Gangs and youth violence

Abstract

Is there anyone who could have no opinion regarding the increase of delinquency in the streets? Is there anyone who does not agree with the idea on what young people are supposedly today and with what is believed to be happening in this important social group? Social studies have presented different angles of this phenomena and, in spite of proposals being formulated for the reintegration of these juvenile groups a doubt now emerges. To which society does one wish to integrate them if they have never belonged to one? It is a fact that, at present, government social policies are in general dissociated from and, often, in open antagonism to the efforts carried out by the civil society. Has the time come to rethink the role of the State vis-à-vis the existing chaotic reality? There are neighborhoods where violence is a way of life and the residents have to adopt this attitude to combat violence with violence. Is it not possible to join the concepts of youth and culture with the definition of a public social policy which foresees these scenarios? This article seeks to answer some of these questions.