NCJ Number
165861
Journal
Child Welfare Volume: 76 Issue: 3 Dated: (May/June 1997) Pages: 411-428
Date Published
1997
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study used ethnographic methods to investigate how Guam's elementary school children acquire their knowledge and attitudes about gangs.
Abstract
Researchers tested their belief that gangs are becoming popularized and idealized in local elementary schools by observing gang-related graffiti in elementary schools, talking with local children and their teachers, and asking children to write about gangs. Seven elementary school teachers and two administrators from four schools were interviewed. The information obtained was compared to other information taken from a larger ongoing study of gangs. Findings suggest that for Guam's youth, gang activity and gang membership present a moral dilemma. Gang stereotypes suggest that gangs are evil; personal experience, on the other hand, suggests that gangs are a source of comradeship, support, entertainment, and prestige. Island youth resolve the moral dilemma by creating a questionable distinction between good and bad gangs. This allows them to rationalize and justify gang membership. Island youth sense the erosion of the traditional culture's moral visions, but they find modern Western individualism unpalatable as an alternative. Gang membership offers a third option, as it bestows on youth a sense of honor, bravery, and solidarity lost by the passing of traditional society. Gang members, therefore, must be viewed not as social deviants but as members of a culture that proposes moral visions and prescribes group behaviors for its membership. An understanding of the moral visions that underlie Guam's youth gangs can become the basis for providing youths with a healthier and more productive vehicle for expressing their sense of cultural loss and emerging cultural identity. 33 references