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Professor Beaman
HD 300
2016 June 26
According to the United States Census Bureau, there are about 55 million Latinos who
reside in the United States, as of July 2014, making Latino people the largest ethnic or racial
“minority” group. Though I do not consider Latinos a minority, I am proud to acknowledge that
we are growing, not only in numbers but also thriving through our culture. Unfortunately for me,
as a Latina woman who comes from East Los Angeles, we are not always recognized for the
progression we are making, but for the violence that swallows are communities. I have met many
people across my life, that are not from Los Angeles, and as soon as they hear I am from East
L.A. I see wide eyes, twisted mouths and confused eyebrows with comments and questions such
as: “How scary!” “Oh my gosh, and you still live there?” “Like, in the hood?” Although, there
are gangs and violence surrounding me, it is something I personally feel has made me a much
stronger person, wiser on the streets and given me a purpose to pursue change in my own
community for the future generations of East L.A. youth. This topic hits close to home to me
because of what I have personally witnessed and still currently deal with. In the past years, many
“anti-gang” policies and programs have been put into place that push youth to be tried as adults,
zero tolerance measures and gang injunctions backfire and seem to only worsen a youth’s
experience. I personally believe more research should be conducted into how to impact the
Latino youth and redirect them towards a more positive route, giving them a chance to develop
and reflect from their experiences, also figuring out in what was prevention beforehand can
impact the youth. I believe, if efforts are put towards redirection and prevention than
condemning them to prison, there would be a greater development of sustainable adults with life
skills that could contribute to the economy rather than the states spending an estimate of over
According to some studies I found, some research was conducted in regards to the factor
of family relationships to youth, links to peers already involved in violence and the likeliness of
self control. Self-control towards aggression and violence. According to one study, aggression is
influenced by interactions with family, peers and the surrounding neighborhood. Depending on
what they experience, as far as consequences or benefits it may lead to what will become of their
habit when dealing with challenges in their life. (Forster, 2015) Although a major factor to the
habits that are learned by children as they grow are affected by those people they surround
themselves with, a preventative measure can consist of school and community. Many children
may be growing up with absent adult figures in their lives and somehow that void should be
attempted to be filled with positive role models that can provide skill building to the youth.
“Because recruitment and retention of family members in prevention and intervention programs
has been challenging, evaluations of school-based programs that provide cognitive and emotional
skills training for youth living in deviant family contexts are important areas of future prevention
Now with all these factors that affect youth to grow habits of aggression and violence,
specifically Latino youth fall into a major percentage across the U.S. According to Examining
the influence of family environments on youth violence, “Violence is the second leading cause of
death among this population… in 2006, the homicide rate among Latino youth was 8.6 compared
to 1.6 among non-Latino Whites.” (Estrada-Martinez, 2010) This study moves to a breakdown
comparison of sub-Latino groups of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban, alongside White and
Black subjects. These sub groups were studied to have a more detailed look into not only Latinos
as a whole, but individual nationalities and how they might differ from each other. Although sub
grouping is an interesting way to find out more about what drives Latino youth to violence, it is
not researching across to more detailed topics of what may help to strengthen a prevention for
youth. Even after this study, there was no consistent evidence that was found regarding youth
violence among Latino youth. However, one thing did stand out, just as the other studies: the
familial factor plays a major part with Latino youth. Just in like in much of the research we have
come across, another states “In a study involving Latino youth, using Miller et al.’s data set,
Alvarez-Rivera and Fox [2010] found that weak attachments to parents, religion, and school
were related to deviant behavior but low self-control was not.” (Flexon, 2010) Learning now that
family is one of the key factors to the influence of self-control, aggression and violence. What
role do other factors play? Children surround themselves with family for the beginning of their
lives, up until they enter the school systems. School is the 2nd home for most youth.
the school-to-prison pipeline, over the past few decades, school systems in the U.S. have instilled
zero-tolerance policies in order to harshly discipline youth who threaten the “safety” of the
schools. This policy began as punishments for dealing with fire arm situations, but across time it
has expanded to be used for other incidents that are not as serious. But other than making the
schools safe, it is only pushing youth to spiral into more misbehavior. “For children of color,
particularly Latinos and African Americans, the effects associated with zero-tolerance policies
multiply the barriers to academic and career success that are already present in their lives.
Students who have experienced suspension or expulsion are more than eight times as likely to be
incarcerated as those who graduate. Dropouts are far more likely to face reduced job and income
making them unstainable adults able to contribute to the country’s economy. This article moves
on to describe what certain school systems are doing in order to bring restorative justice,
dropping the rate of referrals of youth. Though some schools are moving towards restorative
justice and the discipline carried out to address misbehavior, prevention and guidance is also an
element in where schools and communities alike can contribute towards the redirection of youth.
