NCJ Number
146082
Date Published
1993
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This is a video of a gang prevention specialist's presentation to a Phoenix elementary school class composed mostly of Hispanic children. The presentation traces the history, structure, and future of gang membership.
Abstract
A review of the history of Hispanic gangs in America traces them to the early 1900's. Multiple factors contributed to the rise of Hispanic gangs, notably segregation, discrimination, police brutality, and the weakening of family bonds. The early form of Hispanic gangs, called patchukos, reached their peak in the 1940's and then disappeared, but many of their characteristics continue in current Hispanic gangs. Behavioral patterns of current gangs include drug and alcohol use, drug-trafficking, assaults, murders, auto theft, drive-by shootings, and "beer runs." Gangs contribute to criminal behavior, dropping out of school, early death and a bleak future in normative society for gang members who survive into adulthood. The gang prevention specialist warns the children that they cannot join gangs expecting to leave the gang if they do not like it. Gangs make it very difficult and dangerous to leave. Also, rival gangs still target former gang members, who are more vulnerable without the protection of gangs. The instructor advises the children not to join gangs since it is a choice most likely to doom their futures to a life of crime, danger, and early death.