Concept in Definition ABC
Miscellanea / / July 04, 2021
By Juan Navarro García, in Apr. 2016
A group of people who maintain some kind of bond is known as a gang affective and that they meet regularly to carry out leisure activities, with no other pretense than to enjoy together. This type of grouping is more frequent to take place during adolescence, although in some cases its permanence it can go beyond this period.
The term is also used to name other groups whose relationship between their members is also intense and close, but which in this case have the specific objective of committing a crime.
This gang concept is the one that has spread in Latin America, giving rise to criminal gangs that carry out their crimes either on the street or in prisons. In the first case they are called street gangs, while in the second they are known as prison gangs.
The social problem of gangs
Gangs or street gangs usually have their origin in marginal environments, and are made up of young people with problems of integration and substance addiction. They are generally made up of adolescents seeking membership in a group or a certain
sensation of power or protection, and that they need to fulfill certain initiatory rituals to enter them.In gangs there is a scale from authority very defined. What organizations they are extremely rigid and the instructions of the leaders must be followed at all times. In some cases they have transcended their geographical origin and have spread to other places, such as the “Latin Kings” or the “Ñetas”
Gang legal figure
In the legislation Mexican gang is considered as a legal figure, differentiating it from another so-called criminal association.
From the judicial point of view, a significant difference is established between the two, in the case of a gang, it is understood that, although the members of the group meet regularly, they do not do so with the intention of committing a crime, although in the course of some of these meetings they have carried out the commission of some crime.
The criminal association more closely resembles the concept of a gang generally understood as a street gang. That is, it is a group made up of individuals who know and accept the criminal nature of the actions for which they meet and that is organized and hierarchical.
In this sense, it should be noted that the commission of a crime under the legal status of a gang is considered an aggravating factor.
Photos: iStock - shironosov / pukrufus
Gang Topics