Chapter 21:
End Note
All relatively modern explanations for human behavior suggest that people behave the way they do
either as a result of
their own choice or in response to various forces which
determine their behavior for them. Those who accept the former theory
(choice) believe in free will. Those who accept the latter explanation
(various forces determine how humans behave) believe in determinism. Those
who believe both are called soft-determinists. I would like to briefly explore each of these
in light of the gang situation.
Free Will vs. Determinism
Free Will
According to those who believe in free will:
 | people choose
to behave the way they do. There are no forces within or
outside themselves which compel them to act one way or another.
|
 | people are hedonistic -
they prefer pleasure over pain. People behave the way they do
because they believe the way they have chosen to behave will
bring them more pleasure than pain.
|
 | people are rational.
They choose from a variety of ways to behave so as to maximize
pleasure and reduce pain. The process of choosing how to behave
is a rational one. |
|
Why Gangs Form
According to Free Will Theorists
Those who believe in free would accept the notion that people form
gangs because they want to and others join them for the same reason.
They would reject the notion that there are forces which act upon people and force
them to form or join a gang. People join gangs because they believe they
will gain more pleasure
then pain by joining the gang and by participating in its activities.
The
process through which the individual passes along the way to becoming a
gang member would be viewed as a rational one. If individuals think gang
membership will benefit their situation in life, they will join a gang. If an
individual joins a gang as a result of coercion (i.e., being forced to join
by rivals), then joining was a rational decision in order to avoid the pain
of not joining. No matter what, the individual has free will ... people choose
their course in life and are personally responsible for their decisions.
How to Reduce Gang Formation
According to Free Will Theorists
Were someone who believes in free will to entertain ways in which to
solve the gang situation they would likely choose to do two things: increase
the number of choices individuals have to make and/or increase the degree of
punishment they suffer as a consequence of their inappropriate behavior.
Some individuals who become involved in gang activity do so because they
are unaware of other ways to fulfill the same needs that joining a gang may
fulfill or they are denied access to them. Through the offering of other opportunities (i.e., summer
employment, job training, remedial education), potential gang members may
choose socially appropriate ways to earn income, gain respect and power, and
therefore decide against joining a gang.
If, as free will thinkers' believe,
most people are rational, then the rational thing for them to do is
to choose to reach the socially legitimated goal (financial success) using legitimate means rather than
illegitimate ones - providing the residents and social institutions in the
community allow them to do so. Where the individual encounters barriers
(i.e., discrimination), it is the community which needs to be changed.
A person who believes in free will may also suggest increasing the
punishment meted out for being in a gang. That would be another rational thing to do. Increasing the pain associated with being in
a gang should discourage hedonistic people from being involved in them. In order to get
gang members to cease and desist in their gang behavior one should increase the
pain associated with gang affiliation. What needs to be changed is the individual's calculation of
pleasure and pain.
As the concept of free will developed, the notion that everyone had free
will and was rational was abandoned in favor of the notion
that most people have free will and most were rational. The people who did not have free will and/or were irrational included the
mentally deficient, the very young ("too young to know better")
and other misfits. For them, no pain would be sufficient to alter their
behavior as they lacked the free will or rationality to respond to it
meaningfully. For them, treatment, instead of punishment and the pain it
causes, would be the wiser course of action.
Application
I find the free will explanation for gang formation and gang joining
useful for people who do, in fact, have free will. If everyone has an
equal opportunity to get a good education and enter the job market on an
even playing field, then the free will explanation makes sense. If,
however, someone (or a class of people) is denied access to a good education or a good job, then
the free will explanation is only a justification for punishing the unfortunate.
Determinism
Determinists believe most human behavior is determined by forces outside
the control of the individual - in other words, people do not have
free will. They believe the forces that determine the way people
behave are:
 |
biological
(one's biological make-up determines how he or she
behaves),
|
 |
psychological
(one's psychological make-up or personality determines
how one will behave), and/or
|
 | socio-cultural
(one's social situation or culture determines how
he or she will behave). |
|
Why Gangs Form
According to Determinists
According to determinists, gangs form and people join them as a result of
biological, psychological, and/or socio-cultural pressures. There is little
in the research which speaks to biological determinism as regards gangs. It
would be a stretch, for example, to suggest that one somatotype or body type
(i.e., Sheldon's [1944]
typology of the muscular or mesomorphic body type, overweight or
endomorphic type, or slender and frail ectomorphic type) is more likely to
get involved in a gang than another or that neurological or biological deficiencies
which may result in poor academic performance also cause certain people to
form a gang or join one.
