STAYING AWAY FROM BAD CHOICES

Attention!! If you are in between the age of 11 to 15, please follow along with the useful information above. This blog will tell you everything you need to know about gang membership. Let's start off with the question of the day, what is gang membership? This definition is broken down into two terms. The first one is gang, it refers to a group of people who participate in criminal activities and behavior. The second term stands for the people who make up the groups called gangs.

Figure 1: Trinitario gang [web image] n.d.

Why do gangs exist?  
These people's main focus is to be seen by their community as "tuff guys". They do this by getting together in big groups as shown in the image to the right (Figure 1). These groups mark the areas they live in as their territory (1).This is sometimes a problem because the way they pull this off this is by doing bad things. For example, street fighting, stealing, and sometimes take it far as killing. By doing all these bad things, they are seen as dangerous, so people around them do not mess with them. At this point, gangs reach their goal. 
What do gangs do?
Street fighting is very common for these types of people. This is also the way most of them become members, but the acts get worse.  This is when killing comes in, a lot of these are committed by gang members (2). This is also when the police fights back. They investigate until they solve the murder, and the criminals are put in prison (2).These violent acts affect the community because people get injured, which brings in more fights and problems. A lot of times, people who do not belong to gangs just happen to live around them, also end up involved. 
Why is this important? 
When kids are in their teen years, they are more likely to be exposed to gangs. Some may even choose to join these. Which is why you must be informed about these in order to make the right choice. The most important thing that should be taken from this, is that these gang members do not end well. A high percentage ends up in jail, with a small chance of doing good in life.



(1). Howell, J. and Moore, J. (2010, May). History of street gangs in the United States. National Gang Center Bulletin, no.4. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Content/Documents/History-of-Street-Gangs.pdf
(2)  Holmes, R. Tewksbury, R. Higgins, G. (2011, December). Introduction to gangs in America. ProQuest EBook Central. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bloomsburguniv-ebooks/reader.action?docID=1449359
Figure 1 Dios Patria Libertad. (n.d). Retrieved from  https://diospatrialibertad3ni.page.tl/PICS.htm