Even young children can earn hundreds of dollars by acting as lookouts or making drug and weapon deliveries. Money can be a real incentive to teens who live in poverty and want to contribute income to their families. By becoming part of a large and feared group kids gain a sense of power, identity, and belonging. Gangs offer teens the chance to rebel against authority and gain a ready-made group of friends. Often a child joins a gang to emulate an older brother, cousin, or neighbor.
Gangs become a normal part of life.
The brotherhood and rules of a gang are appealing to a child who lacks a stable family life, community ties, clear values, firm rules. When school involvement is unsatisfactory, unemployment is high and life seems to be going nowhere, a gang, with its chances for identity, community and money, looks pretty inviting. Gang prevention efforts must be increased. Once they are caught up in the violent world of the drug culture, they are, for the most part, lost forever. The juvenile justice system may need to be changed in communities which give little attention to young children who commit the least serious offenses and the greatest attention to older kids who commit the most serious offenses.