At the beginning of the course, you wrote a journal entry in which you reflected on your previous personal experiences (or lack thereof) with gangs and organized crime groups. Throughout the course, y

At the beginning of the course, you wrote a journal entry in which you reflected on your previous personal experiences (or lack thereof) with gangs and organized crime groups. Throughout the course, you have gained a greater understanding about the origins, scope, tactics, and activities of these criminal organizations as well as prevention and intervention strategies to combat them. Now you revisit your initial entry based on what you have learned.

that addresses the following:

· Given what you now know about gangs and organized crime groups, explain your previous personal experiences with these groups. What factors may have led to your experiences? Were there adequate prevention and intervention strategies in place?

· If you have never had any previous personal experiences with gangs or organized crime groups, what factors may have protected you against interactions with these groups? What types of prevention and intervention strategies were in place?

Howell, J. C., & Griffiths, E. (2018). Gangs in America’s communities (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

• Chapter 9, “What Works: Prevention” (pp.      253–280)

Community Tool Box. (n.d.). Section 2. Writing letters to the editor. Retrieved May 4, 2019, from https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/advocacy/direct-action/letters-to-editor/main

Dong, B., & Krohn, M. D. (2016). Escape from violence: What reduces the enduring consequences of adolescent gang affiliation? Journal of Criminal Justice, 47, 41–50. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2016.07.002  

Jennings-Bey, T., Lane, S. D., Rubinstein, R. A., Bergen-Cico, D., Haygood-El, A., Hudson, H., . . . Fowler, F. L. (2015). The trauma response team: A community intervention for gang violence. Journal of Urban Health, 92(5), 947–954. doi:10.1007/s11524-015-9978-8  

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2014, April). Gang prevention. Retrieved from https://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/litreviews/Gang_Prevention.pdf

U.S. Department of Justice. (2013). Changing course: Preventing gang membership. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/239234.pdf