A Parents & Teachers Guide for Gangs Bias & Hate Crimes
Gangs are not a new phenomenon to local communities, and gang violence has been growing steadily over the last couple of years. It was once beleived that gangs were inner-city problems that would never expand to small tight knit communities. This guide provided by the "Pennsylvania Gang Investigation Association can act as a guide in order to better understand how gangs develop and the ways in which to combat them.
First off, What is a Gang?
A gang is defined as 3 or more people, who acting as a group commit crimes and instill fear in the community to benefit themselves. These groups / gangs have many names such as Bloods, Crips, Black Gangster Disciples, Hoover Boys, Vatos Locos, Locos 13 and so on. Gangs can form based on racial, ethnic or geographic lines. Many of these groups will try to control a specific geographic area. A rise in violence may also be seen when rival gangs try to control the same geographic area. Here are some questions parents and teachers can ask.
Why Do Children Join Gangs?
- A need to belong to a group.
- For protection from other gangs or individuals.
- Forces to.
- Peer-Pressure.
- The Excitement
- Relationships.
What are the Signs that your child may be involved in a gang?
- Change in life long friends and a reluctance for you to meet his / her new friends.
- Change in style of clothing, (the wearing of one color predominatly Red /Blue / Gold
- Negative contact with people of authority, (i.e. teachers, coaches, parents, and law enforcement.
- A sudden interest in or the making of Graffiti
- Symbols, including tattoos and / or body piercing, to identify him / her.
- Violent outbursts.
- Being Secretive of where he/she is going, and whom they are going with
- Hand signs, (a form of gang communication
- Lack of interst in commuity activities (i.e. sports, family gatherings, group activities.
- Poor School Performance
- Fear of going to school and/or disinterest in attending school.
- drug and alcohol abuse.
What Can Parents and Teachers do to keep children from joining gangs?
- Be involved in community activities with your child.
- Get to know your children's friends and their parents.
- Make surprise visits to your child's school and see if if your child has changed their cloths from when they left in the morning.
- Have one to one conversations with your child at least once a month.
- Monitor & control your child's behavior, by being Firm but Fair.
- Be a good role modle for your children and use your value system for setting standards for accecptable behavior.
- Build positive self esteem in your children. Children with positive self esteem are less likely to turn to gangs for recognition or status.
- Give your children positive role models to identify with.
- Contact the parents of a child that you see starting to move in the direction that you feel is unsafe.
- Notify School administrators and local law enforcement of gang graffiti as soon as it appears.
Ways parents and teachers can stop the spread of gangs
- Work closely with local law enforcement and your schools.
- Make sure your community has established a safe place for your kids to go for fun.
- Use qualified members from both law enforcement and your schools to set up programs to deal with kids who are involved with gangs.
- Set up peer tutoring groups for kids to be able to talk about problems.
- Consider banning clothing which clearly identifies its wearer as a gang member, as well as pagers, cell phones, or other gang identifers.
- Set up procedures to deal with gang activity in your community.
- Don't wait until the gang problem gets out of control before you do something about it.
- Discuss dangers of gangs with your children before it becoms a problem.
- Communication..Communication....Communication..Communication..
- Let your children know that you disapprove of gangs.
- Inform your children of the danger of possible injury to them as well as the probability of arrest.
- Impress upon your children that you value them and want to help them with any problem they may have.
- Commuication...Communication....Communication...Communication...
- Encourage your children not to keep secrets.
