Why Children Join Gangs

Gangs were first fabricated so that poor majorities in the ghetto neighborhoods could defend themselves against police brutality and outsiders. Gangs also known as sets would gain their name from the area that the gang reside in, which could be the street number or street name. Gangs are a class of adolescents and young adults whom possess a common identity and are involved in wrongful and criminal behavior. Majority of gang members tend to be young adults, however, According to recent trends children are being recruited into gangs at a much earlier age, some when they are in elementary school. At that stage they are easier to attract and more vulnerable. According to the Department of Justice, gang activity usually take place in big cities but in the recent years gang activities and violence is making its way across in smaller towns and rural areas. Gangs don’t discriminate because they are fabricated with “[p]eople of every gender, race, culture and socioeconomic group”1. (The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.) Majority of Gang member are young adolescences that lack parental supervision, I believe that with an increase in supervision there would be a decrease in young children joining gangs and gang activity.

According to Marcus Hoover, “In the United
There are many motives towards why adolescents join gangs, some do it to feel a sense of connection or to define who they are. Others are motivated by peer pressure, a need to protect themselves and their family, because a family member also is in a gang, or to make money. One of the worst effects of gang membership is the exposure to violence. Gang members are normally pressured into committing crime to become part of the gang. Crimes such as robbery, stabbing a rival gang member. There are many consequences of gang membership and those consequences are exposure to drugs and violence, imprisonment and even death. That is not the life that you