Deviant Behavior and Gangs

I chose the topic of deviant behavior and gangs for a couple reasons.  The first reason is my husband is a police officer in Coeur d'Alene.  Although it is a relatively safe area, gang violence is on the rise.  The other reason is I have a teenager, and work with teenagers every day.  It was very a topic that I felt could be very beneficial for me to research further and find the warning signs to be able to possibly prevent this from happening or even just help the children around me.

According to Mosby's Medical Dictionary, deviant behavior is defined as actions that exceed the usual limits of accepted behavior and involve failure to comply with the social norm of the group.  In our textbook, it states that it goes farther then simply not conforming to society, that it is behavior that dramatically differs from expectations (Anderson, 144).  It goes on to say that there are 4 defining characteristics in the sociological perspective:

• Deviance not only applies to the person's behavior, but to the group's judgments of that person by the group.
• Not all behaviors are seen as deviant in all groups. What is deemed deviant in one group, may not be seen as deviant in another.
• The rules and norms of a group are socially established, not morally decided upon by group members.
• Deviance also includes the group members reactions and behaviors towards the deviant behavior.

So, what happens when individuals are rejected by their social group?  Those individuals will look elsewhere for acceptance.  They seek a family structure if they don't have one, and the love and support from others if they don't feel it from those around them.

This is a great article about why and how teens join gangs.
http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/gangcolor/paloalto.htm

When I thought about gangs, this is the image I saw.....

However, after looking a little deeper, this image seems more realistic...

It is a family.

Here is a link to a Fox News segment on gangs

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4311069/transnational-gangs-terrorizing-american-cities/

I love this documentary because it gives not only a back story on Crips and Bloods, but a lot of information about joining gangs, how they started, what they do, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl3QhUHDM90

This is a great article/site about teens and gangs and how to get them out.

http://youthservicesslc.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/why-teens-join-gangs/

This is a very informative website about gangs

http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/

I found this quote that I believe sums up gangs...

I believe that I understand gangs better than others. Because they're formed out of necessity. They're formed by people to keep from being suppressed.

 Jack Bowman 

REFERENCES

Deviant Behavior (n.d.) Retrieved from
Mosby's Medical Dictionary

Deviance (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deviance_(sociology)

Gang (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs