The Influence of Race and Space: An Analysis of the Well-Being of Youth in Civil Gang Injunctions

The Influence of Race and Space: An Analysis of the Well-Being of Youth in Civil Gang Injunctions PDF Author: Blanca Roxana Martinez-Navarro
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
For the last thirty years, the City of Los Angeles has aggressively employed the use of civil gang injunctions (CGIs) in efforts to create safe and low-crime neighborhoods. Gang injunctions are spatial crime control mechanisms that prohibit alleged gang members and their associates from engaging in mundane activities, including driving, standing, sitting, walking, gathering, or appearing with suspected gang members in specific and defined geographic areas ("safety zone"). Gang injunctions name and remove alleged gang members from neighborhoods under the premise that this removal will reduce gang violence and overall crime. The literature on civil gang injunctions generally focuses on their impact on crime reduction. However, research regarding the indirect impact of civil gang injunction on youth living in neighborhoods with injunctions is limited. The present study examines the influence gang injunctions have on the well-being of youth, specifically Youth of Color . This study investigates how neighborhoods that employ spatial policies, like gang injunctions, influence the sense of belonging, safety, and educational aspirations for Youth of Color. By applying a spatial and racial conceptual framework, the theory of racial space, this study explores the interplay of space and race through gang injunctions employed in Los Angeles and their influence on the success and well-being of Youth of Color. The main data source for this study is the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhoods Survey-1 (LA FANS) a longitudinal study of neighborhoods and households by the RAND Corporation and UCLA (Rand/L.A. FANS, 2011). L.A. FANS-1 includes data on children, families, and neighborhoods from 2000-2002. For this study, L.A. FANS-1 is utilized to measure a youth's sense of belonging, safety, and educational attainment. In addition, census and geographic data are used to measure neighborhood with civil gang injunctions. Quantitative analyses reveal that neighborhoods that enforce the practice of gang injunctions influence a youth's sense of safety predominantly in neighborhoods with a large presence of Youth of Color. The findings of my dissertation reveal that youth who live in areas with CGIs, are more likely to report feeling unsafe in their neighborhood compared to youth who live in neighborhoods with no CGIs. Additionally, Latino and Black youth are more likely to feel unsafe in their neighborhoods compared to their White counterparts. These results suggest that while the spatial and racial space theoretical framework can explain part of the relationship between youth and gang injunctions, it cannot clearly demonstrate other associations. This study confirms that additional quantitative research, with additional measurements describing youth's perceptions and qualitative research interviewing youth is critical to further understand the influence and impact of gang injunctions on a youth's overall wellbeing.

The Influence of Race and Space: An Analysis of the Well-Being of Youth in Civil Gang Injunctions

The Influence of Race and Space: An Analysis of the Well-Being of Youth in Civil Gang Injunctions PDF Author: Blanca Roxana Martinez-Navarro
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 113

Get Book Here

Book Description
For the last thirty years, the City of Los Angeles has aggressively employed the use of civil gang injunctions (CGIs) in efforts to create safe and low-crime neighborhoods. Gang injunctions are spatial crime control mechanisms that prohibit alleged gang members and their associates from engaging in mundane activities, including driving, standing, sitting, walking, gathering, or appearing with suspected gang members in specific and defined geographic areas ("safety zone"). Gang injunctions name and remove alleged gang members from neighborhoods under the premise that this removal will reduce gang violence and overall crime. The literature on civil gang injunctions generally focuses on their impact on crime reduction. However, research regarding the indirect impact of civil gang injunction on youth living in neighborhoods with injunctions is limited. The present study examines the influence gang injunctions have on the well-being of youth, specifically Youth of Color . This study investigates how neighborhoods that employ spatial policies, like gang injunctions, influence the sense of belonging, safety, and educational aspirations for Youth of Color. By applying a spatial and racial conceptual framework, the theory of racial space, this study explores the interplay of space and race through gang injunctions employed in Los Angeles and their influence on the success and well-being of Youth of Color. The main data source for this study is the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhoods Survey-1 (LA FANS) a longitudinal study of neighborhoods and households by the RAND Corporation and UCLA (Rand/L.A. FANS, 2011). L.A. FANS-1 includes data on children, families, and neighborhoods from 2000-2002. For this study, L.A. FANS-1 is utilized to measure a youth's sense of belonging, safety, and educational attainment. In addition, census and geographic data are used to measure neighborhood with civil gang injunctions. Quantitative analyses reveal that neighborhoods that enforce the practice of gang injunctions influence a youth's sense of safety predominantly in neighborhoods with a large presence of Youth of Color. The findings of my dissertation reveal that youth who live in areas with CGIs, are more likely to report feeling unsafe in their neighborhood compared to youth who live in neighborhoods with no CGIs. Additionally, Latino and Black youth are more likely to feel unsafe in their neighborhoods compared to their White counterparts. These results suggest that while the spatial and racial space theoretical framework can explain part of the relationship between youth and gang injunctions, it cannot clearly demonstrate other associations. This study confirms that additional quantitative research, with additional measurements describing youth's perceptions and qualitative research interviewing youth is critical to further understand the influence and impact of gang injunctions on a youth's overall wellbeing.

