Reference no: EM133995771

Assignment:

Thus, the study reinforces the importance of gang intervention programs that provide opportunities for gang members to have the space to construct positivistic masculine identities to replace negativistic masculine identities, because in the absence of that support gang members can quickly revert back to relying on the negativistic masculine identities and illicit economic opportunities that gang membership and criminal activity affords them. However, this also implies another critique of the strategy of using gang intervention programs to address gang crime as a public policy, in that these programs can only facilitate gang desistance for the limited number of gang members they can employ and provide support to. In such cases, those gang members who are successfully desisting from gang activity are only doing so because of the employment and support that the intervention program provides. Without that support, they would have a strong chance of reverting back to negativistic masculine identities and criminality in order to provide for themselves. Lacking the support that insulated them from the destabilizing effects of the multiple marginality they face, they are likely to revert to the only source of masculine identity and economic opportunity available to them, gang membership and criminality."

1. What does this passage mean?
2. What does it say about the ability of gang programs to help "fix" gang members and the gang problem more broadly?
3. What does it say about the government's role in providing programs to help people avoid, leave, and remain out of gangs and lives of crime?
4. Finally, based on this passage and the paper as a whole, what do you think needs to be done in order to sustainably reduce the negative effects of gang membership on individuals and communities?