NCJ Number
147269
Journal
Urban League Review Volume: 15 Issue: 2 Dated: (Winter 1992) Pages: 29-40
Date Published
1992
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the need to focus intervention efforts for reversing gang problems in urban communities away from the currently popular suppressionmodel to prevention. Youth Economic Enterprise Zones are proposed as a prevention strategy which would give youths an profitable alternative to gang activity.
Abstract
Gangs have been a fact of life in America since the 19th Century. Recently, criminal activity by youth gangs have risen dramatically and the nature of the crimes has become more lethal. Since 1980, gang-related crime including drug activity has increased 40 percent, while violent crime in general has decreased by 23 percent nationwide. Intervention strategies are categorized as either prevention, rehabilitation, or suppression. Suppression is the approach preferred by law enforcement and is the prevailing policy today. The author is critical of this approach which tends to attack the real victims, poor minority youths and their families. An approach that emphasizes prevention is recommended. Specifically, the development of Urban Youth Revitalization and Enterprise Zones is offered as a strategy for giving juveniles economically profitable alternatives to joining a gang. The proposal is for more than a jobs program but for a community-based program in which gang members can be trained and employed as managers and entrepreneurs in youth-intense businesses. Neighborhood youth enterprise centers would be responsible for developing literacy skills, improving work attitudes and values, improving self-esteem and harnessing and redirecting the talents and skills of gang members into socially acceptable small business enterprises. Background on San Diego's youth gang problem is provided as well as reasons for San Diego's suitability for a pilot Youth Economic Enterprise Zone program.