Smile Now, Cry Later

Smile Now, Cry Later PDF Author: Brisely Martinez Chavez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gangs
Languages : en
Pages : 28

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Book Description
This life history case study will examine how an individual has navigated the impact of a civil gang injunction by analyzing his life through the use of testimonio. Further, it explores the impact a civil gang injunction has on the Latino male both as an individual, but also as part of his greater immediate group, namely those from the same neighborhood and on the same injunction. Additionally, it seeks to underscore the punitive nature of gang injunctions through a Critical Race Theory (CRT) lens, drawing close attention to how Latino males experience added forms of oppression and displacement through hyper-policing and how the injunction mirrors a 'carceral state'. Therefore, using an individual's life history case study I argue that the hyperpolicing inflicted by gang injunctions increase the added forms of oppression that Latino males already experience and ultimately extends the carceral state beyond the physical imprisonment of an institution into the outside world. Overall, contrary to prior research on civil gang injunctions, this research aims to put the participant at the forefront of the analysis by using his direct testimony and first-hand experiences.

Race, Recognition and Retribution in Contemporary Youth Justice

Race, Recognition and Retribution in Contemporary Youth Justice PDF Author: Esmorie Miller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135103944X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Race, Recognition and Retribution in Contemporary Youth Justice provides a cross-national, sociohistorical investigation of the legacy of racial discrimination, which informs contemporary youth justice practice in Canada and England. The book links racial disparities in youth justice, especially exclusion from ideologies of care and notions of future citizenship, with historical practices of exclusion. Despite the logic of care found in both rehabilitative and retributive forms of youth justice, Black inner-city youth remain excluded from lenience and social welfare considerations. This exclusion reflects a historical legacy of racial discrimination apparent in the harsher sanctions levied against Black, innercity youth. In exploring race’s role in this arrangement, the book asks: To what extent were Black youth excluded from historic considerations of the lenience and social care, built into the logic of youth justice in England and Canada? To what extent are the disproportionately high incarceration rates, for Black, inner-city youth in the contemporary system, a reflection of a historic exclusion from considerations of lenience and social care? How might contemporary justice efforts be reoriented to explicitly prioritize considerations of lenience and social care ahead of penalty for Black, inner-city youth? Examining the entrenched structural continuities of racial discrimination, the book draws on archival and interview data, with interviewees including professionals who work with inner-city youth. In concert with the archival and interview data, the book offers the intractability/malleability I/M thesis, an integrated social theoretical logic with the capacity to expand the customary analytical scope for understanding the contemporary entrenched normalization of racialized youth as punishable. The aim is to advance a historicized account, exploring youth’s positioning as constitutive of a continuity of racialized peoples’, in general, and youth’s, in particular, historic exclusion from the benefits of modern rights, including lenience and care. The I/M logic takes its analytical currency from a combined critical race theory (CRT) and recognition theory. The book argues that a truly progressive era of youth justice necessitates cultivating policy and practice which explicitly prioritizes considerations of lenience and social care, ahead of reliance on penalty. This multidisciplinary book is valuable reading for academics and students researching criminology, sociology, politics, anthropology, critical race studies, and history. It will also appeal to practitioners in the field of youth justice, policymakers, and third-sector organizations.

Race, Gangs and Youth Violence

Race, Gangs and Youth Violence PDF Author: Gunter, Anthony
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447322886
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
This book aims to challenge current thinking about serious youth violence and gangs, and their racialisation by the media and the police. Written by an expert with over 14 years’ experience in the field, it brings together research, theory and practice to influence policy. Placing gangs and urban violence in a broader social and political economic context, it argues that government-led policy and associated funding for anti-gangs work is counter-productive. It highlights how the street gang label is unfairly linked by both the news-media and police to black (and urban) youth street-based lifestyles/cultures and friendship groups, leading to the further criminalisation of innocent black youth via police targeting. The book is primarily aimed at practitioners, policy makers, academics as well as those community-minded individuals concerned about youth violence and social justice.

