Title: Poverty, Broken Homes, Violence: The Making of a Gang Member | Psychology Today
Headings: Poverty, Broken Homes, Violence: The Making of a Gang Member
Robert T Muller Ph.D.
Poverty, Broken Homes, Violence: The Making of a Gang Member
How the need for community leads some teens to find it in gangs.

Content: Several risk factors have been identified that increase the likelihood that a teen will join a gang including the presence of gangs in the neighborhood, having gang members in the family already, histories of sexual or physical abuse, growing up in poverty, having access to weapons and drugs, and a lack of success in other areas of life, such as school. Having identified these risk factors, experts propose that young adults join gangs because they both act as a surrogate family, as well as provide a sense of belonging, power, control and prestige; all things that are commonly identified as absent in childhood among gang initiates. The idea of a gang acting as a substitute family is supported in interviews conducted by Joe Killian, a writer for the News and Record; Killian spoke with 40 gang members from Greensboro, North Carolina. The men he interviewed reported that they considered fellow gang members to be family and that they took care of each other. Killian found that most of the gang members he interviewed had tattoos to publicly show their allegiance to their particular gang, and to show pride in belonging to the group. Several gang members said that being part of a gang meant you were never alone in the world, which is similar to how many people describe being part of a close-knit family or group of friends. Gangs provide members a sense of belonging and protection they do not receive from other relationships or experiences in life. In addition to the intense feeling of family provided by gang membership, those gang members interviewed by Killian, also referred to the fantasy of a “Cinderella” story portrayed by films like Scarface, and rappers such as 50-Cent, Tupac Shakur, and the Notorious B.I. G. The media portray gangster life as one filled with excitement, power, fortune, and ease.