcement. This law known as STEP finds every citizen has the right to be free of fear from terrorism in the streets by gangs. The law punishes the gang member by forfeiting all profits and proceeds and increasing penalties for gang activities.

All states with similar gang problems have followed suit and established gang legislation designed to harshly punish the offender. Due to these harsher laws and the fact many of the gang consists of youths the number of juveniles being charged as adults has vastly increased. Juveniles committing adult like, violent crimes are often times sentenced like adults for their crimes, especially drive-bys resulting in injury or death. The new laws consist of sentencing enhancements where street gang members receive a harsher sentence for committing the same crime as another citizen.

Cities have passed ordinances prohibiting cruising, loitering, and many forms of belligerent public behavior, such as discharging weapons on private property, consuming alcohol in public, and playing loud music (OJJDP, 2000). The goal is to stop a large group of youth gathering allowing gang behavior to emerge. Many federal and state legislative responses are designed to punish after the gang behavior has occurred while local response are more focused on deterring the act before it occurs or putting prevention measures in place.

In the state of Tennessee if gang members have committed a prior gang crime will receive a harsher prison sentences for their second offense. Gang association can result in a longer prison sentence and this includes drive-by shootings. Some states have enacted laws were when one gang members commits a crime all of the members can also be charged. In some state the gang member will forfeit property and will also be subject to harsher punishment than the average gang member. The goal is to deter gang members from committing further crimes but these laws rarely work. Instead what has been more effective is the community approach to the gang problem.

Community/Police Response

Anti-gang measures have come in many different shapes and sizes from legislation to community programs established to change the community and the youth in the community. These anti-gang measures have been created by nonprofit organizations and groups that represent the police in their fight to stop gangs. Community responses have also come from local government. One important approach is to target youths in the school environment. Research has shown that single parenthood resulting in a lack of supervision has resulted in the youth gang problem ().

As a result of this research one common answer to the gang problem is to initiate after school programs ensuring juveniles have supervision until their single parent can get off work. When juveniles are left to their own devices they will get into trouble. Other community responses are focused on prevention. Prevention programs are designed to address the gang problem before it can occur. The school is used to teach children the dangers of joining a gang and the dangers of gun violence. Drive by’s are the number one cause for the death of innocent bystanders since the gang member rarely shoots there target but instead bullets spray and hit innocent people including young children.

Gang prevention programs address gang problems as the local level as well as the state and federal levels. Evaluations of the National Institute of Justice gang prevention programs have identified key factors in designing and implementing positive interventions (NIJ, 2011). These key factors include working closely with the community. This involves police developing a partnership with members of the community, community programs, and school districts. It takes a combined effort to prevent gang issues in certain communities in the country. City leader, social workers, and other stakeholders are also important I preventing a gang environment form emerging or stopping an existing gang problem.

Community Oriented Policing Strategies

Community oriented strategies that can be applied to a drive-by problem by local gang include neighborhood watch program, increasing lighting, increase and repairing any damage to the community. When a community is cleaned up, security measures are in place, and the police and community appear to be dedicated to keeping an area secure it deters the criminal element including the gangs from emerging. Gangs thrive in areas where the community is scared of crime and does not get involved with calling the police when gangs commit drive bys or other violent crimes.

Another community oriented strategy that can be applied to preventing drive bys by gangs is situational gang crime programs. These programs assess the environment of the gang and address each individual issue that is identified. For example single parenthood has been identified as a cause for gang behavior as well as poverty. Along with after school programs students vulnerable to becoming members of gangs should be provided opportunities for academic growth which will lead to opportunities to become productive members of society. Each community oriented approach involves a combination of community members and the police working together to develop effective responses.

References

Dedel, K. (2007). The Problem of Drive-By Shootings. Guide 47. Retrieved April 8, 2014 from

http://www.popcenter.org/problems/drive_by_shooting/

Office of juvenile Justice. (2000). Juvenile Justice Reform initiative in the States. Retrieved

April 8, 2014 from http://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/reform/ch2_e.html

National Institute of justice. (2011). Gangs and Gang Crime. Retrieved April 8, 2014 from

http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/gangs/Pages/welcome.aspx

Sigal, J. (2010). Out of Step: When the California Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention

Act Stumbles in penal Code Limits. Golden Gate University Law Review, 38(1): 2-33