Gangs continue to pose a serious domestic threat to many communities within the United States. As of today, and based on FBI data, more than one million young people have joined dangerous gangs. Within the United States alone, there are more than 27,000 active gangs. Most of these gangs engage in drug-related activity and violence, including homicides. There exist different types of gangs based on gang structure, geographical location, and ethnic composition. Based on locality or area of coverage, gangs are divided into local, rural, urban, national and transnational street gangs. These gangs have a variety of salient differences, which are discussed in detail in this paper.
A range of differences exists between local, urban and rural gangs. The members of local gangs are usually local inhabitants of a region. Local gangs are not organized and aim to imitate larger and powerful gangs to intimidate their rivals. These gangs are regarded as less dangerous than their national and transnational counterparts are and can in most cases be handled by local law enforcements. Urban gangs, on the other hand, reside exclusively in big American cities such as Los Angeles, Buffalo, and New York. These gangs have contributed to the rising cases of homicides in big cities. They are more organized than rural and local gangs are. Being organized acts as a significant factor in controlling the drug marketplace in the cities where they reside. Urban gangs are often involved in a lot of violent activity. Example of urban gangs includes Boot Camp, 110 Gang and Highland Gang amongst several others (Delaney, 181).
Ironically, people who have migrated from urban areas to rural areas to escape the dangerous gang-controlled city life are the same people who form rural street gangs. The number of rural street gangs has also risen due to the migration of gangs to scarcely populated areas in the east and southeast regions from where they are less likely to encounter law enforcement (Delaney, 178). These gangs are mostly comprised of young African American males. Law enforcements are coming to terms with the increasing presence of gangs in rural areas. It is believed that with an increased presence of law enforcement officers in these rural areas, gangs in the rural can be dealt with effectively. Examples of rural gangs are the Brown Magic Clica and the Northside Street Gang, both based in Idaho.
While urban gangs operate in specific cities across the United States, national gangs spread beyond local neighborhoods and their influence spread into different cities and states, sometimes countries. National gangs are well organized and often give the law enforcement a difficult time in handling their vast criminal activities. Ethnicity plays a crucial role in the formation of these gangs with most having members from a single ethnic group. Examples of national street gangs include Crisps, Blood, People Nation and Folks. The method of recruitments in these gangs is often aggressive, with recruits having to go through humiliating encounters of physical abuse to become accepted members. In the Blood gang, for example, people who seek to join the gang are beaten up and forced to commit crimes in the presence of other gang members. While race and ethnicity are major factors in Blood and Crips, People Nation and Folks are composed of people from different races and ethnic groups.
Unlike the urban and local gangs, large national gangs pose a great threat to American communities because of their engagement in the smuggling, production, transportation, and distribution of large amounts of illicit drugs throughout the country. Unlike rural, local and urban gangs that pose a threat to specific areas, national gangs pose a national threat.
Transnational gangs, unlike other gangs, operate internationally and involve several countries. The MS-13 is deemed as the most notorious of this gang category. Over the years, MS-13 has been convicted of several crimes including human and drug trafficking, racketeering and murder. It is undoubtedly one of the largest criminal organizations in the U.S, extending into Mexico and other parts of Southern America.
Contrary to national gangs where gang recruits willingly request to be recruited, transnational gangs recruit members from the internet or absorb rival street gangs (Delaney, 206). Transnational gangs are not restrictive when it comes to race and ethnicity. Many of them have people from all races absorbed into the gang. However, the origin of a gang determines the most dominant race or ethnic group within the gang. In the case of MS-13, immigrants and descendants of El Salvador are the most predominant groups based on the fact that the gang has its roots in Salvador. Transnational gangs are more complex and difficult to deal with than local and urban gangs are. They are well organized, and sometimes connected to powerful and influential people who can easily evade the law.
In conclusion, the issue of gangs is a complex one and has plagued different American communities for decades. As the complexity of gangs advances from local and rural gangs to national and transnational gangs, their structures, ethnic composition, and aggression also increase making it much difficult for law enforcing officers to deal with advanced well-organized gangs. Despite the salient differences that characterize the existence of gangs, the existence of all gangs contradicts the law and infringes upon the safety of others.