How to Understand Why Kids Join Gangs
Gangs are no longer a problem exlusively for the inner city, nor are they limited to any particular ethnic, socioeconomic or other category of people. Gangs are invading rural areas and they are actively recruiting in neighborhoods, playgrounds, ballparks, schools and on the Internet. Their success often depends on their ability to gain a foothold in a school or neighborhood undetected. Knowing the dynamics of how young people are seduced into gang membership may help concerned people head them into other arenas by stepping in and meeting the young people's needs in a far healthier way than a gangs will.
Instructions
Gangs deal in such blatant brutality that it's difficult to understand how anyone could be sucked into them at any age. People want to believe all kids are coerced or frightened into membership and though that's true for some, there's a deeper truth. Gangs exist and are growing, simply because gangs are meeting genuine human needs that appeal to young people, albeit in a dangerous and pathological way. Gangs provide for those needs, yot kids don't realize the dangers. What do gangs offer? They provide an immediate promise of belonging to something. Gang allegiance depends on members trading individuality for community. For a lonely young person, the feeling of belonging is very powerful. Suddenly, they aren't alone anymore. The gang becomes mother, father, brother and friend. Family, friends, church, sports, academics, and hobbies are suddenly set aside, as allegiance to the gang is all-consuming. Gangs maintain a sense of mystery and secrecy, and this is extremely appealing to young people. While gangs operate outside the law, the sheer excitement and mystery surrounding gang life is a huge draw for young people. It is human nature to want to be "in the know" an d to be privy to inside information makes people feel important. Gang members have secret hand signals, tattoos, neighborhood grafiti and colors that show everybody that they belong, similar to the exclusivism seen in lodges, sororities and country clubs. It's natural for anyone to feel better when chosen to be a part of something, when others were not. Easy money is a lure for kids to join gangs. Kids as young as 5 or 6 are given great wads of money and the promise of more to come if they join. Money is a powerful incentive for anyone, but to a child or young teen, it is practically irresistable. Gangs foster a sense of power that is very appealing. Young people feel invincible anyway, so gangs deliberately foster the myth of invincibility that only age and experience can normally dispel. Power is addictive, and many young people like the rush. As soon as possible, recruits are expected to perform a home invasion, rape, murder or carjacking as a form of initiation. Gangs do this for several reasons. First, it makes the recruit cross an inner psychological line. The new member's own innocence is shattered and he's now a like-minded participant. Once a new member does something like this and gets away with it, there's usually some kind of tangible reward, such as money or stolen goods, as well as the applause and praise by other members for their courage and loyalty. When a young person is the center of a hero party atmosphere, it's difficult to resist. Eventually, real danger becomes a plaything to gang members. Guns no longer seem like things that can kill, but as tools to get what they want. Running from the police, carjacking, rape, and all the rest become games of power-proving grounds for rank in gang activity. Young people lack the discernment to really see the consequences of these actions. After a while, this participation into brutality for sport robs the young person of any sense of goodness he may have had and replaces it with a sense of shame. The gang becomes the justifier, an agent of salvation making wrong seem right. The gang provides members freedom from moral obligations and shame. Unfortunately, the gang member eventually becomes an important and powerful person in the organization. The gang member is ruled by mindless obedience and follows a group mentality. For all intents and purposes, the original young person, won by shining promises and street savvy power talk has been obliterated as an individual who thinks and chooses for himself. It is a very hard battle to reform a gang member-never impossible, but very difficult. Why? The gang member, now feeling dehumanized and undeserving of redemption into normal society, usually doesn't feel he deserves another chance. After brutalizing innocent people, turning from family, church and friends, and knowing what the gang members are capable of doing to someone who left, getting out seems impossible. The gang has won--now the individual is his own taskmaster and a better way of life seems to belong to a better type of person. The only way to undermine the appeal fo gangs is to start meeting the person's needs. Kids need to belong to something beigger than themselves. Getting them involved in community, church, sports or other organizations is a start. Knowing where they are and who they're with is also critical. Many schools, churches and community organizations have programs to fight against gang membership. There are no easy answers but keeping track of your kids and knowing their friends, activities and whereabouts is considered one of the best preventative steps to deterring gang membership.
