Gang Related Homicide

William Riddell ECPI University Professor Campbell 10/31/12

William Riddell 31st October 2012 ECPI University Professor Campbell

Gang Homicide Homicide is a very serious crime. The definition of Homicide is the unlawful killing of one person by another. Gang homicide is one of the most common occurrences of homicide out there. Gangs will normally use a homicide as a type of initiation to gain entry into their group, or it may just be the result of a rivalry between two gangs causing fatalities between the groups. To this day, there are many numbers of gangs that exist. According to the National Gang Center website, the amount of gangs were at an all-time low in 2003 of about 20,000, steadily increasing from that point forward (www.nationalgangcenter.gov). The complete number of gang homicides reported averaged nearly 2,000 annually from 2006 to 2010. During the same time period, the FBI estimated more than 16,000 homicides across the United States (www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-theu.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10tbl01.xls). It is very apparent to this day

that Gang homicide is a major problem throughout the United States. Another very common place for Gang related Homicides to occur, is prison. Unfortunately the entire prison system is completely structured with Gangs that the prisoners are in. The gangs will normally harass, fight, bully, or shakedown any of the other prisoners in an attempt to steal their belongings, food, or money, and they will normally succeed. Their strength usually comes from their numbers. Many gangs require a homicide or at least time in jail to be able to be initiated into their group, this means that unfortunately many gangs have members serving sentences and causing trouble in prison. In prison, gangs always have certain beliefs and codes that they follow. One of the strongest reasons that gangs are formed is because of racial extremism. Gangs like the Aryan Brotherhood are founded by only whites and generally have hatred toward any other races. Another Gang activity in prison would be the development of organized crime in prisons and on the outside.

Organized crime itself is almost like a whole other dimension compared to most acts of violence or illegality. Among various other reasons, some people decide to partake in organized crime because when they do, they are not the only ones that are in it. They are together in a brotherhood of crime, and able to rely on one another to be able to get the job done. This creates crime that may be more serious because of how many people are actually taking part in it. When it comes to the mafia, you can tell that the crimes they commit not only benefit the gang

directly, but they are more serious in their acts then they would be if it was just a scattered group of criminals, or a bigger group just robbing a bank one time for the thrill or the money. Organized crime has pretty much always been around in some form, but really started to thrive around the time of the prohibition of alcohol and then after world war two. Mostly it was immigrants from European countries that were starting new lives in America and were able to grow and prosper because of the lack of limitations and the lack of a social circle where people knew who they were and what they were doing. After moving to America, often times stowing away on ships and coming illegally, people who were interested in starting some kind of organized crime group often started their own syndicate within their family. Mostly out of respect of one another and how they felt that if it was their own family they would be able to trust each other more than complete strangers. This is what created sects that were mostly related to one another and there was rarely marriage of people between two families that were enemies. Once people were established in certain areas of the country, they started to commit crimes, mainly to raise money to fund their expenditures. The most common of cities that contained organized crime was the hub of all trade and international equality, New York City. To this day in New York, different areas of the city have a more dominant group of ethnicity, culture, and country of origin. In these different parts, certain families or groups are actually more prominent than others. Crimes would eventually escalate from random muggings to robbing banks or areas of larger cash flow in which they could raise money for their cause more

efficiently. At this time, whoever was wealthiest had the most power because of how things were at the time. If you had power, you had respect and credit. People who held the most power were often immune to most aspects of the law, most of the time certain families would buy out individuals in the government, causing law enforcement to look the other way and ignore a lot of the illegal acts being committed by the groups of organized crime. This was one of the most strategically advantageous strategies that these groups could use, because at that point they would be at a position where they are not looked at very much by the government and often not stopped from doing what they regularly do. Most organized crime groups actually have their own structure and government, they are set up in such a way that there is a leader and then people that follow him and take orders from people at lower levels. These groups are well structured, but in some they have very potentially fatal flaws. There are many instances in which members of a group will kill people higher up in the chain in order to gain power and a better foothold in the group. This has happened so much that it is almost expected. The inter-group killings that happen will eventually result in the loss of trust of most of the members of the group and result in more killings and then ultimately lead to the collapse of most organized crime. There are some groups in which they are big enough that this does not really affect them, however a lot of the time the reason that these groups are stopped is because of internal problems, not because law enforcement interferes with their actions.

When groups of organized crime collapse, a lot of the members that were involved that are actually working for the government are exposed and then the leaders of the group are either killed by their own followers, or they are taken into custody. At this point, this leaves room for a new family to rise to power, or a new group to take the place of the previous one that had collapsed. Organized crime is not only found in America, but it can be found in other countries as well. Mostly culturally diverse countries, however it is very common to see in third world countries as well. Most people do not think that countries that are not governed usually have a local militia that will run the finances of the country and almost selfgovern the people that live there. The reason this is so easy is because there are not any laws to prevent them from doing what they want, it is countries like this that you will see organized crime, or other illegal acts thrive as most as they can without any problems. Countries that have a large population will also be able to have organized crime thrive just as it would in a third world country; this is because most of their actions have been masked by the entire population of the country, so most of their crimes will actually look like random acts of violence or robbery, but in reality it is the result of a group of organized crime and the thriving of individuals that are nearly immune to the law and are not able to be associated with any of the crimes that they are committing. The people that are the heads of most organized crimes groups are actually very intelligent people, these people may even have experience in law enforcement or at least have a very good grasp of what their rights are and how they can use them against the laws that they are breaking. This will actually

