Headlines often tell of school shootings, gang violence, home invasions and other serious crimes committed by youths. Although youth homicides declined by 68% between 1993 and 1999, and are at their lowest rate since 1966, 62% of the public believes that youth crime is on the rise.

According to a recent NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, two-thirds of Americans think juveniles under age 13 who commit murder should be tried as adults. Also, in a 1995 survey conducted by Sam Houston State University, a majority of the public favoured sentencing many young offenders in adult court rath

For many students school has become a gathering place for gangs, where guns, drugs, and violence are a part of the daily educational landscape. Crime in and around schools threatens the well-being of students, school staff, and communities, and while the school is a place of learning almost every 6 seconds there is a crime being committed at school. Types of criminal incidents that happen include murder, suicide, rape or other type of sexual battery, assault or fight with a weapon, robbery, assault or fight without a weapon, theft/ larceny, and vandalism. Data from the National Crime Victimization Survey School Crime Supplement indicate that the percentage of students reporting gangs in schools increased by 100% between 1985 and 1995. I am certain that schools in urban, poor,

disorganized communities experience more crimes than other schools, due to the availability of gangs in the region (other causes of criminal incidents happening in schools are the availability of drugs, weapons, and peer pressure). Many will ask the question why a person would join a gang, but the answer is very simple. Gangs are a form of youthful association that arise in the slum areas between the central and industrial areas of the city. The main driving force for their formation is the social disorganization of these areas, character

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