Introduction
A gang consists of a group of like-minded persons or closely associated friends or family with a definite internal organizational leadership and identify with a specific territory in a community (Mathew, 2010 p.3). In most cases, the members of the gangs engage in illegal practices and disrespect the law. Violence is one aspect synonymous with gang activity. However, the contemporary definition contravenes the initial description attached to the term. Traditionally, a gang comprised a group of workers as opposed to the current pejorative usage, which associates gangs with criminal organizations. The negative connotation is currently widespread, especially because the current gangs countermand the law and engage in activities that go against the mainstream culture and norms. Thus, the word gang has picked up the connotation of defiance in the contemporary world. Throughout the globe, gangs are associated with major cities with a few cases being reported in the rural areas. Examples of currently known gangs include the Colombian Drug Cartels, the Mexican Mafia, the Silican Cosa Nostra, and the Texas Syndicate (Hagedorn, 2008 p.23-27). In the United States alone, an estimated 1.4 million people had a gang membership with an average of 33,000 gangs active in the country in the year 2011 (USNIC, 2011, p.21). The common behavioral characteristic of all the gangs across cultures is violence and sometimes extremism. In fact, no study ever documented the existence of non-violent gangs.
While the gangs have a uniform behavior across culture, there is a huge difference regarding membership across the various cultures. This implies that in a multicultural country, one culture may exhibit a high gang membership while the other may have the lowest gang membership. Thus, given that such groups share a common characteristic, it follows that there is a culture-specific factor contributing to the likelihood of gang membership. As the gang menace continues to ravage various parts of the world with a steady increase in membership, a growing body of research works has embarked on the cross-cultural comparison of the facilitators of gang membership with the aim of informing prevention practices. In that respect, most studies concur that the process of gang involvement is a function of factors such as social experiences, familial, and individual encounters of a person, especially in their early development stages. Furthermore, the studies agree that the ‘risk factors’ are evident in the person long before they finally acquire a gang membership. In connection, a larger percentage of research works opine that family plays the central role in the facilitation of gang membership, the subsequent criminality, as well as the ultimate exit. There is a large range of factors that contribute to the likelihood of one joining a gang. The family, being a culture-specific aspect, seems the key to understanding the gang dynamics.
Research Question
What specific roles does family, as a cultural aspect, play in influencing membership in a gang and the related gun violence across cultures? How does it influence the differing demographics of gang member numbers across cultures? In tandem with the research question, the following discussion seeks to examine the socio-political, ideological, and contextual factors undergirding the appeal to gang membership and violence across cultures. Besides, family-focused and cultural-based best practice policies that facilitate withdrawal from gangs will be highlighted.