In an article by Ryan Coller and Alicia Kuo, they discuss the role a school-based mentoring
program can play in Latino youth in Los Angeles. “High-quality mentoring relationships have
promoted child health through improvements in academic performance, positive feelings of self-
worth, perceived social acceptance, relationships with others, and decreases in high-risk
behaviors like alcohol/tobacco use and violence.” (2013) Most of these mentoring relationships
have proved successful, it was discovered that youth begin to benefit after a solid year of
mentoring. These types of program serve as a preventative measure that will help gear a child
towards trust in a role model, and discover interest that may develop to talents. As Luis J.
Rodriguez, former gang member now author and poet describes in an interview, “The only way
to go is to do more things on what I call the front end. You got to do more in schools, more to
help families, do more with housing and after-school programs in the arts. They don't do enough
of anything on the front end. They put everything on the back end when kids are already lost and
The studies that were conducted were all different, but with several similarities. We came
to find out that family and those immediately surrounding a child are a major influence to the
habits they begin forming. These habits consist of aggression and violence that tend to lead the
approach when the youth deal with challenges in their life. Aside from family, the discipline
carried out in schools also has a major effect on Latino youth, and when it comes to harsh
policies it can back track them from positive behavior. Leaving the possibility of using programs
such as mentorship in schools to help support to guide the Latino youth, to create preventative
Throughout most of the studies, reading the data and how it was obtained was interesting.
The data that was gathered were like surveys, where the youth were asked questions with scales
and they had to fill it out with their own personal experience. Some studies even stated that a
certain amount of youth did not comply in participating, which comes to the questioning of the
authenticity of the data. However, one article regarding the tolerance in school, did contain
specific stories to some examples of what students had been arrested for, providing the readers
with evidence. Most of the studies did share actual numbers and percentages and broke the data
down by category. I believe that when these studies are done, especially the survey type should
be multiple times with the same subjects to weigh out the consistency and authenticity and
provide accurate results. Whichever way the data was collected, it is very important so people
may figure out what is causing youth to do certain things, what are possible preventions, and
Violence in Latino youth is a topic as real as the violence that occurs in our cities. After
many years of trying to figure out what should be done about it, it continues to happen. Some
strategies working more than others, some strategies hurting the progression. Each area carries
their own culture, not all Latino youth fall in the exact same category, more research needs to be
built on neighborhoods specifically. The Latino youth in Los Angeles, is not guaranteed to run
into the exact same situations as the Latino youth in Madison, with the same risk factors. More
focus should be made towards smaller groups in their area. Real observations and facts should be
the source of evidence, not just numbers and surveys. This is vital information that could really
direct programs, schools, families and agencies towards what is in need in those areas, rather
than just generalizing. Violence may never go away completely but with the right tools, it can be
prevented in youth. Youth that are involved in their communities, have role models they trust
and pursue their interests can grow into adults with lifelong skills that will be able to contribute
to their society with great citizenship. Through the research I did find, I came to the conclusion
that all the factors run in a domino effect, one thing leading to another. Until further research is
made, these studies can be used to begin bringing attention to what Latino youth need currently
Castillo, J. (2014). Tolerance in schools for latino students: Dismantling the school-to-prison
pipeline. Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, 26, 43-58. Retrieved from
https://tcsedsystem.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.tcsedsystem.idm.oclc.
org/docview/1618349164?accountid=34120
Coller, R. J., & Kuo, A. A. (2014). Youth development through mentorship: A los angeles
school-based mentorship program among latino children. Journal of Community Health,
39(2), 316-21. doi:http://dx.doi.org.tcsedsystem.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s10900-013-9762-1
Flexon, J. L., Greenleaf, R. G., & Lurigio, A. J. (2010). The Effects of Self-Control, Gang
Membership, and Parental Attachment/Identification on Police Contacts Among Latino and
African American Youths. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative
Criminology, 56(2), 218-238. doi:10.1177/0306624x10394116
Forster, M., Grigsby, T. J., Unger, J. B., & Sussman, S. (2015). Associations between gun
violence exposure, gang associations, and youth aggression: Implications for prevention and
intervention programs. Journal of Criminology,
doi:http://dx.doi.org.tcsedsystem.idm.oclc.org/10.1155/2015/963750
Independent Budget Office, New York City by the Numbers. (2013, August 27). Retrieved June
25, 2016, from http://ibo.nyc.ny.us/cgi-park2/?p=51
Morales, R. (2004, September 28). Interview with gang author Luis Rodriguez. Retrieved June
25, 2016, from http://lang.dailynews.com/socal/gangs/articles/sgvnp3_rodrigz.asp
U.S. Census Bureau, Your Geography Selections. (2014). Retrieved June 25, 2016, from
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productpreview.xhtml
pid=ACS_13_1YR_B03001