Pretty vague question. It was always pretty concentrated in certain small pockets. From my understanding it’s better now though. Not like most would know, I and probably 99% of the population have not had any experience with gangs
Matters like these are on a city-by-city basis. I wouldn’t say the country as a whole ever had a “gang problem”. I’ll refrain from commenting on a “crack problem” since I don’t think I’m knowledgeable enough to speak on that
Gang activity still exists, but it isn’t nor has it ever been as bad as 80s movies would have you believe. In general, violent crime peaked in the 1990s and has been going down ever since. Whenever the media talks about “gang activity”, it’s usually just a dog whistle for minorities = bad.
It was overblown even when it was somewhat of a problem. Crime rates are sharply down from the peaks in the 80s and 90s. People who want to push through stupid actions like to pretend it’s still a problem, though, but they are delusional and paranoid.
Some cities still have gang problems, but nothing like the ones from the 1980s. New York’s homicide rate has dropped 80%. LA by 75%. Meth is more popular than crack these days in both urban and rural areas.
The demographics of gangs have shifted from african american ones to now latino (though ones of all races still exist). It’s mostly ones imported from South America that already existed there and migrated north with the drug trade. Violent crime is down in general, though its still a serious problem in parts of a number of cities still.
Crack usage seems to have gone down. I think in general it got replaced with meth as it can simply be made in a lab and you don’t have to grow a plant, and now there’s fentanyl that’s a huge issue (though opiate ODs went down last year, lets hope its a trend!). Hard drug usage in the US has been down when looking at long term trends but fentanyl has been making it deadlier in the past decade.
Very vague and oddly-worded question, but I’ll give it a go.
The homicide rate is no where nearly where it was in the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s. Have a look here at this article, and scroll down to the graph that shows the national homicide rate form 1960 to 2023.
The reason for the decline, no one really knows, but various things have been suggested: from the tougher policing that was introduced in many jurisdictions the 1990s (such as California’s “3 strikes” law), to the fact that the Supreme Court legalizing abortion on demand across the entire US in 1973 may have prevented unwanted children from being born, who may have turned into violent teens & young adults by the 1990s. (And now that was “brilliantly” overturned in 2022. I honestly believe there’s merit in this argument, but there are many people that say no.).
In more recent years, there was a small spike in 2020 -the year of Covid, which also coincided with Black Lives Matter protests- which Republicans mostly tried to capitalize on politically, by trying to position themselves as better on crime, and the Democratic party as soft on crime (even though Donald Trump was in office in 2020, Republicans tried to blame Democratic local governments. And it was also disingenuous, as both political parties were talking about bail and prison reforms). However, As you can also see, that 2020 spike dissipated and fell to a more normal level by 2023. Sociologists attributed the 2020 spike simply to people not working and having more opportunity to commit violence (such as domestic violence).
I know political questions usually get deleted, and I’m not trying to be partisan I actually think both sides (and sadly, we only have two “sides”) have been very dishonest surrounding these issues. For example, while Republicans tend to overexaggerate & misrepresent crime stats (in order to get voters fired up over immigration, voters who might otherwise not really care about immigration), it’s also true that many Democratic voters of the upper-middle-class kind, tend to be very oblivious to it, wherever it does occur. And this is because many people in America, of all stripes, live in bubbles, through no fault of their own.
Which brings me to answer your question:
No, in the vast majority of America, you don’t have to worry about walking down the street and being caught in a gang warfare. The gang activity is confined to specific pockets, and even if you visit these pockets (as I sometimes have to do for work), you are very unlikely to be bothered by anyone or harmed. It’s not 1991.
However, if you live in such an area, this is a serious issue that affects many teenagers from broken families, whose parents don’t care. And it gets into the schools, and there’s fights, and the normal students are scared, and it affects school performance and…before you know it, the middle class flees that neighborhood, because they don’t want their kids in that environment. And -this is the hard truth- many of these broken kids are not rehabilitatable, and that’s a social taboo. So, we’re in a tough spot, and the political system is too divided and broken to brainstorm an honest solution that -gasp for Republicans!!- may cost some tax dollars and -gasp for Democrats!!- may require admitting some cold hard truths, that some people are just not rehabilitatable, and forgiving a 14 year old’s transgressions will only encourage more of it.
As for crack:
I think maybe you’ve been watching too many movies about 1980s America? I don’t know anything about crack. The crack epidemic was in the 1980s. And, btw, the CIA was selling crack to its own citizens. Yeah. I guess the more recent equivalent to that is the opioids epidemic, which the pharmaceutical industry may have created. But I don’t now enough on this specific subject.
Yes, we have gangs, but so does just about any country. Drug trafficking has been and will continue to be a problem so long as there is demand. The real problem we’re facing is drugs laced with fentanyl, it’s a major killer.
As far as drugs and gangs being a problem for the everyday person, it’s all easy to avoid. Stay out of trouble, stay away from illegal drugs, especially selling them, and stay away from dangerous neighborhoods at night, and you won’t have problems. That’s pretty much true for any country.
Comments
I have no idea what that even means.
Pretty vague question. It was always pretty concentrated in certain small pockets. From my understanding it’s better now though. Not like most would know, I and probably 99% of the population have not had any experience with gangs
It was always blown way out of proportion as an excuse to imprison POC.
