Youth Gangs In Canada
Youth gangs in Canada is becoming more and more of issue. Adolescents across Canada resort to joining youth gangs for many different reasons. A youth gang is a group of young adolescents who use intimidation and violence to gain prestige among other gangs and control certain areas of unlawful activities. For all the reasons an adolescent would join a youth gang, police and the Government have come up with programs to prevent youth from joining and to get them to leave the gangs. With programs involving prevention, intervention, and suppression, the Canadian Government is adequately addressing youth gangs within Canada.
Teenagers and young adults join youth gangs for many reasons. Reasons a teenager would join a gang include family factors such as parental abuse or even a lack of supervision, school factors meaning if a adolescent has early school failure, he is more likely to become a violent person, "Early school failure is predictive of subsequent violent behaviour" (Maguin & Loeber, 1996). As well as the neighbourhood one grows up in plays a factor in their future behaviour, so does many other factors. That is why programs are created to revolve around the issue at hand. "Street gang crime has many different causes and facilitators. This means that solutions to the problem must also be multi-faceted and involve a combination of prevention, intervention, and suppression programs." (Linden 5). The government uses the Prevention method to start with. This targets young kids who are at risk of joining gangs. Within the prevention program expands with even more programs to resolve the issue encouraging a young child or teenager to join gangs. Ranging from recreational programs such as summer camps to parental training to provide the correct skills need, there is a prevention program for any issue. Although not all these programs are not guaranteed to work, it is almost a trial and error scenario, "While there are some consistent patterns in the research
Teenagers and young adults join youth gangs for many reasons. Reasons a teenager would join a gang include family factors such as parental abuse or even a lack of supervision, school factors meaning if a adolescent has early school failure, he is more likely to become a violent person, "Early school failure is predictive of subsequent violent behaviour" (Maguin & Loeber, 1996). As well as the neighbourhood one grows up in plays a factor in their future behaviour, so does many other factors. That is why programs are created to revolve around the issue at hand. "Street gang crime has many different causes and facilitators. This means that solutions to the problem must also be multi-faceted and involve a combination of prevention, intervention, and suppression programs." (Linden 5). The government uses the Prevention method to start with. This targets young kids who are at risk of joining gangs. Within the prevention program expands with even more programs to resolve the issue encouraging a young child or teenager to join gangs. Ranging from recreational programs such as summer camps to parental training to provide the correct skills need, there is a prevention program for any issue. Although not all these programs are not guaranteed to work, it is almost a trial and error scenario, "While there are some consistent patterns in the research
Cited: Leschied, A. & Cunningham, A. (2000). “Intensive community-based services can influence re-offending rates of high-risk youth: preliminary results of the multisystemic therapy clinical trials in ontario.” p. 9. Linden, R. (2010). “An evidence-based approach to community safety.” International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies. Volume 1. p. 57-82. Linden, R. (2010). “Comprehensive approaches to address street gangs in canada.” p. 5-13. Maguin, E. & R. Loeber. (1996). “Academic performance and delinquency.” Crime and Justice: An Annual Review of Research. Vol. 20. Youth Gangs in Canada