CCJS 454 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: National Crime Victimization Survey, National Drug Intelligence Center, National Gang Intelligence Center

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Course: CCJS 454
• Professor: Justine Madoo

Document Summary

Myths refer to beliefs that are strongly held and convenient to believe but are based on little actual information. Gangs themselves complicate community action by creating myths as part of a big gang theory - what we see despite actually experiencing the situation (gangs may exaggerate so gain status) Media doesn"t show diversity (mainly focus on males, hispanic, blacks, gangs heavily organized and hierarchical) Some gangs have 20,000 members, not necessarily true, but bloods and crips have many subsets. Gangs of the same name are connected (false) M-18 (18th street gang) and ms-13 are spreading across the u. s. Gangs, drugs, and violence are linked (true) Children are joining joint gangs at younger ages (come from a family of gangs) Gang members spend most of their time planning or committing crimes. All gang members are minorities (false, may have majority, but varies) Racial considerations are not important with gangs. Most youths are pressured to join gangs.