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Criminal

Mar. 3, 2006

To Care for Society, Gangs Need a Say in Its Policies

The present response to combating gangs and gang violence is ineffectual. Hiring more police officers and stiffening criminal penalties for gang related offenses is akin to mowing one's lawn. Gangsters are, with varying degrees of frequency, taken off the street, but their ranks are invariably replenished with new members, who often go on to commit new offenses.

Konrad Moore

Public Defender Kern County Public Defender's Office

The present response to combating gangs and gang violence is ineffectual. Hiring more police officers and stiffening criminal penalties for gang related offenses is akin to mowing one's lawn. Gangsters are, with varying degrees of frequency, taken off the street, but their ranks are invariably replenished with new members, who often go on to commit new offenses.

If the cycle and, more pointedly, the connection between gangs and gang violence is to be broken, it won't come from hi...

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