Can illegal immigration be the cause of increased gang violence...?

Question

Just in the Los Angeles area alone there has been an increase in gang activities, such as police officers being shot. There has been 10 police shot at in the last month alone. In the last couple yrs i read that gang violence is up. The current mayor is making all efforts to stop this. But with no border across the mexican border more immigrants are coming to the US, which means more criminals as well. The largest gangs in the LA area alone are South American gangs which overflow into southern CA neighborhoods. Is this the cause of drugs, violence, crimes, and overflowing prisions...or is it just part of the problem?

Answer 1

To an extent yes, but can't say that for all.

Answer 2

You might want to do a little more reading on immigration. It is obvious you are not seriously educated on the correlation between violence, diversity, and poverty. Poverty and inequality is the cause of gang violence, and there is little to no evidence that suggests that immigration has anything to do with it, aside of the lack of an equal standing ground for an immigrant when they enter this country. There are hundreds of books you could read on this topic, and many historical precedents that indicate that immigration does not cause violence, though the perception remains that it does. Take the 19th century influx of immigrants from Ireland, for example. People then believed they were the cause of increases of violence in the inner-city, as well, but it is pretty much considered a historical fact now that this was not the cause of violence at the time. The cause was increased population and poverty. Studies within New York City and Chicago in the past thirty years, where immigration has been only a minor factor, has confirmed this. When poverty levels dip in correlation to increases in population, then gang violence increases. Low self-esteem and inequality lends to the gang-nature of violence.

So if the population of L.A. increases, but the standard of living for the people on the bottom tier of society does not improve substantially, then you get an increase in violence. This is what is happening in L.A. today. That is not to deny a link with immigration, but the key is the condition in which immigrants find themselves, not the immigrants themselves. To suggest that there is something wrong with the immigrants or that they are criminals is at best inaccurate, and at worst it is racist. This does not take into consideration the numerous amounts of blacks and whites that take part in crime, and it does not take into consideration the millions of hispanics who are honest and hard working people.

Answer 3

actually the very first gangs in the la area were hispanics, before the panthers and the blue and red era. hispanic gangs are also the largest like mara and the eme. i wouldnt blame everything on illegal immigrants, but smuggling illegals is a trade of its own, so i would definatley say its part of the problems.

evil spoon is right, bob would have to say the major cause of gang violence is poverty and inequality

Answer 4

no longer straight away, i think of in all hazard confident. i'm engaged on a thesis top now that connects the upward thrust and fall of crime to the upward thrust and fall of the economic gadget. I actually are turning out to be by adequate examine to discover that, whilst the economic gadget is undesirable, this is not purely property crimes (like theft and fraud) that pass up. Violent crimes (like theft, attack, rape and homicide) pass up, too. i could think of that unlawful immigrants are hit greater durable by ability of the economic gadget than others are. So, assuming there's a correlation between violence and the economic gadget, there could be a correlation between violence and unlawful immigration for the period of undesirable economic circumstances. The FBI has, on its internet site, crime information for diverse components. i'm beneficial you may get information on unlawful immigration from the dep. of native land protection. And economic alerts are obtainable from a number of sources, alongside with the treasury branch and the federal reserve. in case you have adequate time to examine those sources, you would be waiting to make a rather stable connection.

Answer 5

Whew!
Great question.
Without exception, all 'recent' immigrants to this country in the past 100+- years have been blamed for our rising crime rate.
If you do a little historical research, you can trace back to a time where the Germans, Irish,Jews, Italians, Chinese,Middle Eastern, Japanese, etc., were all vilified and blamed for America's societal problems.
Of course, that's not true, since human beings of all ilks behave in variously bad or good ways, depending on ones definition of bad or good. Most immigrants do not come to this country with loads of money & so live in less than ideal conditions until/if they reach a level of material comfort.
When people are forced (by economics) to live in less than ideal conditions (ie: ghettos) with others in the same situation, but maybe different languages, cultural values & so on, there is great tension.
I can recall my Mother telling heartbreaking stories about Syrian children in her elementary school being abused by teachers-- only because they wore different clothes, ate diferently and were struggling to learn English. I can remember the sadness of seeing Black kids being treated the same way after the schools 'integrated' them.
Maybe instead of asking this question, we can ask ourselves how we'd like being in the immigrants' shoes and if we'd want to go their country and be scapegoated in this way.

Answer 6

Back when we had so many immigrants fleeing political violence in Central America, some of their youth got involved in street gangs in the US. These didn't exist in their home countries, and the parents didn't seem to know how to prevent it. When they went back (sometimes their parents sent them back to get them away from gangs; sometimes they were deported) they started gangs in their home countries. In response to this, the paramilitary formed death squads to kill gang members.
So, there is a relationship between illegal immigrants and gangs, but it is not a simple one.