Gangsterism: Gang Activities

Causes and effects essay — Gangsterism
Time has changed so do the social issues. Problems arising among the youthare at the alarming state. Main problems like smoking, gangsterism and illegal racingare affecting the country¶s development. Gangsterism is common in a developingnation such as Malaysia and we have heard a lot about it occurring in schools. It hasbeen reported that in developed countries, school children are increasingly involvedin gangs.( Gangsterism 2006)

Gangsters are a threat to society and you can beconsidered a gangster if you are involved in any of these activities such as extortmoney from others, receive payment for threatening others or to beat someone up,ransom people for money, be a part of organised crime, force anyone to join a gangand its illegal activities, attend a gang¶s swearing-in ceremony and engage in ³tabletalk´ or a fight with other gang members. We, as a part of the society must preventthe problem of gangsterism from spreading. However, to solve this problem we mustfirst get to know that it was caused by the influences from the surrounding, theintention of teenagers to attract other¶s attention and to protect themselves.Many feel that gangsterism is caused by the teenager himself.

But, thisphenomenon is actually caused by the influences from the surrounding of theteenagers. In most cases, those who involves in gang activities are influenced bytheir school mates and friends who also involve in such activities. During this period,teenagers are easily influenced by others because they are very sensitive and don¶twant to feel left out by their peers. In order to win the respect from their friends, they join these gangs. They are willing to involve themselves in gang activities such asextort money from others, fighting and receive payment for threatening othersalthough they knew that it¶s a negative activity.

Besides, teenagers may also beinfluenced by the media to become a gangster. Nowadays, multimedia such asinternet, television and radio are very popular and common among the teenagers.However, there are many dramas and movies that reflect gang activities and someeven built the character of the gangster as a hero. Teenagers that are still immaturethink that gangsters in those scenes are very cool and thus also become a gangster.Sometimes, teenagers join gang just because they are not good in socialactivities and want to attract other¶s attention. Nowadays, many parents are busywith their works and not concern about their child¶s psychological condition. ( Gavazzi

2005)

Many teenagers just want more attention and love from their parents but mostof the parents could not understand their children¶s feeling. The condition becomesmore complicated when these children also faced problems in their social life inschool. They don¶t have friends and don¶t know how to communicate with others.They started to feel helpless and lonely but yet nobody can understand their feeling.Thus, some of these children try to do something that can attract others attentionsuch as involves in gang activities. They also tend to express themselves byviolence. For them, they have a strong sense of belonging and identity in gang. Thissense let them feel more comfortable than living in a world that no one canunderstand them.