Drug Trafficing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Drug Trafficing - Essay Example es a Violent Street Gang/Drug Enterprise as a criminal enterprise having an organizational structure, acting as a continuing criminal conspiracy, which employs violence and any other criminal activity to sustain the enterprise (Wiley, 1997). There are at least 21,500 gangs and more than 731,000 active gang members in the United States alone. These gangs are known to conduct criminal activity in all states and U.S. territories. Earlier, it was believed that the problem of gangs and drug trafficking was mainly concentrated in major urban areas, however recent data show that gangs also are proliferating in rural and suburban areas. Increasing law enforcement pressure in urban areas of the country forced the gang members to flee or seek more lucrative drug markets is one of the reasons. This proliferation in non-urban areas increasingly is accompanied by violence and is threatening society in general (NDIC, 2005). Questions such as why has youth gang involvement in drug trafficking increased in the past decade has still not being answered completely. The popular image of youth gangs ties them directly to drugs and violent crime (Klein, 1995). Research conducted in the 1980’s and 1990’s has documented extensive youth and adult gang member involvement in drug use and generally higher levels of use compared with non-gang members. According to Fagan (19–54) there are basically two reasons: (1) the dramatic expansion of cocaine markets in the 1980’s, accompanied by sharp price reductions, and (2) socioeconomic changes in American society that disrupted traditional social controls (Curry and Spergel, 381–405). Drug use, drug trafficking, and violence overlap considerably in gangs (Howell and Decker, in press). Moreover, gang involvement appears to increase individual involvement in drug use, drug trafficking, gun carrying, and violence and, perhaps, to prolong involvement in drug sales (Youth Gangs and Violence, 1998). There is no doubt that with the increase