Write an essay on one aspect of the contemporary human geography of North America that demands improvement

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Write an essay on one aspect of the contemporary human geography of North America that demands improvement.

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As the United States of America moves into the new millennium the self styled ‘leader of the free world’ faces a highly complex problem that is threatening to destroy the fabric of its unique urban society. This problem has been developing for many years and has become entwined into the core of American society to such a point where it has virtually become accepted as the norm to the millions of people whose quality of life has been greatly reduced by it. The problem in its most simple form is crime, however, this is evident as a problem that demands improvement in nearly every country throughout the world, so this essay will look closely at the crime problem that has become synonymous with modern day urban America – gang crime.

        To fully understand the detrimental impacts of gang related crime upon the United States one must first have a good knowledge of the meaning and definition of a gang and the rise of gang crime through American urban history. The Oxford English dictionary states that a gang is ‘a set of workmen, slaves or prisoners; set of associates, especially for criminal purposes’. This definition in the broadest terms indicates that a gang is a group of people working or going about together, however, when defining the term gang in relation to crime it is important to note the difficulty in reaching an overall classification.

 Different groups such as the police, media and government can use the word gang in various ways that enable them to come to their own conclusions that suit their own needs. For example the media may well broaden the concept of a gang to enhance news stories that will then read more dramatic and newsworthy. Possibly the most useful definition of a gang is that of Miller (1980) whose description of a youth gang sums up the thought behind these groups of people.

        “A youth gang is a self formed association of peers, bound together by mutual interests, with identifiable leadership, well developed lines of authority, and other organisational features, who act in concert to achieve a specific purpose or purposes which generally include the conduct of illegal activity and control over a particular territory, facility, or type of enterprise.”    Miller, W.B (1980) Gangs in America pg:121

The development of the gang crime story in urban American history has seen many different chapters that whilst all varying in terms of location, scale and personnel involved, are all brought on by the same fallacies of urbanization. The modern settlement system of the United States of America has developed over the last 400 years from the early European pioneers initially based on the east coast. The pioneers were the catalyst of the unparalleled emergence of small towns, some of which were eventually to grow into today’s metropolitan areas. As the frontier reached further into the western areas of America more settlements began to appear on the landscape, and so began the process of urbanisation.

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The first signs of gang activity were becoming apparent during the late 19th century as urban America began to develop into two widely contrasting and disconnected societies. The two societies consisted of the poor and the affluent. Goldfield and Brownell (1979) indicate how, during the end of the 19th century, the poor residents of New York became tangled in a downward spiral caused by poverty.

        “The urban poor constituted a large segment of the urban population. The poor encountered staggering obstacles due to the very fact they were poor. In what became a perverse cycle, these obstacles, in turn, served to ...

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