Members of families in many low-income neighborhoods of America compete for portions of overall material resources. There is also a competition for physical and psychological space. Competition in large families plants seeds of mistrust that are watered by interactions with the larger community in which competition between individuals is intensified. Youths who spend their entire lives guarding the little material resources that they receive adapt an attitude of mistrust as a defense mechanism. At an early age youths growing up in the ghetto learn that if they are going to survive that they must be self-reliant.
Life becomes about avoiding becoming the prey of various ghetto forces.
These young men begin to evaluate success and failure by looking at the residents of their community. All this leads to a determination among some of the young not to succumb, but to survive. The culmination of the aforementioned 3 traits, competitiveness, mistrust, and self reliance produces the last trait, a Social Darwinist worldview. These young men look at the outside world and their treatment of ghetto residents to support the idea of survival of the fittest. Jankowksi's assesment of the traits of gang members is very important in understanding the failure of the American dream in the lives of ghetto residents.