Gang Life and Its Toll on Children
Gang life takes a toll on a human's character and more so a child who is only stuck there because of fear. When the child to join a gang, no matter what face they put on, deep in their hearts resides fear. Fear of being killed by your own gang members, fear of being killed by the police or even going crazy because of the atrocities they are forced to do. Gangs do have structures that are just as complex as those in the police or military. The leader of a gang is just like a hero and a dictator as he/she is adored by some and hated by some of his own. Gang life begins with the gang sending some scouts to size out some of its potential recruits, then it takes them for an initiation process and later brainwashes them that gangster life is the only way to live. “I’ve found that young people are initially given cannabis, alcohol and cigarettes as a reward for helping with gangs’ dirty work’’ (The Conversation). Gang life is always living in constant fear of being attack and losing your life.
Recruitment of Gang Members
Studies done by the National Gang Crime Research Center show that recruitment of gang members are from children from the age of 9 years to 73 years. In the movie, Tsotsi, the character David also known as Tsotsi is portrayed as a cold-hearted killer who had suffered some trauma from his abusive father in his childhood days. He runs away and joins the life of crime where he is seen to recruit his own gang members where he is the leader. In a twist to the story, he is brought down by a helpless child who he seems to connect with. He seems to understand how dependent on him the child is and it is upon him to determine its survival. Gangs in the US have been able to exploit the naivety and helplessness of the young unsupported children in the streets as they pretend to look after them only to initiate them into the gangs.
The Helplessness of Gang Members
Gang members grow up feeling helpless as neither the public nor the government wants to listen and understand to them. This emotion later turns to anger to everyone around them and it creates monsters from their innocence. In Chicago, the gang known as Almighty Black P. Stone Nation has a well-structured organization where the leader is one who is most ruthless not on the criteria of wits (Knox, 2003). In the published book Life in the Gang: Family, Friends, and Violence, leadership in a gang is not a matter of the office and its duties but of age and who serves the interest of the group (Scott, 1996). This brings constant changes and chaos in the gang as each member wants a piece of the pie. More publications of articles like (Effects of Domestic Violence on Children) "Children exposed to domestic violence are likely to develop behavioural problems, such as regressing, exhibiting out of control behaviour, and imitating behaviours. Children may think that violence is an acceptable behaviour of intimate relationships and become either the abused or the abuser."
Vulnerability of Neglected Children
To what many would think, children who are neglected during their formative age suffer a lot when they are in gangs. In Tsotsi, he even changes his own names so as to gain another identity- a street identity; where he is even feared by his own men. Traumatic events from his childhood still haunt him no matter how much he tries to escape from them. As a child, getting hooked on drugs is pretty easy thus the older gang members are able to coerce the child to do criminal acts such as drug runs and look out jobs on the promise that they will offer them constant cash and drugs. “Organized crime gangs are using grooming tactics to coerce, manipulate and force young children into criminality to pay off unwanted debts” (the conversation).
Exploiting Vulnerable Children
In the United Kingdom; London city, the gangs have been using young girls to commit their dirty jobs. In the conversation, "Drug users, addicts and vulnerable girls living in small counties are also exploited to assist with dealing and are commonly forced to use their homes as a base for storing drugs and weapons." Children suffering from traumatic experiences are more vulnerable to join gangs as they find solace in drugs, prostitution, and engaging in criminal behaviors. In the United States, the availability of guns makes it even worse as gang-related deaths are very high. As per the National Gang Center “From 2007 through 2012, a sizable majority more than 80 percent of respondents provided data on gang-related homicides in their jurisdictions. The total number of gang homicides reported by respondents in the NYGS sample averaged nearly 2,000 annually from 2007 to 2012. During roughly the same time period (2007 to 2011), the FBI estimated, on average, more than 15,500 homicides across the United States.” This number compared to that of soldiers who had died in combat is almost 6 times more as per casualties record (Stanley et al, 2012).
Grooming and Manipulation of Children
The Manchester Evening News gives us a glimpse of how a gang leader says he used to groom a child in his gang. He says “I could groom a kid to be in my gang in two weeks, it was easy. It was the kids who would always run to the shop for you. Within a week, I would put them in the car with me, let them touch my gold chain, smoke weed with them and then give them £50, then I would build up to giving them a bag of weed and say ‘just go and give that to that guy over there'. You could see the buzz on their face. They would be so loyal to me." A child's mind is very fragile and naïve. Anything that seems like a norm to the area the child lives is what the child adapts and follows. Tsotsi picked up his immoral behaviors from the streets as that is where he called home. His father also taught him sub-consciously that hurting people is just a way of life and that it bears no consequences. Tsotsi shoots his own friend and moves on with his life as he sees it as not a mind-altering event compared to how a normal human would react. Tsotsi is emotionally shut down only begins to change after he kidnaps the infant by mistake and shoots the mother in an attempt to escape. The same case applies to all men who find a path changing event and are able to escape the ways of crime. Nobody on this earth was born evil, we all want to live our lives the best way possible without looking over our shoulders thus, it comes a time when every gang member wants to escape their odd ways but only a few are able because gangs are like a cult: leaving suggests that you are going to expose their ways of operation thus they cannot allow you to do that.
Comparing Gang Life
While comparing gang life in the USA and overseas, you get to understand there is little or no difference as all break the rules and want to prove that the decision they make is not wrong as they believe that they are at a point of no return. Psychologists suggest that it is ingrained in the human mind to prove all they do is for a reason and thus even when you ask a murderer why he did it, he will give you a reason to justify his actions. In the movie Tsotsi, we all learn that in the long run, all he wanted is to do the right thing and atone for his sins. This was his way of redemption as all he valued at some point in life was eroded and washed off by his crimes.
The Consequences of Gang Life
The life of a gangster is always and has always been short-lived as consequences find a way of catching up with us. For a child in a gang, it is even worse as the traumatic experiences force them in more drugs and violence as to "lock away their demons" this makes it hard to even adjust to normal behavior even after leaving the gang life behind.
Works cited
Knox, George W. (2003). Almighty Black P. Stone Nation, "GANG PROFILE UPDATE: The Black P. Stone Nation (BPSN)". National Gang Crime Research Center.
National Gang Center, https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/survey-analysis/measuring-the-extent-of-gang-problems
Scott H. Decker, and Barrik Van Winkle, Cambridge University Press 1996, Life in the Gang: Family, Friends, and Violence.
Stanley, Nicky; Miller, Pam; Richardson Foster, Helen
(2012-05-01). "Engaging with children's and parents' perspectives on domestic violence". Child " Family Social Work. 17 (2): 192–201. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2206.2012.00832.x. ISSN 1365-2206.
