Gangs, Belonging, and Acceptance Essay -- Gangs Family Lifestyle Essay

Gangs, Belonging, and Acceptance A 12-year-old boy comes home from school. He enters his home through the front door and notices his mother sobbing. There is blood on the tissue she's holding. The boy starts to ask his mother why she is crying when he realizes what has happened. She answers his silent inquiry about why, by quietly saying, "your dad . . . he's on the back porch . . . he's had a bad day." Feeling helpless he goes to his room. From his window he can see his dad taking in the last swallow of beer and yelling, loud enough for the neighbors to hear, "Hey, bring me another beer. And where is that worthless son of yours? He was supposed to mow the lawn yesterday." The boy, having seen this too many times before, leaves the house the way he came in. Two blocks down the street he is approached by a gang member; and unceremoniously another child on the block has decided that gangs have something he wants; a since of belonging, acceptance. The gang becomes his family. This story is fiction, but fits the dynamic s of a family system that supplies the gangs with its members. Gang-member families differ from non-gang-member families in terms of quality of family interaction, supervision and discipline, family affection patterns, and maternal attitudes toward males. Non-gang member's families are more likely to go out together, are more likely to be consistent in their discipline, and are more likely to display their feelings openly in the family. The mothers of gang members described their husbands as rarely involved in the family's activities. They also had more negative attitudes toward their husbands (Adler,Ovando, & Hocevar, 1984). The gang member is not the only one effected when he starts his life in a gang. He p... ...e? What can the church and the community do to help? If we can't save the gang member, what can we do to protect the innocent family member and by-stander? It's easy to do nothing when asked, "What can we do?" Maybe the question should be, "What can I do?" Works Cited Adler, P.,Ovando, C. & Hocevar, D. (1984). Familiar correlates of gang membership: An exploratory study of Mexican-American youth. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 6, 65-76. Morales, A.T. (1992). Latino youth gangs: Causes and clinical intervention. In L. S. Vargus & J. Koss-Chiono (Eds.). Working with culture: Psychotherapeutic intervention with ethnic minority children and adolescents (pp. 129-154). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Smith, Commander Bryan. Corpus Christi Police Department. (2-10-97) interview over phone. Subject: Psychological effects on gang members and their families.