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Was an abstract cloud of violence brutalizing these communities? Or was it people? Where did these people come from?
Typically the pattern is unorganized crime-> gangs-> reduction in random street crime-> organized crime problems. A bit like using fireants as a pest control tool- it's retarded because you now have worse problems, but it does work at the original problem.
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How do you behave when living among violent people? Bullies only respect power. You speak to violent people in the language they understand. This is what continues to perpetuate the cycle of violence. Why did the kids I know join or remain adjacent to gangs growing up? For the same reason I did. You had to do it to survive.
If you just want the single factor hereditarian explanation to do all the work for you, you’ve still got to answer the question of why these same people also leave gangs all the time when they have the chance to get out.
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