Causes and effects of gangsterism Essay Example

They are willing to involve themselves in gang activities such as extorting money from others, fighting, and receiving payment for threatening others although they knew that it's a negative activity. Besides, teenagers may also be influenced by the media to become a gangster. Nowadays, multimedia such as the internet, television, and radio are very popular and common among teenagers. However, many dramas and movies reflect gang activities and some even built the character of the gangster as a hero.

Teenagers that are still immature think that gangsters in those scenes are very cool and thus also become a gangster. Sometimes, teenagers join gangs just because they are not good at social activities and want to attract others' attention. Nowadays, many parents are busy with their works and not concerned about their child's psychological condition. (Gavazzi 2005) Many teenagers just want more attention and love from their parents s but most of the parents could not understand their children's feelings.

The condition becomes more complicated when these children also faced problems in their social life in school. They don't have friends and don't know how to communicate with others. They started to feel helpless and lonely but yet nobody can understand their feeling. Thus, some of these children try to do something that can attract others' attention such as being involved in gang activities. They also tend to express themselves through violence. For them, they have a strong sense of belonging and identity in gangs. This sense lets them feel more comfortable than living in a world that no one can understand.

Besides, those kids who expose to long-term violence, parental alcoholism, domestic

violence, and child sexual abuse may also have higher rates to involve in gangsterism. (Youth Violence 2007, 14) This is because family violence teaches them that criminal and violent activities are acceptable. These children have no warmth and love from their family and most of them tend to protect themselves from hurting by others anymore. For them, nobody will protect them besides themselves. So, they become gangsters and try to gain respect from others through illegal ways to prevent themselves from being bullied.

On the other hand, those teenagers who had previously been bullied by a gangster might also join gangs to protect themselves. Some of them even join gangs to wait for the chance to take their revenge on those who bullied them before. They have the wrong idea to treat violence in the wrong way. However, sometimes teenagers might also join gangs just to protect the one they love. In certain conditions, they are forced to join gangs to protect themselves and also their friends and family. No matter what are the reasons for teenagers to involve in gangsterism, it brings many negative effects to the teenager himself and also the society.

The future of a gangster is not promising. Research shows that teenagers who involve themselves in gangs are not doing well in school. They always play truant and normally have poor achievement in school. Besides, teenage gangsters have no real friends in school and are only respected by his group of µgangster friends since they always commit illegal activities such as extorting money, fighting, and bullying other students in the school area. For their improper attitude in school, teenage

gangsters might receive disciplinary punishment from the school and even be expelled from the school.

Thus, for sure they will not get a good testimonial report from school and it affects that students future career. Furthermore, teenagers who involve in gang activities have a high risk on commit a severe crime. If they do commit any severe crime accidentally, they will be forever worried about getting caught. Gangsterism not only brings negative effects to that specific teenager himself but also the society. Society is in worry when gang activities become more and more active in the town. As a result, society becomes not peaceful anymore and everyone needs to be aware of gang activities that take place in their town.

The neighborhoods are fear to become one of the victims of teenage gangsters that force businesses to pay them several money in exchange for "protection". Besides, teenage gangsters might commit fights anywhere in the town and it affects society's safety. Teenage gangsters also vandalize the public facilities in the town and cause inconvenience to the neighborhoods. The number of crimes in the town also increases as a result of the increasing number of teenage gangsters. Some teenage gangsters are even involved in drugs and to have enough money to get drugs, they steal, rob, and even ransom people in the town.

In conclusion, gangsterism is caused by the influences of the surrounding, the intention of teenagers to attract others attraction and to protect themselves. Gangsterism also brings a lot of negative effects to the teenagers themselves and society. So, to curb these social ill, parents, educators, and society at large should be

aware of what is going on among our youths. Though various psychological and physical factors cause a person to choose to become a gang member, parents or guardians should help nurture their children with love and respect to reduce this problem.

Teenagers should also control themselves by getting involved in healthy social activities, such as sports and music to distance themselves from gang activities. As a teenager, we should channel our anger into something else such as join Boxing Club, Taekwondo, singing or sports. We must understand that its not correct to involve in gangs to release our peer pressure. We must say 'NO' to negative behaviors so that gang activities in our society will decrease until a safety level.