Essay on Gangs-and-guns Wars: Reasons and Causes
Violence is a serious problem of the contemporary society. Every year so called gang wars take away lives of thousands of people. Unfortunately, innocent people often become victims in these wars. Despite the fact that the government puts much effort trying to solve the problem of the high-crime level and the criminal war, the number of victims is still high. Dan Gardner in his article The Missing Piece to the Gang-Violence Debate states that drugs play an important role in the gang wars and it is hard to resolve the problem without taking this component into consideration. Drug distribution is a very profitable “business”, and members of the gangs often die during wars for the influence in drug sphere. I believe that selling and taking drugs is an important problem of the contemporary society and it may be the root of other serious problems, such as high crime rate and violence. In addition, drugs bring enormous money to those who sell them and that is the reason they may have big influence in gangs-and-guns wars.
In his article The Missing Piece to the Gang-Violence Dan Gardner speaks about possible reasons of the murders related to the gang wars. Garnder used to work as a policy adviser for the Minister of Education and Premier of Ontario. He knows the topic he discusses and shares his finding with his readers. He states that despite big effort dedicated to reduce the crime level gang wars take away a lot of lives every year. Dan Gardner traces certain correlations in the number of victims of these wars and he states that his findings bring him to the idea that drugs are the missing components in the gang wars. Each time police imprisoned drug lords or the leader of the drug dealing network the sudden increase of murders emerged. Gardner explains it by the gang wars for the leadership in the drug networks. After his analyses Gardner comes to the conclusions that in reality drug wars become the reason of big quantity of victims during the gangs-and-guns wars. “Yes, drugs are the missing piece in Canada’s guns-and-gangs debate. …It’s true that gang culture, fatherless homes, poverty and other factors people are talking about may play a role. But in almost every case, the drug trade is the reason the trigger is squeezed. If the black market didn’t exist, neither would most of the bloodshed” (Gardner 235). Drug industry brings millions to its owners and that is why battle for the place in this industry is so fierce.
A lot of authors trace correlation between gang wars and drugs distribution. The story repeats in different countries and sad statistics of homicides proves that drugs play a very important role in the gang wars. Police report Drugs, Gangs, and Crime: Urban Violence and the War on Drugs also names drugs as one of the main reasons of victims during criminal wars. “Chicago police believe that about one-third of the city’s homicides and shootings are drug and gang related. This would suggest that gang violence is responsible for 300 or more deaths and several thousands of aggravated batteries per year in the city alone” (Drugs, Gangs, and Crime: Urban Violence and the War on Drugs). The data from other sources also proves correlation between gang wars and drugs. Specialists state that drug use is one of risk factors of joining gangs. The Rochester Youth Survey names negative life events, making friends with gang members and drugs as main risk factors of possible gang membership (Thornberry 174). Similar results were achieved by the Seattle Social Development Project. According to their report risk factors include bad study results, inclination to drugs, demonstrative behavior and “bad” friends (Thornberry 174). In contrast, good socialization, conventional surrounding and strong personal system of beliefs minimize risk of joining the gang. These facts prove strong correlation between drug dealers and victims of the gang wars. National surveys also prove influence of drugs trade on the gang wars. The National Drug Intelligence Center reports that “gangs (including street gangs, prison gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs) are the primary retail distributors of drugs in the country” (NDIC 2005). These facts prove close correlation between drugs and gang wars. Gang members control drug distribution and a lot of cases of homicide are connected with so called “drug wars”. Criminal authorities turn to violence when they share the fields of drug distribution. The National Alliance of Gang Investigators Associations also gives facts that prove drugs to be one of the reasons of the gang wars. The research made by these associations contains data from 455 agencies and most of them prove information about the close connection between drug dealing network, gang wars and victims of these wars (NAGIA 2005).
