Gang-involved Luis was a 16-year-old Latino male charged with substantial battery and resisting arrest, due to a fight with a rival at a party. Luis already had a history of truancy and a police record for several thefts, vandalism, underage drinking, and curfew violations. He was smoking marijuana on a daily basis, not attending school, and had experienced little success in the educational environment outside of sports. Luis also exhibited significant anger management concerns and was viewed as a threat to the community. Luis’s mother was very involved in his life and was doing her best to raise her four children without any assistance or involvement from their father. Luis had felt like “the man of the family” from an early age and felt responsible for caring for his mother and younger siblings. Despite numerous concerns expressed by his family and the juvenile court, Luis was allowed to return home. While the next court hearing was pending, Luis participated in an alcohol and drug assessment, and it was recommended that he enter a residential treatment facility for his drug and alcohol issues, anger management problems, and gang involvement. He was also referred to an alternative school program where his chances for success would be better. At the dispositional hearing, his defense attorney argued that Luis needed alcohol and drug treatment, as well as other services, and that he should be sent to an inpatient treatment facility that had already agreed to take him. The judge ordered Luis to the juvenile correctional facility, but “stayed” the order, permitting Luis to enter treatment. Luis entered the voluntary 90- day alcohol and drug treatment program and began to work on his sobriety, anger issues, gang involvement, and criminal attitude. The team of professionals, along with Luis and his mother, created an aftercare plan that initially included ongoing drug counseling and support, individual counseling, intensive supervision and monitoring, group support, and placement in an alternative educational setting. Through the alternative school, Luis got involved in a program that offered troubled youth the experience of building homes for underprivileged families. Luis was able to gain valuable work skills, as well as time to focus on positive activities. He remained living at home with his mother and siblings and was eventually released from the juvenile court– ordered services. The “stayed” correctional order was in place until the juvenile court closed the case upon Luis’s 18th birthday. 

Kids like Luis often find themselves trapped in a gang culture. Few issues in the study of delinquency are more important today than the problems presented by lawviolating gangs and groups.1 Although some gangs are made up of only a few loosely organized neighborhood youths, others have thousands of members who cooperate in complex illegal enterprises. A significant portion of all drug distribution in the nation’s inner cities is believed to be gang controlled; gang violence accounts for more than 2,000 homicides each year. Nor is the gang problem unique to the United States. In nations around the world, the global criminal economy, especially the illegal distribution of drugs, involves gangs as both major and bit players. Numerous gangs operate in distressed areas, such as the townships of South Africa, where they rule politically and control the underground economy. Chinese criminal organizations known as triads operate all across the globe, but are especially active in South Asia and the United States. In Eastern Europe, the turmoil caused by the move to a market economy and the loss of social safety nets has strengthened gangs and drug organizations.2 The problem of gang control is a difficult one. Many gangs flourish in inner-city areas that offer lower-class youths few conventional opportunities, and members are resistant to offers of help that cannot deliver legitimate economic hope. Although gang members may be subject to arrest, prosecution, and incarceration, a new crop of young recruits is always ready to take the place of their fallen comrades. Those sent to prison find that, upon release, their former gangs are only too willing to have them return to action. We begin this chapter with a discussion of peer relations, showing how they influence delinquent behavior. Then we explore the definition, nature, and structure of delinquent gangs. Finally, the chapter presents theories of gang formation, the extent of gang activity, and gang-control efforts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

please Answer the question in the article that i send you.   this is the story about luis that i posted above this. 

answer every question and please don't copy another person work, be original. i have my ways of finding if plagiarism was used.

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