Why Do Gangs Form?
Gangs are basically a group of young people whether boys or girls who are unsupervised and usually organize and spend their lives on the streets. These groups can even organize among such institutions as prisons and military bases with ties from outside street groups and organizations. They support each other either individually or as a group in the recurring commission of criminal acts and behavior.
These gangs form and exist simply because there are young people in a certain environment, culture or family whose needs were not being met and the group itself fills the void. Also, it is a very effective type of support system where fellow gang members can bond together. For these young people, it even provides the necessary resources needed for survival.
The most obvious reasons why groups converge and gangs form are when a person is discriminated socially, when the family unit is missing and in the absence of positive adult role models as well as proper discipline and when a person is powerless or overpowered. Add to that young people most probably form gangs when they experience abuse, fear and absence of security, when they are economically deprived, when they become delinquent and a failure in school and when they experience very low self-worth. Further, when teenagers tend to seek acceptable rites in their passage to adulthood, becomes bored with legitimate activities and when they start looking for a channel or medium wherein they can vent and express their anger and aggression almost always it will pave a way towards the formation of a gang.
Most often than not, gangs bring more harm than good for its members. This is because gangs have been associated most often with crimes, outrages, riots and public disturbances. It has become a social illness that all boils down to one thing and that is the improper handling and rearing of these young people who yearn for family attention and an affirmation of their own unique personality.
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