Obviously no one on this board ever wants to see any harm come to LE, CO, teachers of adjudicated kids, or the general public. And I personally would never take on a MA student that I doubted would do the right thing/change for the better along the MA path (or if I did later regret it, would turn up the heat--if they're for real, they'll take it; if not, they're gone). There's a big difference in California between adult and juvenile gangs, and gang members. Drac, I'm wondering if the book you're talking about was more for use by adult gangsters, who are basically career criminals? For one thing, the juvenile bangers I've known (and the number is legion :uhyeahwouldn't have near the discipline to learn anything that complicated. Just bring this up because I and probably some others are only speaking of juveniles. Adult gangsters I would never touch.
No -- bangers are bangers. Juvie bangers are every bit as bad as the adults, and can be worse, because, like Avis, they try harder. Some juvies are merely imitating what they see from TV, movies, hip-hop culture, and other sources, and others are just getting involved, and intervention can work -- but I've seen more cases where intervention efforts just delayed things a few years, at best.
Many of the gangs do have a definite level of national organization, even if they don't exert day-to-day or operational control, especially those with ties to prison gangs or leaders who are incarcerated. Larry Hoover still has strong control over the Gangster Disciples, for example. La Eme exerts frightening power and control over many Latino street gangs, even though La Eme is a prison gang.
Ditto! As I said -- the juvies are every bit as bad as the adults. Or worse. In one jurisdiction that I'm familiar with, they expect to waive juvies into adult court on gang charges, and it's an exception when they don't do so.
Criminal street gangs have evolved, in response to many factors both in and among the gangs and in society. More have become national or international in scope. They've spread to places once assumed to be "safe" because they were too rural, or too suburban, or not ethnic enough... Ironically, part of what's happened is that parents have moved their families to get kids out of the gangs, and the kids have brought the gangs with them. I'm far from a gang expert; I just work with guys that really are experts. The one rule we have is that gangs are constantly changing. What was true yesterday may not be true today.
