How is Gang membership obtained?The onset of gangs in Jamaica
began as early as the 1970s, its formation of gangs began in the
ghettos of Kingston. Since the 1970s era, it has stemmed into a big
tree, branching off into other parishes and was no longer limited
to just grown men or adults. As time went by, the violent gang
activities were beginning to branch off to the younger minority of
the Jamaican populous. School children, more so, teenagers who were
attempting to mimic those actions of the gang members that they
deemed as role models. Moreover, joining a gang was not as easy as
it was assumed to be, there were rules and legislations, sort of
like a mini community where membership in the gang relied on
certain key aspects or actions. According to Duffy (2004), gang
membership has been obtained through mainly political affiliation
in the Jamaican society. She states that since the early 1970s both
political parties, them being the Peoples National Party (PNP) and
the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). These parties were seen as the base
for gang operations back in the early days, and up to now in this
current decade. The political parties, according to Duffy, hired
gangs of armed street youths to intimidate their opponents.
Therefore, political ties to a specific party guaranteed that a
side was taken and hence leading to gang formation. Manwaring
(2006), while agreeing with Duffy (2010) on the instance that
political ties have played a major effect on gang membership, which
leads to some level of immunity for gangs towards the law, had a
different perspective on how gang membership is obtained, he states
that membership can be obtained through recruitment. This is where
lower members in the gangs hierarchy hire outsiders as opposed to
their own, to operate as mules and street-level dealers. African
Americans, Trinidadians, Guyanese, and even Chinese immigrants are
given tasks at the worker-level. They are kept ignorant of gang
structure and members identities. If outsiders are caught, the
posse is not compromised; if they are not, the revenue continues to
come in. Arguing from a positive standpoint, Hazen (2010) believes
that rather than labelling all groups as gangs, they should base
them on how they structure. She argues that persons view gangs
based on two characteristics, one of which revolves around
motivational characteristics, purpose, strength and contribution to
society. The other involves key aspects like membership
(recruitment) and logistics (food and weapons). She also states
that how a group is viewed is based on its relation to the
government and its capacity to perpetrate wide scale violence. She
also mentioned that gangs or armed groups membership could be
formed through friendship and were seen as harmless in earlier
years as they dissolved as the members aged. Another way in which
gang membership was obtained was through criminal acts. Densely
(2012) mentioned the fact that gangs began as social groups through
which friends from communities hang out, but over time it evolved
into a much bigger thing, where violence and drugs got involved.
According to densely boys, who represent the majority of gang
members were doing petty crimes such as stealing and smoking to
gain membership into a gang, but a rapidly evolving cycle saw entry
into a gang as prospective members killing and raping persons in
order to enter, especially in Jamaica.Dancehall music and artistes
also play a very key role in obtaining gang membership. Jackman
(2012) provided some information that gave insight into the fact
that dancehall artistes have an impact on gang membership. In 2009,
the famed artistes, David Brooks (Movado) and Adijah Palmer (Vybz
Kartel) had a musical dispute which escalated from the music
industry into the Jamaican populous causing rival gangs of the two
artistes to be in conflict. Jackman noted that this feud between
the two artistes allowed for a turf war and borderlines between two
sides. The Gully posse which belonged to Movado and the Gaza
belonging to Kartel often did not have any problems outside of
musical confrontation with each other but fans of both parties as
far away as even Trinidad and Tobago labelling themselves on behalf
of both artistes. Meaning any student that identified themselves as
a Gully fan was seen as the enemy to Gaza fans and vice versa. In
agreement with Hazen (2010), Rogers (2010) believes that gangs are
sometimes misunderstood, he believes gangs are not always violent
groups but are sometimes just a group of friends that hang out and
keep themselves out of trouble. He however acknowledges that there
is also a certain level of dangerousness associated with gangs, and
with the various contents of youth, it makes leaving the gang
inevitable.In concluding, gang membership has become somewhat of a
subculture in todays society of Jamaica and is deemed to be taking
over. Obtaining membership in a gang ties in somewhat with the
influences of gang violence so that means there are common
denominators between the two. The two however are different in that
obtaining membership deal with how a person enters a gang and
influences deal more with why persons enter gang
References
Densley, J. A. (2012). The organisation of london's street
gangs.Global Crime,13(1), 42-64.
doi:10.1080/17440572.2011.632497Duffy, M.P., Gillig, S.E. (2004).
Teen Gangs: A Global View. Westport Conn: Greenwood Press.Hazen, J.
M. (2010). Understanding gangs as armed groups.International Review
of the Red Cross,92(878), 369-386.
doi:10.1017/S1816383110000378Interview with Dennis Rodgers.
(2010).International Review of the Red Cross,92(878), 313-328.
doi:10.1017/S1816383110000433Jackman, W. M. (2010). Dancehall and
hip-hop: Youth perceptions of sexuality and violence.Caribbean
Dialogue,15(1), 27-40.Manwaring, M. G. (2006). Gangs and coups D'
streets in the new world disorder: Protean insurgents in
post-modern war.Global Crime,7(3), 505-543.
doi:10.1080/17440570601073251
