Why do kids join gangs? Is it true that they are pressured and recruited?
Kids, like adults, like to hang out with people like themselves. A kid who doesn’t like the way gang members dress, what they do for fun, or what they like to talk about, isn’t going to be attracted to the gang. Likewise, gang members don’t want to hang around with someone they have nothing in common with. Kids are not pressured into joining gangs. They join because in the gang they find a group of teenagers that they feel something in common with. What they “have in common” is that they don’t like school, generally struggle in it, and have no other activity in their lives to feel good about. This is what makes a gang dangerous: it is a group of kids who have little conventional success, nothing to do with their time, and not much to lose.
