It is not a bandwagon. People are either included or excluded. One either belongs or doesn't belong. If we exclude people, we are programing them for the fight of their lives - to get in and to belong. Most excluded people perceive that they have nothing to lose, and everything to gain in the battle to belong.
Many youth consider it a matter of life and death.
Teenagers join gangs because they are desperate to belong - to have meaning. Even when the gangs kill, youth join. The gangs meet their needs. Gangs are a logical response to society's failure to make teenagers feel belonging. When our youth literally die to belong, it is a searing warning for us to look hard at the system in which we live.