Gang Violence In America
... I think this because I am in a gang and do, or did drugs. ... In my gang for instance, we have five Caucasians, the rest of us are either black, latino, or dark like me. However, we do not have any asians in our gang. ... Theres a gang that is called The Satanic Cult, which is into some pretty weird rituals. ... A lot of the gang members come from broken homes, or something is wrong. So the kids end up in gangs doing drugs, drinking, smoking, committing crimes, and getting into violence. Some of us consider our gang "family. ... I got jumped into my gang. ... Teenage gang members are linked to conventional barrio life is obvious. ... This linkage is usually overlooked in researchers preoccupation with the life of the gang during the hours that it bands together. We can understand only a little bit of this interaction from what the gang members have to say about their square contacts. ... It is true that about half of the gang members had some relative in some gang (44 percent of the men and 59 percent of the women). ... It is true that a fraction (less than 20 percent) of the gang members came from what seem to be "gang families"-with three or more relatives in a gang in either neighborhood. ... No matter what particular social network led the member to the gang, one thing is clear: the gangs initiation procedures became far more ritualized. By the time the younger cliques were active, most of the boys and girls were "jumped" into the gang, in an initiation rite in which the recruit is tested for his/her ability to stand up in a fight. ... The gang asked prospects to join and that was it. ... While there were still many social routes to enter the gang, the younger cliques contained more men and women with relatives who had been gang members.