The easiest way to keep an adolescent safe from gang affiliation is to prevent them from ever joining. If the adolescent in your care is exhibiting risk signs listed on the Risk Signs page, then preventative measures may be necessary. Many different programs/theories are offered on ways to make sure children do not become involved in gang life.
Things You Can Do
If you feel keeping the individual out of gangs is still under your control and do not wish to utilize outside sources (mentors, programs, etc…), there is plenty you can do to secure his or her safety.
First and foremost: cut off all ties from the gang. The child is, more than likely, being led astray by friends who have similar deviant behavior problems (Craig et al. 2002). If this is the case, you need to stop letting the individual associate with these friends.
Even if communication is cut off, however, gangs still have ways of recruiting adolescent members through the technology available to them. SocialTimes.com reported that gang members “add gang logos and songs to their online profiles” and “are turning to Youtube and other social networks to find new gang members.” Due to these methods, adolescent internet usage needs to be closely monitored. SocialTimes.com suggests that law enforcement agencies need to hold seminars or workshops to educate parents on how to protect their children from these types of communication. If parents can identify and monitor gang videos and communication over the internet and stop it in its tracks the problem will be cut at the source. If not the children will continue communicating and expressing interest in the gang and potentially become a member.
Mentoring Programs
If you feel you cannot help the individual personally and need additional help or just want the extra help on your side, enrolling the adolescent in a mentoring program may help. Extensive research has been done (focusas.com; operationnogangs.org; Dubois et al., 2005; Spergel et al., 1997) suggesting that individuals involved in mentoring relationships (programs, relatives, close (non-deviant) friends), etc…) are more likely to exhibit favorable outcomes relating to:
- Education/work
- Reducing problem behavior (including deviant behavior and gang membership)
- Psychological Well-being
- and health
Improvements in all of these areas could help the adolescent individual to be far less likely to join a gang. All of the factors mentoring programs help to improve are risk signs for an adolescent to be more likely to join a gang. Through the improvements in these areas, the well-being of the teenager is increased.
According to DuBois et al. (2005), “mentoring relationships alone are not enough to meet the needs of at-risk youths and therefore should be incorporated into more comprehensive interventions”. Therefore, incorporating other programs to assist the child may be necessary. Such programs as Conflict Resolution Programs and Recreation Programs can help to prevent the child from affiliating with a gang.
Conflict Resolution and Recreation Programs
Focusas.com and Spergel et al. (1997) suggest Conflict Resolution Programs to be helpful in keeping a child out of gangs. A conflict resolution program would help to teach the individual(s) involved how to resolve conflict without the use of violent means. Through this program, adolescents looking to join gangs for protection or violent endeavors and those already involved in violent gangs will learn alternative methods to solving their differences. These peaceful resolutions will help the individual to need the protection and violent ways associated with gang life less and keep them from feeling they “need” the gang.
Twemlow et al. () suggest that traditional martial arts practice and the philosophies involved can help to be a deterrent to gang membership. This particular approach is incredibly affective, as “there are considerable difficulties in motivating violent youth to participate in such an abstract activity as verbal therapy,” (Twemlow et al., 2004). Seeing as it is difficult to get an individual already prone to violence (and therefore gang affiliation) to submit to verbal therapy, such interactive and physical therapy as mixed martial arts is a great alternative.
”Adults are often skeptical about the use of martial arts as a therapeutic tool. The fear is that teaching "fighting" will increase violence. Also, it may be difficult for them to envision a sports instructor in the role of therapist. However, martial arts can be organized to provide desirable social outcomes, such as decreased conflict at home, increased academic achievement, and reductions in violent behavior,” (Twemlow et al., 2004).
As the study suggests, mixed martial arts in accompaniment with traditional philosophy can help improve the individual in quite a few ways. Since the program is much more appealing to an adolescent, they can actually receive therapy for deviant behaviors without even knowing. Accompanying a mixed martial arts program designed with peaceful philosophy with a mentoring program could greatly reduce the adolescent’s likelihood to join a gang.