Since drug distribution has such great influence on gang wars and criminal levels, it would be logical to look for the ways out in order to resolve this problem. Unfortunately, the level of homicide and constant gang wars show that state policies are not very effective at the present moment. Despite the enormous effort put in, the attempts to resolve this problem is ineffective. Gardner states that law enforcement does not give expected results. Moreover, statistic states that enforcement results in the increase of the homicide. Prohibition has negative effect on the level of violence. Trying to fight with the results of the problem we cannot solve it. In order to influence the problem of gang crimes we should try to influence its roots. As proved earlier, drugs are among the essential components of the gang violence. As states Gardner: “Wipe out the drug trade and the violence goes with it” (Gardner 235). This effective method also seems to be unachievable at the present moment. In order to understand the situation better we must get a better understanding of the drug dealing system and drug addiction. As states Gardner, drug dealing network will not disappear even if the police throws all drug dealers to prison. The problem is not in drug dealers but in people who consume drugs. They create a demand and in response drug traders sell drugs to satisfy it. So, the problem lies on the deeper level than ordinary drug network. It deals with people who create the demand for drugs and, thus, influence drug distribution. That is the reason old methods to fight gang crimes are not effective. Politicians have to change the entire approach to the problem, otherwise the problem will not be solved. As Gardner points out: “Of course politicians don’t like to admit they aren’t omnipotent. And they really don’t want to say unpopular things in public, particularly during an election. And so both the Liberals and the Conservatives have promised to deal with gang crime by, yet again, increasing law enforcement and boosting sentences. This will fail” (Gardner 235). The problems of gang crimes and drug dealing need new approaches but in order to solve them it is necessary to know the nature of drug addiction.
The problem of drug addiction is complex and multi-dimensioned. Despite the great effort put into the study of the problem of drug addiction there is no one defined explanation of its nature. Science and medicine fail, when the subject comes to addiction. Medicine cannot give definite answer concerning the nature of drug addiction. Different policies aiming to reduce drug use have rather political than medial or scientific background. These policies are aimed to show to the society that government puts effort in order to resolve this problem, but in reality effectiveness of such programs is very low and we can notice it by studying the rates of drug addiction. Psychology professor Bruce Alexander made a series of experiments, exploring the nature of drug addiction and came to unexpected and innovative conclusions. He proves that the surrounding and conditions of life have major impact on the nature of addiction. During his famous experiment Alexander placed addicted rats into two surroundings. One surrounding of usual cages and another contained real paradise for rats – complex structure with plenty of space for life and entertainment. The results of the experiment became unexpected. Rats which dwelled in very good conditions soon left their addiction and turned to normal life. He states that scientists and medical workers who look for the reasons of drug addiction cannot find the right answer because we should look for it in sociology. As he states: “Addiction is neither a disease nor a moral failure, but a narrowly focused lifestyle with an intensity that partially compensates for a lack of adequate psychosocial integration. The function of addiction to drugs is no different from the function of addiction to any other habit or pursuit” (Alexander 125). Alexander speaks about problems of the contemporary society which deprived people of their roots, of their usual way of life and meaning of life in general. Alexander gives social and economical reasons for these changes. He states that we cannot fight the problem of drug addiction until we solve social problems. Money spent to fight the crimes connected with drugs or caused by their use could have brought more use if spent on different social problems. People use drugs not because they have such born characteristics. They turn to drugs because they are unhappy and lack sense in their lives. Social status and material factors also contribute to possible reasons of drug addiction. That is why authorities should pay attention to the level of life of the most unprotected social layers as one of the ways to deal with the drug problem.
Jason Ziedenberg’s research on the gang crime Ganging up on communities? Putting gang crime in context also underlines the correlation between the activity of different gangs and the level of life. According to his research gang crime does not happen everywhere. There are certain areas where the rates of gang crime are higher. After research it was found out that gang crime is higher in the poorer regions. This proves the idea that gang crime is connected with the income level and employment. Similar conclusions can be found in Kyriacou’s study of relationship between socioeconomic factors and gang violence in Los Angeles. According to the research results, “the strongest correlations with gang violence were employment and income” (Kyriacou et al 346). The correlation between gang crime, drug addiction and level of life is evident. It is impossible to solve the problem of drug addiction and, thus, reduce crime rates until social are solved. If authorities and politicians take these facts into consideration we will get an opportunity to approach the solution of the problem of the gang crime.
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