Word: valdivia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...that gangs are a social and economic problem and prevention is as important as punishment, funds for programs to keep kids out of gangs and the criminal-justice system are still hard to find. "You don't need to spend five of every six dollars on suppression," says Steve Valdivia, who runs L.A.'s Community Youth Gang Services Project with a budget of $1.8 million. "If you spend two of every six on prevention, the results square themselves over time." The idea, he says, is to treat gangs like a "social disease" for which there are prevention-oriented, educational...
...replace the things that are missing in gang-ridden communities. "No more than 10% of any gang are hard-core, shoot-'em-up, hope-to-die criminals," Valdivia says. "But you won't find the Boy Scouts in South Central L.A. Most kids join gangs because that's what there is to join." And, like diseases, gangs can be contagious. According to University of Southern California gang expert Malcolm W. Klein, in 1961 there were 23 cities with known street gangs nationwide. Today there are 187. Practically every state has some kind of gang problem. Nor is it limited...
...Southern California that was a logical step for the young Cambodians to take. "You land in a gang neighborhood, it might seem natural to form a militia to defend yourself," explains Steve Valdivia, director of Los Angeles County's Community Youth Gang Services Project. Nearly all the state's street gangs started out copying Hispanic "cholo" (lowlife) styles. Scholars trace Hispanic gangs back to the 1920s, when Roman Catholic parishes organized social clubs for children who felt unwelcome at white high school dances. Despite drive-by shootings and drug trafficking, the gangs were tolerated as a "community" issue for half...