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The youth presence in a society is present only when there is a problem. The life of
youths has been targeted since youths are associated with negative things in the society.
Prevention of complex societal problems such as gang violence requires efforts and
commitments from many sectors and disciplines. According to Dr Brotherman, he used Freirean
approach to mobilize students on how education is a key part in someone’s life. The life of youth
is drawn back from history perspectives. And hence, approaching the subject of gangs out of any
historical context is nearly impossible.
Coming from a highly stereotyped and marginalized community, you are loathed to
accept criminality and deviance as its face value, especially when it is claimed to be a societal
problem. The middle class are viewed differently from the working class. The “saints” could
never be seen hanging out on the blocks but the “roughnecks” could be seen in small groups
about every 100 yards. However, the presence of gatherings had little to do with deviance
behaviors, and it was just claims by people telling the negative side of us. During 2008 financial
crisis, many upper-class individuals went unpunished by banks, mortgage lenders, among others.
Many were involved in crisis such as corruption and illegal drug use which went unpunished.
We see an excellent example on the historical realist approach to the construction of
deviant groups. According to Pearson (1987), he investigates the presence of new dangerous
youths in Britain by going past to the past and uncovering same instances which had happened in
England. According to Pearson, a Pearson, people from a lower-class, racially abused
background were highly stereotyped. Thus, Pearson emphasizes that is in incumbent on social
scientists to fully compare claims of order and disorder from past instances, since social outrage
was also an issue in the past.

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To fully understand the gang, both in history and with history you have to know about its
group and its members through experiences in the community. Joan More during her study of
Chicano gangs in LA, highlights the need for community context. Each gang has a normal, and
expressive life pattern that is experienced in the community. The Barrios had a different lifestyle
from other people in Los Angeles. They have a social system that emphasizes on large and
extended family and have relationships among other families in small town fashion. Thus, it is
difficult to see the gang outside of the making of the community from which it comes.
The origin and practices of gangs generally comes from the particular set of race, class
and gender traits of a community. These are formed under certain socio-historical conditions.
Many gang studies highlight similar community-based histories, and emergence of gangs is
based on enforced spatiality. For example, there are gangs in neighborhoods characterized by
minority-only public schooling, racially segregated public housing and socio-geographical
isolation.
Touraine’s argument of historicity is important; however, it is rarely brought into context
when analyzing US gangs. He refers to historicity as a process by which society acts on itself to
produce its own history outside of the laws of the political economy. He believed that men and
women produce their own history through social struggles and cultural creations and they are not
subject to material necessity and historical laws. For the native and immigrant subcultures, it is
difficult to develop knowledge of themselves and the people around them, even in projects that
are not associated with gang activity. As we have long observed, gangs produce their own
functions which are highly valued by their group members.

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The history of a community influenced by global processes is part of analysis of a gang.
East European Jewish immigrants arriving in New York and Chicago, and African Americans
moving north in the post-slavery era pulled and pushed by supreme hardship and discrimination
inflicted by domestic elites at the turn of the century and before. Dominicans escaping from
poverty as their own democratic revolution is upended by US invasion in the 1960s. Al the major
global processes influence populations and have transformed much of the US landscape.
Gangs usually move from one generation to another or they develop out of other gangs
over time, hence they usually have substantial subcultural histories. These traditions and histories
are important as they help us understand the changes and continuities in social and cultural
practices over time. Many of these subcultural histories are not clearly known but their influence
is carried over in form of physical gestures, modes of communication, organizational norms and
historically based enmities and solidarities. For the most part, these subcultures are hidden or
obscured except if they are targets of crime control and it is the task of social scientists to unearth
them as a complex subterranean story of the young in marginalized communities.
To understand the nature and emergence of gangs, it is important to understand the
economic development in a community. During the last couple of decades, secure working-class
jobs are increasingly declining, with the state increasingly disinclined to protect employment and
ensure high standards of living. In increased financial corporate rate of the economy, there has
extraordinary growth of informal sector, particularly in illegal drugs market. Drug economy,
global narco-trafficking and money laundering activities has changed the culture, activities,
identities and organization of numerous gangs.

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It has been more than 20 years into the so-called War on Drugs by the US state.
Gonzales, argues that cultures of control and government through fear, constitute a new form of
class and racial hegemony. The legal, institutional, and technological apparatuses amassed by the
state to defeat these gangs had a detrimental effect on the lower class and the most vulnerable
communities. This leads to disintegration in families and stigmatization of youths and adults who
have to first go through the criminal justice systems, which should be the last resort in solving
many crimes. This domestic hegemony is evident even in the international sphere where the US
actively deports 400,000 legal and undocumented residents annually. These deportees get the
state’s attention through anti-gang policies such as “Secure Communities.”

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historical context is nearly impossible.

We see an excellent example on the historical realist approach to the construction of

England. According to Pearson, a Pearson, people from a lower-class, racially abused

was also an issue in the past.

minority-only public schooling, racially segregated public housing and socio-geographical

Touraine’s argument of historicity is important; however, it is rarely brought into context

functions which are highly valued by their group members.

The history of a community influenced by global processes is part of analysis of a gang.

them as a complex subterranean story of the young in marginalized communities.

To understand the nature and emergence of gangs, it is important to understand the

identities and organization of numerous gangs.

state’s attention through anti-gang policies such as “Secure Communities.”

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