Civil Gang Abatement

Civil Gang Abatement PDF Author: Edward L. Allan
Publisher: LFB Scholarly Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Civil gang abatement is an innovative remedy employing civil injunctions to combat public nuisance activity by gangs. This strategy has been promoted as a problem-oriented response to gang problems. Allan examines whether the process of acquiring a "gang injunction" incorporates the primary dimensions of problem-oriented responses: flexibility and community involvement. Flexibility is evident in the even distribution of initiatives among three categories: high-drug, high-crime, and high-disorder. Evidence of community involvement is weak, due to the lack of community organizations in gang-plagued neighborhoods, the low-profile nature of the initiatives, and the potential for retaliation against participants. Although the expectation for community involvement in gang injunction initiatives should be tempered, civil gang abatement is an appropriate approach to neighborhood gang problems.

Civil Gang Injunction Effects

Civil Gang Injunction Effects PDF Author: Marc M. Collazo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gang prevention
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This hermeneutic phenomenological study aimed to assess the general effectiveness of civil gang injunctions based on community members' perceptions of their safety in Los Angeles County, California. The theory that served as the foundation for this study was social disorganization, as interpreted by Shaw and McKay (1972). It helped to gauge how well community members understood their lived experiences and perceived the effects of injunctions on their safety. The following question guided this study: Do local citizens believe communities are safer and more secure when civil gang injunctions are used? Eight community members from two Los County cities were chosen using a purposeful criterion and snowball sampling. One-on-one semistructured interviews were used to collect the data, and the researcher maintained reflective memos in the data analysis. The answer to the research question was both yes and no, and the application of social disorganization theory was both confirmed and disconfirmed. Safer neighborhoods served as confirmation of the social disorganization theory. Disconfirming the theory was indicated by gangs involved internal and external disruption: disturbing gang relationships with the community and other gangs, and disrupting gang culture and family ties. The findings also revealed that CGIs should not have an unlimited term because people can change, and those placed on CGIs are hampered access to meaningful employment.

Can Civil Gang Injunctions Change Communities?

Can Civil Gang Injunctions Change Communities? PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gang prevention
Languages : en
Pages : 55

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Book Description


Gang Involvement Among African American, Latino, and White Youth

Gang Involvement Among African American, Latino, and White Youth PDF Author: Mary Therese Laske Bell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : African American gangs
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description


How Structural Disadvantage Affects the Relationship Between Race and Gang Membership

How Structural Disadvantage Affects the Relationship Between Race and Gang Membership PDF Author: Mary Therese Laske Bell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gang members
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
"This project will focus on combining the two ideas of race and social disorganization in order to understand the structural impacts on gang membership for different racial and ethnic groups. Just as other scholars have addressed structural and individual aspects in other criminological areas of study, applying this perspective to my project will contribute to the literature on gangs. It is important to continue studying gangs because of the serious individual and societal outcomes of gang membership which include violence, victimization, and incarceration. I argue that in order to really understand why some adolescents are more vulnerable to becoming gang members than others, we have to look at structural influences and individual characteristics together. Using data from the Add Health dataset (Harris et al., 2003), I will be able to test the relationship between race and ethnicity and gang membership among a nationally representative sample of adolescents. Additionally, to answer the call of Papachristos and Kirk (2005), I will be able to test the relationship between concentrated disadvantage and gang membership. Finally, I will contribute to the gang literature by uncovering the effects of the combination of race and space on gang membership."--Page 22 (i.e., 14).

Gang Injunctions and Abatement

Gang Injunctions and Abatement PDF Author: Matthew D. O'Deane
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439867879
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 664

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Book Description
As gang violence continues to rise across the country and the world, police departments, prosecutors, and community members are seeking new methods to reduce the spread of gang-related criminal activity. Civil gang injunctions have become a growing feature of crime control programs in several states across the nation. Gang Injunctions and Abatement: Using Civil Remedies to Curb Gang-Related Crimes examines the effectiveness of this strategy and explores the accompanying constitutional controversies related to freedom of speech, assembly, and other rights. Questions raised by this thought-provoking volume include: What are the costs of gang violence to society? Do civil remedies curb violence in the communities where they are implemented? What factors make a given injunction or abatement more or less effective? What legal and policy issues stand in the way of gang injunctions and abatement? Providing step-by-step instructions on how to establish a successful injunction and abatement program, the book presents comprehensive research on the theoretical basis for the strategy. It includes a legal and chronological progression of actual cases and their outcomes, describing weaknesses and successes in various programs. Supplying succinct guidelines from lessons learned, the book enables prosecutors, police agencies, and the public to take steps toward eradicating gang activities in their communities.