Motives For People In Gangs

Gangs have been around for a long time. Statistics show that the number of people in gangs increase more and more everyday. Today there are 20,000 gangs, consisting of almost one million members in the United States alone (fbi.gov). With all of the negativity you hear about gangs, I wondered why people would join a gang in the first place. I found that there are several reasons why people join gangs. The three that I feel have a huge impact on making this choice are money problems, peer pressure, and protection.
People living in poor areas of cities, struggling to make ends meet, turn to gangs because they think it is an easy solution. The potential to make a lot of money in gangs is fairly easy by selling drugs or committing theft.
Peer pressure and a little boredom go hand in hand as motives of why people join gangs, especially younger kids. When kids are bored, they go find something to occupy their time. If they don’t have a good role model keeping them on the right track, they can easily get caught up in the wrong crowd. Also when someone’s friends are in a gang, it is easy to get pressured into joining.
Those who feel that it isn’t safe where they live find ways to get protection. When gangs are active in the community, they feel that the best way to be safe is joining. By joining that gang, they have acceptance of members and know the gang will offer protection and assistance as needed.
It is unfortunate that so many people turn to gangs no matter the reasons. By joining a gang a person may feel they are better off, but in the long run they are making it more difficult to succeed.