Gangs and Drugs
Introduction:
The relation of humans and crime is as old as the creation of this universe. They say, with good comes bad. The humanity has been gifted with tremendous characteristics and freedom. This freedom of choice dictates how an individual would use his gifts. Henry D. McKay and Clifford Shaw, the two Criminology researchers, presented a theory of Social Disorganization in 1942 (Spiegel, 2006). The theory explains that the physical environment affects the behavioral choices of an individual. The involvement of individuals with gangs, criminal activities, and drugs is all as a result of their environment, social surrounding, relations, and unhealthy interactions. Many adolescents enter or join the young gangs that promote crime, terror and drug abuse. This paper is therefore designed to analyze the relationship between social disorganization by the gang (drugs) and its effects. Besides that, it will provide some applicable way outs to control this social dilemma.
Human is the most superior creature of God and his power in captivated in his mind. Similarly, a human has equal potential for good and bad, and his perception decides which path he may take to pursue his time in the universe. Evil exists in many forms in our societies, sometimes alone pertaining only single individual and other times in groups and the whole community. Gangs are the group of people with similar beliefs; these beliefs could be positive or negative. The gangs with negative belief system are usually aggressive, destructive, emotionally cold, cruel and evil doers. They love to create chaos in societies with their terror and misleading (Wood, & Alleyne, 2010). The people that join the gangs share some common traits, and one that prevails among them is the use of drugs and its propagation through illegal means.
Background:
The theorist explains different behavioral approaches that highlight the reasons behind the establishment of violent and ruthless gangs that is more common in youth. The underdeveloped and poorly developed people seem to get involved with such gangs more than the other people. Reason being they bear socially neglected, deprived of their basic needs, and are prone to society’s evil without any barrier (Gennetian, Kessler, & Sanbonmatsu, 2014). The poor people of any society are mistreated in terms f basic living, education facilities, health facilities and much more. Such biased and unjust treatments ignite the evil in them that made them revengeful (Fleisher, 2015). The violence, aggressiveness prevails in such individuals and to combat they get involved with gangs that break the laws and harm the society.
The concept behind such belief system is that they consider their rights have not been entertained and had always been neglected, so they tend to snatch such rights by their evil deeds. Evil has many forms, and it promotes bad longings. Drug usage and addiction are directly associated with gangs that not only makes them addict but rather enables them to spread this evil in whole society. The adolescents tend to get fascinated by the gangs, their fake power, and aggressiveness. They end up joining the gangs and getting involved in drugs, become their carriers and export them illegally. Different gangs are associated with different specialized crimes.
Theory:
Kidnapping, serial killing, money laundering, smuggling, etc. are some categories of gang’s involvements in crime scenes. Many school kids get involved with such gangs, sometimes reason only being bullied severely (Bradshaw, Waasdorp, Goldweber & Johnson, 2013). The theory of social disorganization skillfully reflects upon the reasons behind the gangs and their involvement with drugs. People use drugs to induce pleasure, lower the burden of their worries and to get euphoric experiences. Sometimes people join gangs only to get access to the drugs because euphoria is an obsession for many people and it enslaves them badly. The whole lives of people get wasted in this evil, and they end up losing all that they have said their relations, their time, energies and purpose for living.
Data:
Crime is always pitched due to some suffering. This suffering could be physical, emotional, spiritual, mental or psychological. Crime has many forms and degrees. Some crimes are bearable and can be forgiven if persons get guilty, but some crimes are choric and so severe that they can never be tolerated by any society. Gangs tend to get involved in severe crimes that are done with a proper planning and strategy. To combat the guilt that comes after any crime, the criminals use drugs to numb their concise emotions and inner self-voice (Kornblum, Seccombe, & Julian, 2017). Drugs usage and its smuggling are getting very common, and many forces are working over this matter to nip the evil of such gangs that promote this evil in societies.
Analysis:
The most threatening reality about gangs in their settlement and propagation is the involvement of youth. Youth has a lot of energy and tendency to get inclined towards the evil because it is the easy way to get power and fame. Many social workers and philanthropists are working over the eradication of gangs and more specifically the involvement of youth with them (Esbensen, 2000). Many rehabilitation centers are working over the drug addicts that were once part of terrific gangs and such positive involvement had saved the lives of many people (Howell, Egley & Gleason, 2002). It is very necessary to completely eradicate such evil from societies, and it can only be done by government and regulatory bodies the right way.
Conclusion:
Hence, the concept of gangs and drugs is not new, but it can be well explained and understood by social disorganization theory. Such theories help in understanding the causes of crime and their associated factors. They say you are what where you live. It means our environment directly affects our habits, health, perception, psychology and our social involvement. The bad society will generate bad people and beliefs and vice versa. So here we need to control the evil by establishing better environments to sustain better living on planet earth.
References
Bradshaw, C. P., Waasdorp, T. E., Goldweber, A., & Johnson, S. L. (2013). Bullies, gangs, drugs, and school: Understanding the overlap and the role of ethnicity and urbanicity. Journal of youth and adolescence, 42(2), 220-234.
Esbensen, F. A. (2000). Preventing adolescent gang involvement. In Juvenile Justice Bulletin.
Fleisher, M. S. (2015). Gangs and Drugs. The Handbook of Gangs, 193.
Gennetian, L. K., Kessler, R. O. N. A. L. D., & Sanbonmatsu, L. I. S. A. (2014). Moving to more affluent neighborhoods improves health and happiness over the long-term among the poor. Policy research brief.
Howell, J. C., Egley, A., & Gleason, D. K. (2002). Modern day youth gangs.
Kornblum, W., Seccombe, K., & Julian, J. (2017). Social problems. Pearson.
Spiegel, S. N. (2006). Criminology. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Wood, J., & Alleyne, E. (2010). Street gang theory and research: Where are we now and where do we go from here?. Aggression and violent behavior, 15(2), 100-111.