[deleted]
Matters like these are on a city-by-city basis. I wouldn’t say the country as a whole ever had a “gang problem”. I’ll refrain from commenting on a “crack problem” since I don’t think I’m knowledgeable enough to speak on that
Better than the nineties, but there are still significant gang problems in the inner cities.
Crack was always more of an urban drug. While it’s not as prevalent as it was in the 80s and 90s, it’s still not hard to find.
Gangs still exist, but violent crime has generally gone down since the early 1990s.
Gangs are only a real danger to each other.
Gang activity still exists, but it isn’t nor has it ever been as bad as 80s movies would have you believe. In general, violent crime peaked in the 1990s and has been going down ever since. Whenever the media talks about “gang activity”, it’s usually just a dog whistle for minorities = bad.
“over there” from where?
It was overblown even when it was somewhat of a problem. Crime rates are sharply down from the peaks in the 80s and 90s. People who want to push through stupid actions like to pretend it’s still a problem, though, but they are delusional and paranoid.
Do you mean compared to the 80s? Um, well instead of crack you got meth and fentanyl so no that’s not better.
I don’t ever encounter gang issues. I’ve read there’s a gang in my town, but I’ve driven through the supposed gang area and it looks fine to me.
Some cities still have gang problems, but nothing like the ones from the 1980s. New York’s homicide rate has dropped 80%. LA by 75%. Meth is more popular than crack these days in both urban and rural areas.
The demographics of gangs have shifted from african american ones to now latino (though ones of all races still exist). It’s mostly ones imported from South America that already existed there and migrated north with the drug trade. Violent crime is down in general, though its still a serious problem in parts of a number of cities still.
Crack usage seems to have gone down. I think in general it got replaced with meth as it can simply be made in a lab and you don’t have to grow a plant, and now there’s fentanyl that’s a huge issue (though opiate ODs went down last year, lets hope its a trend!). Hard drug usage in the US has been down when looking at long term trends but fentanyl has been making it deadlier in the past decade.
I didn’t even know we had a game problem tbh. But there’s definitely a lot less crackheads walking around. Meth heads are the new problem.
Very vague and oddly-worded question, but I’ll give it a go.
The homicide rate is no where nearly where it was in the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s. Have a look here at this article, and scroll down to the graph that shows the national homicide rate form 1960 to 2023.
The reason for the decline, no one really knows, but various things have been suggested: from the tougher policing that was introduced in many jurisdictions the 1990s (such as California’s “3 strikes” law), to the fact that the Supreme Court legalizing abortion on demand across the entire US in 1973 may have prevented unwanted children from being born, who may have turned into violent teens & young adults by the 1990s. (And now that was “brilliantly” overturned in 2022. I honestly believe there’s merit in this argument, but there are many people that say no.).
In more recent years, there was a small spike in 2020 -the year of Covid, which also coincided with Black Lives Matter protests- which Republicans mostly tried to capitalize on politically, by trying to position themselves as better on crime, and the Democratic party as soft on crime (even though Donald Trump was in office in 2020, Republicans tried to blame Democratic local governments. And it was also disingenuous, as both political parties were talking about bail and prison reforms). However, As you can also see, that 2020 spike dissipated and fell to a more normal level by 2023. Sociologists attributed the 2020 spike simply to people not working and having more opportunity to commit violence (such as domestic violence).
I know political questions usually get deleted, and I’m not trying to be partisan I actually think both sides (and sadly, we only have two “sides”) have been very dishonest surrounding these issues. For example, while Republicans tend to overexaggerate & misrepresent crime stats (in order to get voters fired up over immigration, voters who might otherwise not really care about immigration), it’s also true that many Democratic voters of the upper-middle-class kind, tend to be very oblivious to it, wherever it does occur. And this is because many people in America, of all stripes, live in bubbles, through no fault of their own.
Which brings me to answer your question:
No, in the vast majority of America, you don’t have to worry about walking down the street and being caught in a gang warfare. The gang activity is confined to specific pockets, and even if you visit these pockets (as I sometimes have to do for work), you are very unlikely to be bothered by anyone or harmed. It’s not 1991.
However, if you live in such an area, this is a serious issue that affects many teenagers from broken families, whose parents don’t care. And it gets into the schools, and there’s fights, and the normal students are scared, and it affects school performance and…before you know it, the middle class flees that neighborhood, because they don’t want their kids in that environment. And -this is the hard truth- many of these broken kids are not rehabilitatable, and that’s a social taboo. So, we’re in a tough spot, and the political system is too divided and broken to brainstorm an honest solution that -gasp for Republicans!!- may cost some tax dollars and -gasp for Democrats!!- may require admitting some cold hard truths, that some people are just not rehabilitatable, and forgiving a 14 year old’s transgressions will only encourage more of it.
As for crack:
I think maybe you’ve been watching too many movies about 1980s America? I don’t know anything about crack. The crack epidemic was in the 1980s. And, btw, the CIA was selling crack to its own citizens. Yeah. I guess the more recent equivalent to that is the opioids epidemic, which the pharmaceutical industry may have created. But I don’t now enough on this specific subject.
Yes, we have gangs, but so does just about any country. Drug trafficking has been and will continue to be a problem so long as there is demand. The real problem we’re facing is drugs laced with fentanyl, it’s a major killer.
As far as drugs and gangs being a problem for the everyday person, it’s all easy to avoid. Stay out of trouble, stay away from illegal drugs, especially selling them, and stay away from dangerous neighborhoods at night, and you won’t have problems. That’s pretty much true for any country.