to its rise as a result of their activities conveying targets to brothels. Thugs and touts The use of the new nomenclature, touts or thugs to describe juvenile undesirables began in the 1950s. These youths who performed visible employment working in motor parks replaced the Boma and Jaguda boys in the 1950s. These group were known as bullies who also work for politicians, they are closer to their modern day offspring, the Area boys. They usually receives money from politicians to cause mayhem, destruction of properties and lives. Area boys The nomenclature of Area boys can also mean touts, Alaayes, Agberos, omo onile, they are generally considered deviant youths who use extortion, exploitation, petty crimes and sometimes violent means to earn income. These group grew along with the emergence of a growing informal economy of street trading. Many previously worked at the motor parks or as helps to carry loads for market customers. Their activities expanded into acting as security for businessmen and politicians, bouncers, or means to harass tenants, loan defaulters, or the electoral process. Area boys like their name, are boys known in the neighborhood, unlike their predecessors, Jagudas and Boma boys, Area boys were less likely to be recent migrants. The boys are easily identified in the neighborhood and have a base location for meetings. The base membership straddles employed and unemployed youths. To earn income, the unemployed youths move outwards towards a junction or intersection where they don on outfits as union members of a road transport association or engage in security related commerce that verges on extortion. New contractors are billed owo ile or land levy, market traders are billed owo security which is money for security and there is street money or owo ita which is compensation to the area boys for commerce related activities within the neighborhood. Demographics Area boys have existed in the city of Lagos since the early 1980s. However, under various names, types of Area Boys have been traced back to the 1920s. In 2007, the total number of area boys in Lagos was estimated at over 35,000 by a member of the Lagos State Judiciary; as of 1996, the number of them operating on Lagos Island alone was placed around 1,000. A 1996 study of area boys on Lagos Island by Abubakar Momoh showed that only 26.4% of area boys were from Lagos State, while the rest were natives