Street and motorcycle gangs have caused headaches to the law enforcement agencies with various criminal activities and drug dealings in most jurisdictions. The 18th street gang, for instance, has been marked among notorious street gangs in Los Angeles with a high number of robbery incidences linked to them. A police department can employ different strategies to curtail gang membership and criminal activities. First, a prevention strategy is necessary to prevent people and youths from joining these street gangs. Prevention programs or services can help sway the youths away from criminal gangs, as well as shifting some of its focus to causes of crime by these gangs.
Secondly, intervention programs can be applied to curb gang-related activities. These programs are meant to pull away gang members and other associate members from their gang lifestyle and to indulge in non-violent activities. The intervention will entail the law enforcement working together with communities to foster education, community-based opportunities, and training of various jobs that can deviate gang members` attention from their lifestyle (Engel et al. 407).
Lastly, suppressing gang-related activities whereby different criminal justice systems use their resources to limit the rate of crime and ensure accountability of illegal activities and the gang members involved. Suppression can be achieved through the sharing of gang intelligence among different law enforcement agencies (Engel et al. 406) and apprehending violent offenders who are members of these gangs (407). In my opinion, more focus should be directed to the youth rather than the adult gang members. Mentoring youth gang members can go a long way into benefiting the youths from engaging in criminal activities thus reducing gang-related activities in the long run.
Work Cited
Engel, Robin S., et al. "Reducing Gang Violence Using Focused Deterrence: Evaluating the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV)." Justice Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 3, 2013, pp. 403-439.
