To express anger and frustration encountered daily in a life fuelled with poverty and joblessness and devoid of hope. Excitement and thrill. Looking for a surrogate family. Young people join gangs to receive the attention, affirmation, and protection they may feel they are lacking at home. Breakdown of traditional family units. Many youngsters do not have a positive adult role model. Many see domestic violence and alcohol and other drug use in the home. Lack of parental involvement and the absence of rules and family rituals allow older gang members to be viewed as authority figures by young teens and children.
Identity or recognition problems. Because of low self-worth and self-esteem, some youth join gangs seeking the status they lack due to unemployment or academic failure at school. If young people do not see themselves as intelligent, leaders, or star athletes, they join other groups where they feel they can excel.
Gang family history. Many street gang members carry on a family tradition established by siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, or cousins who they see as role models. Lack of alternatives. Some gang members wear certain designer labels to show their gang affiliation. Gang members often have tattoos.
Also, because gang violence frequently is glorified in rap music, young people involved in gangs often try to imitate the dress and actions of rap artists. Finally, because substance abuse is often a characteristic of gang members, young people involved in gang activity may exhibit signs of drug or alcohol use.
For more information on illicit drugs check out our web site at: www. Call to request NDIC products. N ational Drug Intelligence Center. Product No. January W hat is the relation between drugs and gangs? To Top What is the extent of gang operation and crime in the United States? When talking to your child about the risks of being in a gang, your approach will be more effective if you:. We will not reply to your feedback. Don't include any personal or financial information, for example National Insurance, credit card numbers, or phone numbers.
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For queries or advice about employment rights, contact the Labour Relations Agency. The preferred method of gang suppression today is the Department of Justice's "Weed and Seed" program. This combines police enforcement weeding out the worst gang members with community activism and economic opportunities seeding the neighborhood with the means to overcome negative conditions.
More than 3, Weed and Seed programs are active in the United States. In the words of former Crip gang member Kody Scott who had the gang name Monster , "When gang members stop their wars and find that there is no longer a need for their sets to exist, banging will cease.
But until then, all attempts by law enforcement to seriously curtail its forward motion will be in vain" [ ref ]. For lots more information on gangs, gang members and related topics, check out the links on the next page.
Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Legal System. How Street Gangs Work. According to a report by the Department of Justice, there are at least 21, gangs and more than , active gang members in the United States.
Many gangs exist mainly as a moneymaking enterprise. By committing thefts and dealing drugs, gang members can make relatively large amounts of money. People who are faced with a lack of money may turn to crime if they can't earn enough with a legitimate job. This partly explains why gangs exist in poor, rundown areas of cities. However, not everyone who is poor joins a gang, and not every gang member is poor. Peer pressure. Gang members tend to be young.
This is partly because gangs intentionally recruit teenagers, but it's also because young people are very susceptible to peer pressure. If they live in a gang-dominated area, or go to a school with a strong gang presence, they might find that many of their friends are joining gangs. It can be difficult for a teen to understand the harm that joining a gang can bring if he's worried about losing all of his friends.
Many teenagers do resist the temptation of gang membership, but for others it is easier to follow the crowd. Peer pressure is a driving force behind gang membership in affluent areas. With nothing else to occupy their time, youths sometimes turn to mischief to entertain themselves. If gangs are already present in the neighborhood, that can provide an outlet.
Alternatively, teenagers might form their own gangs. This is why many communities have tried to combat gangs by simply giving kids something to do. Dances, sports tournaments and other youth outreach programs can literally keep kids off the streets.
Unfortunately, many youths and even gang experts use boredom as an excuse. Authors of articles about gang violence often write something like, "There's nothing else to do where they live.
But for every teenager who gets bored and joins a gang, there are 10 who find positive, productive ways to spend their time. If poverty is a condition, despair is a state of mind. People who have always lived in poverty with parents who lived in poverty often see no chance of ever getting a decent job, leaving their poor neighborhood or getting an education.
They are surrounded by drugs and gangs, and their parents may be addicts or non-responsive. A neighborhood gang can seem like the only real family they'll ever have. Joining a gang gives them a sense of belonging and being a part of something important that they can't get otherwise.
In some cases, parents approve of their children joining gangs and may have been a member of the same gang in the past. Gang History " ". Gang history and gang life have been the subject of several popular films.
Image Courtesy Amazon. Saniya Shakur, formerly Kody "Monster" Scott, became a member of the Crips at 11 and stayed in the gang for 16 years. Image courtesy Amazon.
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