There is, however, much that could be said about psychological and
socio-cultural reasons for gang formation and gang joining. Among the
psychological explanations are the influence of pathological
offenders, forming or joining a gang in response to fear,
or for increasing one's level of self-esteem.
Socio-cultural explanations abound and include the need to: identify a rite
of passage from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to young
adulthood when socially acceptable rites of passage are unavailable; address
feelings of economic
deprivation; for close
personal ties, unconditional love, and discipline; feel
as though one has control of an otherwise uncontrollable social
environment; and to
be active, even if the activity is criminal. Maslow, too, has much to
offer in terms of the individual's need
to satisfy certain personal and social needs before progressing
satisfactorily to self-actualization. And in terms of learning, a favorite
social explanation for behavior, the influence
of migrating gang members , mass
media, and positive role
models can not be overlooked.
How to Reduce Gang Formation
According to Determinists
From a determinist's perspective, the only way to effectively reduce the
tendency for gangs to form and for people to join them would be to:
 | identify and modify
the biological, physiological, or neurological traits
responsible for gang formation and gang joining or
isolate/eliminate individuals who possess them;
|
 | provide therapy
to individuals with psychological disturbances which create a tendency to form or join a gang, to prevent
others from developing similar disturbances, or
isolate/eliminate people who are disturbed; and/or
|
 | identify and modify
the social and cultural forces which cause some
individuals to form or join a gang. |
|
While the option of isolating or eliminating people who exhibit certain biological or
psychological abnormalities may sound drastic, that is one approach to the
gang phenomenon and is referred to as suppression.
Our willingness (and perhaps need) to arrest and either incarcerate or
execute certain gang members is part and parcel of our nation's social
policy regarding gangs.
As for psychological and socio-cultural explanations for human behavior,
they reflect the majority opinion as to why gangs form and why certain
youths join them and are the backbone of solutions
described in Into the Abyss.
Application
I support the determinist's position that there are forces over which
individuals may not have control. I need only consider the power of
socio-cultural forces such as gender, social class, age, and
discrimination as they impact people and their lives to understand why
some youths may form or join a gang to accomplish their goal - whatever it
may be.
Soft Determinism
Soft determinists accept that people are at the mercy of biological,
psychological, and social or cultural forces but that, in the end, each is
responsible for determining how he or she responds to the situations life
presents. For soft determinists, punishment for wrong doing followed by
treatment makes sense. And prevention makes the most sense of all.
I entertained the notion of including a section on sociological or
criminological theories of gang formation, but there are precious few and
they are all contested.
Instead, there are a multiplicity of theories about why some people violate
the law. Jankowski (1991) makes note of this fact.
The sociological literature on gangs offers a number
of theories, but a close look at each of these indicates that they are
really theories about delinquency and not theories about gangs per se.
They are therefore sociological theories of crime rather than sociological
theories of the gang. This has included what each has focused on, and it
has produced similar and limited explanations concerning the behavior of
gangs and why they persist. (Jankowski,
1991, p. 21)
A good theory has as its key features the ability to predict future
events and explain phenomenon both broadly in scope and with great
precision. There are no such theories of either why gangs form or why
certain youths join them. Into the Abyss, in fact, is unique in its
focus on why
gangs form, but the explanations it offers do not rise to the level of
"theory." I don't know if any explanation of human behavior
ever will.
Free Will, Determinism, and
Solutions
The next section of Into the Abyss focuses on ways to reduce gang
activity and youth violence - solutions, if you will. Free will and
deterministic explanations for human behavior provide a frame of reference
for understanding the reasoning for implementing one solution or another.
Prevention (i.e., education programs), for example, is based upon the notion
of free will. Once educated about the dangers of being in a gang, it is
assumed the people being educated will use their rational abilities and
determine that joining a gang will bring more pain than pleasure, hence,
they will not join. Suppression works on the same principle in hopes that
increasing the pain associated with being in a gang (i.e., arrest, being
stigmatized as a gang member/offender, incarceration and loss of freedom)
will result in leaving the gang.
Solutions which speak to changes other than in gang members (i.e.,
efforts to reduce racial and ethnic discrimination, improve schools,
increase job opportunities) are built upon the deterministic notion that
forces in a society or culture influence how its members behave. Offering
psychological counseling, too, is based upon the determinist notion that
one's behavior is determined by his or her psychological make-up. A soft
determinist may suggest that these forces (social or psychological) impact
the choices the individual has to make.
The point is that for a solution to make sense, it should be built either
upon a free will or deterministic interpretation of why gangs form or a
combination of both.