Time has changed so do the social issues. Problems arising among the youth are at the alarming state. Main problems like smoking, gangsterism and illegal racing are affecting the country¶s development. Gangsterism is common in a developing nation such as Malaysia and we have heard a lot about it occurring in schools. It has been reported that in developed countries, school children are increasingly involved in gangs.
(Gangsterism 2006) Gangsters are a threat to society and you can be considered a gangster if you are involved in any of these activities such as extort money from others, receive payment for threatening others or to beat someone up, ransom people for money, be a part of organised crime, force anyone to j oin a gang and its illegal activities, attend a gang¶s swearing -in ceremony and engage in ? table talk? or a fight with other gang members. We , as a part of the society must prevent the problem of gangsterism from spreading.
However, to solve this problem w e must first get to know that it was caused by the influences from the surrounding, the intention of teenagers to attract other¶s attention and to protect themselves. Many feel that gangsterism is caused by the teenager himself. But, th is phenomenon is actually caused by the influences from the surrounding of the teenagers. In most cases, those who involves in gang activities are influenced by their school mates and friends who also involve in such activities. During this period, teenagers are easily influenced by others because they are very sensitive and don¶t want to feel left out by their peers.
In order to win the respect from their friends , they join these gangs. They are willing to involve themselves in gang activities such as extort money from others, fighting and receive payment for threatening others although they knew that it¶s a negative activity. Besides, teenagers may also be influenced by the media to become a gangster. Nowadays, multimedia such as internet, television and radio are very popular and common among the teenagers. However, there are many dramas and movies that reflect gang activities and some even built the character of the gangster as a hero.
Teenagers that are still immature think that gangsters in those scenes are very cool and thus also become a gangster. Sometimes, teenagers join gang just because they are not good in social activities and want to attract other¶s attention . Nowadays, many parents are busy with their works and not concern about their child¶s psychological condition. (Gavazzi 2005) Many teenagers just want more attention and love from their parent s but most of the parents could not understand their children¶s feeling.
The condition becomes more complicated when these children also faced problems in their social life in school. They don¶t have friends and don¶t know how to communicate with others. They started to feel helpless and lonely but yet nobody can understand their feeling. Thus, some of these children try to do something that can attract others attention such as involves in gang activities. They also tend to express themselves by violence. For them, they have a strong sense of belonging and identity in gang. This sense let them feel more comfortable than living in a world that no one can understand them.
Besides, those kids who expose to long -term violence, parental alcoholism, domestic violence and child sexual abuse may also have higher rates to involve in gangsterism. (Youth Violence 2007, 14) This is because family violence teaches them that criminal and violent activities are acceptable . These children have no warm and love from their family and most of them tend to protect themselves from hurting by others anymore. For them, nobody will protect th em besides themselves. So, they become gangster and try to gain respect from others through illegal ways to prevent themselves from being bully.
On the other hand, those teenagers who had previously been bullied by a gangster might also join gang to protect themselves. Some of them even join gang to wait for the chance to make their revenge to those who bullied them before . They have the wrong idea to treat violence in a wrong way. However, sometimes teenagers might also join gang just to protect the one they love. In certain condition, they are forced to join gang to protect themselves and also their friends and family. No matter what are the reasons for teenagers to involve in gangsterism, it brings many negative effects to the teenager himself and also the society.
The future of a gangster is not promising. Research shows that teenagers who involve themselves in gang are not doing well in school . They always play truant and normally have poor achievement in school . Besides, teenage gangsters have no real friends in school and are only respected by his group of µgangster friends¶ since they always commit illegal activities such as extort money, fighting and bully other students in school area. For their improper att itude in school, teenage gangsters might receive disciplinary punishment from the school and even been expelled from the school.
Thus, for sure they will not get a good testimonial report from school and it affects that student¶s future career. Furthermore, teenagers who involve in gang activities have a high risk on commit a severe crime. If they really do commit any severe crime accidentally, they will be forever worried of getting caught . Gangsterism not only brings negative effects to that specific teen ager himself but also to the society. The society is in worry when the gang activities become more and more active in the town . As a result, the society becomes not peaceful anymore and everyone needs to aware of gang activities that take place in their to wn.
The neighbourhoods are fear to become one of the victims of teenage gangster that force businesses to pay them a number of money in exchange for "protection". Besides, teenage gangsters might commit fight at anywhere in the town and it affecting the society¶s safety. Teenage gangsters also vandalise the public facilities in the town and causes inconvenient to the neighbourhoods. Number of crime in the town also increases as a result of the increasing number of teenage gangsters. Some teenage gangsters even involve in drugs and in order to have enough money to get drugs, they steal, rob and even ransom people in the town.
In conclusion, gangsterism is caused by the influences of the surrounding, the intention of teenagers to attract others¶ attraction and to protect themselves. Gangsterism also brings a lot of negative effects to the teenagers himself and the society. So, to curb these social ill, parents, educators and society at large should be aware of what is going on among our youths. Though there are various psychological and physical factors that cause a person to choose to become a gang member, parents or guardians should help nurture their children with love and respect to reduce this problem.
Teenagers should also control themselves by get involved in healthy social activities, such as sports and music to distance themselves from gang activities. As a teenager, we s hould channel our anger into something else such as join Boxing Club, Taekwondo, singing or sports. We must understand that it¶s not correct to involve in gang to release our peer pressure. We must say 'NO' to negative behaviours so that gang activities in our society will decrease until a safety level.
