Cyber Bullying Crime Rates

In 2012, a survey done by the National Youth Gang Center (NYGS) revealed that there were 30,700 youth gangs in the United States equaling about 850,000 members.(Siegel and Worrall 2016) Broken families, financial situations, desire for popularity, drugs, and lack of social support are all reasons why our youth would join a gang. Gangs do not just affect individuals, they affect family, schools, communities. Parents are the key to success in gang prevention with our youth. Parents have such an impact on their children, being involved with your child can make all the difference in a child's decision-making skills.

Keeping tabs on children, knowing their friends and companions, being a good role model, spending quality time with them and keeping them socially involved in the community are all ways a parent can prevent their children from joining gangs. “A balance of prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies is important for success in any community.” (Howell 2010). There are many different programs that are directed toward preventing gangs, these are categorized into two main divisions, primary prevention and secondary prevention. Primary prevention programs are directed toward all the youth in communities where gangs are present. These are programs directed by government, schools, communities, and churches that are educating youth of gangs and violence.

Secondary prevention programs are directed towards youth who are at a high risk for joining a gang from showing early signs of aggressive behaviors. The goal is to help show these youth that there are better alternatives to joining a gang. (Howell 2010) Art (Aggression Replacement Training) is a crime prevention program that is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. This is a secondary prevention program directed toward violent youth that is ten weeks long. During this time, they work with the delinquents on anger management, moral reasoning training and skill streaming with the goal to be replacing aggression with coping skills to help them be successful in life. Crime rates will always be an important factor for how well a community functions. There are many things that everyone can do individually and as a team to keep crime on a low scale. If society will utilize the crime prevention programs to help shape our youth into promising citizens, and if civilians and police officers will set aside the blue curtain and come together as a force, we will have a promising future.

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