often result in them being able to walk out of court cases and have charges that are placed on them dropped because the ones that are charging them would not be able to present enough evidence to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that these people are actually committing these crimes. After people are charges for a crime and then dismissed of all charges, they are not able to be charged again, according to most peoples rights, for the same crime. So a common mistake made by most court systems is they will take members of an organized crime group into custody without enough evidence to pin the crime on them, and then one way or another these people will have the case dismissed and walk out of court without any penalties for the crime that everyone knows they had committed. After they walk out of that court room, they can talk about how they committed a crime that they have had dismissed without any consequences, and as long as they do not commit the same crime again, or at least as long as officials press charges without having enough evidence, these crime bosses will be able to avoid jail time and other penalties associated with what they do. One of the most prominent organized crime groups today is the Italian mafia. This group came from Italy and then gained a foothold in New York and various other states by committing random crimes, raising money, and then gaining respect of people. They have their downsides however they are still one of the most respected and renowned groups in the world to this day. They do not have a presence in every country however they do have a presence in most of the worlds major countries. This is what has led to them being so well known throughout the world and what has led to them being so immune to the law, there are plenty of law

enforcement officers that are corrupt and have been bought out by certain groups of organized crime and then there are even more powerful individuals that now look the other way when certain crimes are committed because of how much they are paid to do so. Large cities with the presence of many different cultures are always the perfect place for certain groups to rise to power and to be able to do what they please without consequence. Most of the time in the event that a leader is convicted and put into jail, he will often be bought out and released and will immediately return to his life of crime without a problem. Organized crime is everywhere, a lot of the time people are not able to see it, but it can be in their city, and even people they know can be involved or at least have been involved. It would be impossible to completely irradiate these groups because of how large they have become, but there are still systems of government that still fight the war against organized crime and the many groups that commit it. Some people are able to be paid off, and some people will not back down from the fight. It is always important not to underestimate the severity of organized crime and the groups that commit it, because it has always been around, and more than likely will always be around in the future no matter who is arrested or taken off the streets, most of the time another person will be able to rise to power and take their place as the leader of their group, and the whole cycle will start all over again indefinitely. Organized crime is one of the most basic concepts of gangs, the only difference between it and all of the other gangs out there is that the organized crime gangs are just gangs that got out of control, that got bigger and developed to the point of that they are too large to be able to control and take down.

Organized crime and Gangs themselves have a presence almost everywhere, including prisons and then other areas of gang activity, including poor areas of living and larger cities in which gang presence is very prominent. Even though law enforcement does as much as they can to prevent the presence of gangs, there isnt too much that they can do beyond arresting individuals for the crimes that they commit and then incarcerating them and unfortunately bringing the exactly where they were trying to go in the first place. Most prison gangs do more than offer simple protection for their members. Most often, prison gangs are responsible for any drug, tobacco or alcohol handling inside correctional facilities. Furthermore, many prison gangs involve themselves in prostitution, assaults, kidnappings and murders. Prison gangs often seek to intimidate other inmates In addition, prison gangs often exercise a large degree of influence over organized crime in the free world, larger than their isolation in prison might lead one to expect. Since the 80s, large prison gangs have consciously worked to leverage their influence inside prisons to govern and make money from drug trafficking on the street. This is made possible based upon the logic that individuals involved in selling illegal drugs face a high probability of serving a prison term at some point or in having a friend or family member in prison. The cooperation of dealers and other criminals can be secured due to the credible threat of violence upon incarceration if it is not provided. Prison gang members and associates who are released are usually expected to further the gang's activities after their release and may face danger if they refuse and are returned to prison, such as on a parole violation. The War on Drugs also led to large numbers of drug addicts serving prison terms, providing

gangs with a significant method of asserting control within the prison and by controlling the drug trade that happens on the yard and behind bars. Overall, prison is a very dangerous place for gangs to be, however it is the only place in which we can put those who commit a crime. Many law have been proposed to handle the outbreak of gangs in the world, unfortunately most of the ways we can deal with gang related homicide are not constitutionally right and wouldnt make much sense to be able to practice as a law in this country. Surveys from the national gang related crime reporting center shows that most wardens (94.5%) would like to see more systematic interfacing between corrections and law enforcement in terms of information sharing. In conclusion, Gangs must be stopped. The war on Gangs and gang related homicide is an ongoing war, and the men and women of the law are always doing what they can to be able to stop and apprehend all those who participate in gang related crime. Many have lost their lives in the war on gangs and others will still continue to fight and to prevent any more violence from occurring inside the prisons and outside in the free world. Gangs and Gang related Homicide are wrong, no matter who is involved and what the problem may be, homicide is never the answer to anything, not for any crime, and not for any gang. The taking of a life is one of the most serious and most highly punishable crimes out there and will continue to be for as long as we continue the fight against Gangs.

Works Cited

George, Knox. "FINDINGS FROM THE 1991 ADULT CORRECTIONS SURVEY." http://www.ngcrc.com. NGCRC, 04 1991. Web. 31 Oct 2012. <http://www.ngcrc.com/ngcrc/page91w.htm>.

National Gang Center. National Youth Gang Survey Analysis. Retrieved 10/31/2012 from http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Survey-Analysis.

National Criminal Justice Service, . "Gang-Related Crime." Policy Almanac. National Criminal Justice Service, 06 2003. Web. 31 Oct 2012. <http://www.policyalmanac.org/crime/archive/gangs.shtml>. Irving, Shae, ed. (2009). "homicide". Nolo's Plain-English Law Dictionary. Berkeley: Nolo. pp. 2045. ISBN 978-1-4133-1037-5. Wikipedia