Street gangs in the United States

Reaction Paper A Reaction Paper is designed to “develop and sharpen your critical thinking and writing skills. Your objective in writing this assignment is to define an issue clearly and to formulate and clarify your position on that issue by reacting to a controversial statement.” Each of the five papers is worth 4% of the course grade. The paper must be at least 500-750 words, excluding the title page, abstract page, and reference page, and must adhere to the APA sixth edition writing format. Please reference the APA example given in the Resources section. If your paper does not fully comply with this format you will lose points.

Please write a reaction paper to the controversial statement given below based upon the website viewed earlier and your readings in the text.

“Street gangs in the United States operate exclusively at the local level, in isolation, and pose little threat outside their sphere of influence. It is impossible to determine what street gangs have the most influence or know what activities they engage in.”

Visit:
http://www.justice.gov/criminal/taskforces/ocdetf.html
to identify information regarding the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces

Visit:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs/violent-gangs-task-forces
to identify Violent Gang Task Forces and to identify Anti-Gang Initiatives and Partnerships

Additional Information:
The activities of Asian organized crime typically focus on white-collar crimes such as credit card fraud and money laundering. Asian organized crime members have become increasingly involved in cross-border drug trafficking, e.g., Chinese heroin, marijuana, and/ or MDMA trafficked by Vietnamese organized criminal groups.

Eurasian organized crime is considered to be one of the fastest-growing criminal networks in the world. It consists of criminal organizations from fifteen republics of the former Soviet Union. The crimes committed by these groups have included kidnapping, money laundering, drug trafficking, prostitution, various forms of fraud, vehicle theft rings, human trafficking, extortion, and murder.

Street gangs are responsible for crimes such as street-level drug trafficking, criminal mischief (tagging or graffiti), robbery, assault, weapons violations, sexual assault, and homicide.

In 2008, 58% of state and local law enforcement agencies reportedly that criminal gangs were active in their jurisdictions. This represented an increase of 13% from 2004. Gangs are now present in at least 42 states, and that number is up from 33 states in 2004.

Additionally, more criminal gangs are communicating via the internet, including the use of encrypted electronic communications for recruitment and communication with associates domestically and internationally. Cell phones also lend themselves to gang communications. MS-13 gang members in the State of Maryland reportedly discussed killing members of a rival gang with an MS-13 gang leader on a cell phone from a jail in El Salvador.

Gangs, including outlaw motorcycle clubs, are also becoming increasingly threatening to law enforcement authorities along the northern border through cooperative criminal enterprises, including drug-smuggling. Street gang memberships vary in structure, racial and ethnic composition, and number. Large street gangs with a national presence produce, smuggle, traffick, and distribute large quantities of illegal drugs throughout the country and across borders. These gangs are extremely violent and tend to pose the greatest threats.

A steadily increasing threat in rural, suburban, and urban areas is posed by local street gangs engaging in illegal drug distribution. Local gang affiliates and “wanna be gangs,” e.g. the Dogtown Boys and the Cartersville Boys, reportedly present in a community such as rural Goochland County, Virginia often imitate larger gangs in an attempt to gain “respect” or “street creds” with their rivals. Approximately 900,000 gang members reside in local U.S. communities and approximately 147,000 are incarcerated. There has also been a recent increase in the presence of gangs on campuses in rural and suburban schools.

The investigation and prosecution of transnational organized criminals groups are difficult and complex cases. The criminals continue to evolve rapidly while deploying new techniques and strategies to evade law enforcement.