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KIDS & GANGS If your child is hanging out with the wrong crowd, telltale signs like changes in personality, fashion, grades or friends can serve as early warning signals. See end of text for sidebar
Newsday; 12/11/1993; Susan Spaeth Cherry
Newsday
12-11-1993
KIDS & GANGS
If your child is hanging out with the wrong crowd, telltale signs like
changes in personality, fashion, grades or friends can serve as early
warning signals. See end of text for sidebar-Telltale Signs of Gang
Involvement
By Susan Spaeth Cherry. LOS ANGELES TIMES SYNDICATE
YOUR 12-YEAR-OLD always wears the same two colors. He's never without a
hat, tilted to one side, and last week he came home with a tattoo of
strange symbols that he refuses to explain. His friends are more
important to him than anything else, and he often uses mysterious hand
signals to communicate with them.
Your child may be acting like a typical adolescent, but his behavior
also could signify involvement with a gang - either as a hard-core
member, a part-timer who hangs on the fringe of the group or a
"wanna-be" who aspires to become a gang member.
Kids are joining gangs at a younger age than in the past. Although
most gang members, or "gangPlease See GANGS on Next Page
bangers," are between the ages of 12 and 25, many are only 8 or 9.
In a 1991 study conducted at an urban high school in the Midwest,
some students reported joining gangs at the tender age of 3.
America's gang problem isn't new. The Forty Thieves, the country's
first recorded youth gang, terrorized Lower Manhattan in the mid-1820s.
Two decades later, youth gangs calling themselves the Rats, the Bouncers
and the Skinners brandished knives and guns and defaced property
throughout Philadelphia.
But today, gangs are more widespread than ever - 90 percent of
American cities have a gang problem, according to George W. Knox,
director of Chicago State University's Gang Crime Research Center.
For example, about 140 gangs are estimated to be active in Chicago
and its bordering suburbs. In addition, the state attorney's offices
report widespread gang crime in suburban communities not adjacent to
Chicago - one of which, Aurora (population about 100,000), has about
300 hard-core gang members and 600 gang-associated individuals.
The U.S. Justice Department estimates that half the nation's gang
members are black, 35 percent are Hispanic and the rest are white or
Asian. Many are economically disadvantaged, but a growing number are
not. Gang members often come from single-parent or dysfunctional
households, and many have parents who are gangbangers themselves.
Until recently, gangs were strictly for males. Gangbangers'
girlfriends often carried gang weapons and drugs and provided sex to
multiple gang members. However, some girls now form gangs of their own,
according to Chris Ortegon, director of community resources for Broader
Urban Involvement and Leadership Development (BUILD), a Chicago-based
social-service agency that focuses on gang prevention.
Many gangs vie for power and recruit new members in city and
suburban schools. In the 1991 Midwest high school study, almost 25
percent of students said they felt threatened by gangs at school, and 9
percent had been asked to give gang members money in return for physical
protection.
And, as other urban ills spill into suburbs, gangs too are on the rise
in places like Westchester and Long Island, where middle-class children,
bored and with time and money on their hands, band together to protect
their turf from outsiders.
"Some schools, especially in the suburbs of central cities and in
small towns, pretend they have no gang problem," writes Knox in "Schools
Under Siege" (Kendall / Hunt Publishing Co., 1991, $44.95). "School
administrators stick their heads in the sand like ostriches and just
hope that the gang problem . . . will disappear . . . Some of the
pressure to ignore [the] gang problem is generated by the community
itself . . . This is especially true in middleand upper-class
communities where the `stigma' of gangs or school crimes is not
something the community wants."
Kids join gangs for a variety of reasons, ranging from peer pressure
to excitement and status. Experts say children think gangs are glamorous
because music videos, movies and advertisements portray them that way.
"The images communicated through Hollywood regarding gangs,
regardless of their stated pro-social intentions, consistently serve as
a symbol of power and violence," writes Knox. "The typical gang member
in the representative Hollywood movie lives well, lives fast and dies
young in the epitome of the James Dean tradition."
Gangs offer kids the sense of belonging they so desperately seek
during the preadolescent and teenage years, experts say. Gang rituals,
such as wearing certain colors and using secret hand signals, often
appeal to the young person's desire to rebel.
Minority youths sometimes turn to gangs for a sense of ethnic or
racial strength, experts say. Other kids join to feel part of a family
and get advice and sympathy that their parents don't provide. Gangs
often attract children with low self-esteem because they promise
consistent support and friendship.
Many kids think gangs will help them make money through illegal but
profitable activities, such as drug trafficking, theft or extortion.
Some children become gangbangers to get physical protection, although
studies show that gang members are threatened and attacked more often
than their non-gang counterparts.
When kids hook up with gangs, they increase their chances of
becoming drug and alcohol abusers, research shows. In a study of
juvenile delinquents, Knox found that gang members started drinking and
using marijuana and cocaine earlier than their non-gang peers. Many
gang members in the study reported abusing drugs before the age of 9.
