preschool program who parents previously could not afford. Also lets parents go
to work and get off welfare programs.
Cost: The cost of the school would be offset by the amount of
single parents being able to go back to work and therefor not relying of
welfare and food stamps.
Enforcement:NONE
B. Solvency:
Individual programs such as Head Start, Curfew, Real World Training, and
Drug Free School zones, have all ready proved there worthiness. Either by
already partially implementation around the country or full implementation in
select cities and proven to work.
New ideas such as Drive By’s a terrorist act, and increasing the legal
age to leave school are both very workable ideas but have not to my knowledge
been tested in any fashion. These two programs need to be tested for say 1 year
before being implementing for the entire county.
C. Advantages:
While none of these six plans would do much to curb violent gangs alone,
all of them at the same time should make a noticed difference. Also side
benefits of my plan are:
Free preschool for all children older than 2 years of age
Allows single parents to work
Decreases gang and drug activity outside our schools
Gets tough with the most violent gang members
Encourages kids to stay in school
Better job training is offered for High Schoolers
III. Conclusion
“We’ve got so many kids out there who’ve lost hope, who believe in only
living for today,” says John Turner, chief of police for the city of Mountlake
Terrace, Washington. “They join a gang and get involved in criminal activity
because there aren’t any people taking them by the hand in simple terms and
pointing them in the right direction, giving them self-esteem and positive
feedback.”
Perhaps gangs exist because modern society has failed to harness the
male hunter/predator instinct and converted those energies to familial
provider/protector efforts. Delinquent young people lacking values, conscience
or a sense of remorse can easily find themselves drawn to the gang lifestyle.
Noted author James Q. Wilson writes in The Moral Sense that modern
society with its “rapid technological change, intense division of labor, and
ambiguous allocation of social roles, frequently leaves some men out, with their
aggressive pre dispositions either uncontrolled or undirected. Gangs are one
result.” Wilson says the profits from illegal drug sales provide gang members
economic opportunities which combine with their uncontrolled aggression to
develop a “warrior culture that under invests in family life.”
Converting male energy to familial provider/protector efforts has always
been the task of the intact family. But the nuclear family is declining,
especially in predominantly black inner cities where gangs dominate life and
rain violent crime. Many of these children join gangs to find purpose, security,
and self-esteem. The gang culture gives them a sense of belonging and remakes
their value system. Partying, fighting, and vicious gang loyalty become their
primary values, thus pushing aside virtues that favor family life. This is a
vicious cycle and it must be broken.
Given that youth gangs account for a disproportionate share of youth
violence, their potential for contributing to a future crime wave is enormous. A
recent decline in violent crime appears to be more a result of fewer teenagers
than better law enforcement. When the current bumper crop of elementary-age
children become adolescents, the violent crime rate is likely to explode.
Gangs are the powder magazine, they must be dealt with before the bomb
goes off.
Rebuttal extensions-
Population of 14-18 year olds
Now 17,620,472 5 Years18,628,635 + 6 % 10 Years
20,284,601+ 15%