Jobs Remain the Fundamental

A team of university-affiliated medical researchers has reached a conclusion about Los Angeles gang violence that bears a striking similarity to a White House aide’s view of a national problem 32 years ago. That aide was Daniel Patrick Moynihan, now the senior senator from New York.

The Democrat’s seminal 1965 report, “The Negro Family: A Case for National Action,” declared that the high percentage of out-of-wedlock births would probably be unchecked unless government and the nation took action to create more job opportunities. Moynihan also noted the importance of role models in calling for male teachers to seek to serve as good examples for boys.

It’s now clear that Moynihan’s warning applies to no particular racial group but to all Americans stuck at the bottom.

The new research points to the job factor as a prime cause of the growth of criminal gangs in Los Angeles. High unemployment rates and low per capita income, the report said, are the greatest contributors to gang violence.

Achieving the obvious solution, getting affected kids into jobs, is complicated. Persuading businesses to relocate in troubled neighborhoods or to expand there is always difficult, and finding work for former or potential gang members will be even harder now that employment must be found for many thousands of former welfare recipients.

Moreover, jobs are not the only issue; two other factors also must be addressed. One that is particularly intractable is the sense among an alarming number of youths that they have no future. They have seen too many deaths and have come to accept lethal violence as something they always must face. They have become convinced that their lives will be brief and probably will be ended by murder. That’s why a disillusioned youngster might reject a job paying slightly above minimum wage, turning instead to the immediate gratification of gang-related drug crime.

Finally, youths are driven to gangs when gang leaders are the only authority figures who offer them responsibility, trust and a sense of power and involvement. That kind of warped and anti-social mentoring has to be replaced; honest, successful adults will have to come forward to provide role models. The gang members need to be able to see that low-paying, entry-level jobs are not the end of the line.