Legislators, law enforcement officials and social service
professionals are working hard to eradicate gangs. Federal and state
lawmakers are considering several anti-gang bills, and the federal
government has appropriated $4 million this year to finance
gang-prevention programs nationwide.
"Almost every federal department has a program that has to do with
gangs," notes Ron Laney, law enforcement program manager in the Training
and Technical Assistance Division of the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention.
Most police departments now have special units that collaborate with
social-service agencies in gang prevention. In addition, schools are
starting to teach kids about the hazards of gangs in the elementary and
middle grades.
But parents also can do a lot to further the anti-gang effort in
their neighborhoods, experts stress:
Remove gang graffiti.
Patrol the streets so kids can get to school safely.
Form block clubs that watch for and report suspected gang activity.
Establish protected areas near schools, parks and public-housing
units.
"Parents need to organize and work together with schools, law
enforcement officials and community-based agencies," says Douglas C.
Dodge, director of the U.S. Office of Juvenile and Delinquency
Prevention's Special Emphasis Division.
In addition, moms and dads must teach their kids about the hazards
of gangs.
"Parents wait too long to do this. They often do nothing until their
kids are in high school, when it's too late. You have to start
prevention in first or second grade," says Francisco Perez, director of
a Chicago gang-intervention and drug-prevention program.
But parents often feel powerless to prevent kids from joining.
"They underestimate their own importance," observes Alfreda Shapere,
a clinical social worker. "Parents say, `Okay - the gang's gonna get
my kids.' But not all kids get involved in gangs, and parents have some
influence over this. They can talk to their kids about why people get
involved in gangs and talk about the dangers. Most important, they can
convey that the family is behind the children and will help them fight
peer pressure to join a gang."
Experts stress that gang prevention begins in early childhood, an
ideal time to establish open communication with kids, ingrain strong
family values and teach respect for authority. Being consistent about
discipline, requiring kids to do simple chores and setting aside time
for family activities will help young children develop a sense of
responsibility and self-worth that will enable them to resist gangs when
they're older.
Parents must continue spending time with kids during the
preadolescent and teenage years, experts stress. Moms and dads need to
be available, but not judgmental, when pubescent children want to talk.
"If you don't, you're gonna lose them. If you're too busy for your
kids, the street gang isn't," observes Perez.
Parents can help kids resist pressure to join gangs by teaching them
problem-solving techniques and helping them role-play difficult
situations before they arise. Some parents have found it helpful to tell
their children about their own mistakes in handling peer pressure.
Keeping kids busy in positive, structured activities, such as sports
or scouting, can steer them away from gangs. Many schools and community
centers offer free or low-cost programs catering to a variety of youth
interests. Experts stress that parents should always know where their
kids are, whom they're with and when they'll be home. Networking with
other parents can make this easier.
Moms and dads must establish clear rules, hold kids accountable for
their behavior and serve as positive role models themselves, advise
gang-prevention experts.
"Nobody says it's easy to do," admits Janann Woods-Ransom, co-chair
of the Evanston, Ill., chapter of Mothers Against Gangs, a grass-roots
prevention group. "But if you don't do it, who will?"
***
Telltale Signs of Gang Involvement
HOW CAN YOU tell if your child is involved with a gang?
Start by looking for changes in his or her personality, grades and
friends, gang-prevention experts suggest.
"If a kid is staying out, being disrespectful of authority and being
secretive, chances are good there's a problem, especially if you live in
gang territory," says Alfreda Shapere, a Chicago clinical social worker
who works in gang prevention.
Other telltale signs that could, but don't necessarily, indicate
gang affiliation:
Your child wears the same two or three colors constantly, often black
or white and another hue. The colors may appear in hair ornaments, on
nails and on belongings such as school notebooks.
Your child wears everything on either the right or left side,
including hats, jewelry, shoelaces, gloves, belt buckles and other
articles of clothing. He is partial to hats and jackets bearing the
names of sports teams that use the colors he always wears. He likes
expensive gym shoes, friendship beads and rings, rubber plastic "jelly
bracelets" and jackets with sweatshirt hoods hanging over the collar.
Your child has designs such as arrows or pitchforks
cut into his hair.
Your child decorates his or her belongings with a particular slogan
or elaborate drawings featuring stars, crowns, rabbit heads and other
symbols. He or she may have a tattoo that incorporates these symbols.
Your child uses hand signals to communicate with friends.
Ask your child to familiarize you with local gang identifiers, but
if he or she is reluctant to do so, talk to other parents in your
neighborhood, your school social worker or a youth officer in the police
department. Many police departments and social-service organizations
will conduct gang-awareness workshops for parent groups.
If you do think your child is involved with a gang, confront him or
her with your suspicion in a nonthreatening way. "Ask how it happened.
Sometimes, a kid doesn't want to be in a gang but sees no other
alternative," observes Shapere.
Many communities have resources, such as mentoring programs and
inexpensive counseling services, to help gang-affiliated kids and their
parents. Shapere urges parents not to be afraid to seek help. Susan
Spaeth Cherry
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