Gangs: THE FAMILY IN TURMOIL

Robert Snyder

A 12-year-old boy comes home from school. He enters his home through the front door and notices his mother sobbing. There is blood on the tissue she's holding. The boy starts to ask his mother why she is crying when he realizes what has happened. She answers his silent inquiry about why, by quietly saying, "your dad . . . he's on the back porch . . . he's had a bad day." Feeling helpless he goes to his room. From his window he can see his dad taking in the last swallow of beer and yelling, loud enough for the neighbors to hear, "Hey, bring me another beer. And where is that worthless son of yours? He was supposed to mow the lawn yesterday." The boy, having seen this too many times before, leaves the house the way he came in. Two

blocks down the street he is approached by a gang member; and unceremoniously another child on the block has decided that gangs have something he wants; a since of belonging, acceptance. The gang becomes his family. This story is fiction, but fits the dynamics of a family system

that supplies the gangs with its members.

Gang-member families differ from non-gang-member families in terms of quality of family interaction, supervision and discipline, family affection patterns, and maternal attitudes toward males. Non-gang member's families are more likely to go out together, are more likely to be consistent in their discipline, and are more likely to display their feelings openly in the family. The mothers of gang members described their husbands as rarely involved in the family's activities. They also had more negative attitudes toward their husbands (Adler,Ovando, & Hocevar, 1984).

The gang member is not the only one effected when he starts his life in a gang. He puts everyone around him in danger, including his immediate family and friends and relatives that may be visiting. Commander Bryan Smith of the Corpus Christi Police Department, when asked what type of family life do gang members have, said they come from male dominated households or one-parent households.

Many of these youth are from families that are female centered, they are not necessarily female dominated, because an aggressive male father figure can impact on the family's history, and more importantly on the child's psychosocial development.

This parental male is perceived as the most powerful member of the family system, who gratifies his needs through the use of aggression and intimidation. Many of these youths have been physically abused by this male adult and also have witnessed their mothers and /or siblings being battered. If the male figure is no longer in the home, his presence survives in the form of fantasy or family mythology long after his departure. (Adler)

Happy homes do not send many of their youngsters into gangs. Gangs are appealing to those kids who have unpleasant memories of their home life. There is emotional pain involved in most gang-members pasts. In the author's work (Adler) with Chicano gang youth, (most gang members in Corpus Christi are Chicano) they point out that the Chicano gang members exhibit violent and aggressive behavior. These youths experience intense feelings of isolation within their families, culture, school, community and church.

These intense feelings are best explained by Adler, "Because of their own experiences of victimization from the male figures, the mothers are too afraid to protect either themselves or their children from this violence. The boys look to their mothers for support and are unable to understand the mother's feelings. Feeling abandoned and betrayed, they perceive their mothers as being passive and uncaring and, in some instances, as hostile. The boys begin to feel ambivalent feelings toward their mothers, which are too painful for the boys to tolerate. It's not always the father that play the dominate role in the gang members real family. Sometimes the guardian is parent, an uncle or aunt, or a grandparent. (Adler)

Marital problems, spousal abuse and or child abuse is prevalent in the gang members family life. Drugs and alcohol are most often in the scenario. Alcohol and drugs are a potent part of the dynamics, much of the family violence occurs while the male adults are intoxicated. The boys experience a pervasive sense of helplessness and powerlessness in an environment that

is unpredictable and violent (Adler). According to Morales:

"To defend themselves against the intense feelings of abandonment and powerlessness, and to mobilize their rage, the boys identify with the abusive father. They learn that aggressiveness brings power and control and can effectively prevent further victimization. As the boys approach adolescence, they more closely resemble their aggressive models as they attempt to exert their will on the family. The mothers often relinquish their adult authority and provide their sons with an inappropriate and disproportionate sense of control. Many mothers then displace the rage that they feel toward their own abusers onto their sons, which causes conflict between mother and son. As the family system becomes less capable of satisfying the youths' psychological needs, the boys search for replacment families to fulfill their dependency needs. The street gang serves as the "surrogate family" (Morales, 1992).

Commander Bryan Smith stated, "The most crucial thing for the family of gang members to understand is all family members share the same risk." That should be expanded to anyone that visits the home, as evidenced when 10-year-old David Ramirez was shot and killed by a gang member during a drive-by shooting last year. According to a Caller-Times newspaper article by staff writer Eric Brown, David's sister Priscilla was having friends over to celebrate her 14th birthday party. Some gang members were present, and word got out to rival gang members that were not invited. When the smoke cleared David lay dead in his mothers' arms and a friend of the family was shot in the shoulder, and none of the gang members where still

at the party when the rival gang started shooting. This was Corpus Christi's second incident in less than six weeks in which a non-gang member -- a bystander -- became the victim of gang violence. Every family member and anyone who visits become potential targets of gang violence.

I have questions, but no answers. How do we break the cycle? Are our social

programs as good as they can be? What can the church and the community do to help? If we can't save the gang member, what can we do to protect the innocent family member and by-stander? It's easy to do nothing when asked, "What can we do?" Maybe the question should be, "What can I do?"

Works Cited

Adler, P.,Ovando, C. & Hocevar, D. (1984). Familiar correlates of gang membership: An exploratory study of Mexican-American youth. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 6, 65-76.

Morales, A.T. (1992). Latino youth gangs: Causes and clinical intervention. In L. S. Vargus & J. Koss-Chiono (Eds.). Working with culture: Psychotherapeutic intervention with ethnic minority children and adolescents (pp. 129-154). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Smith, Commander Bryan. Corpus Christi Police Department. (2-10-97) interview over phone. Subject: Psychological effects on gang members and their families.