Why Do Young People Join Gangs?

If you had a group of friends that always tried to convince you to do things that were bad, would you still want to be friends with them? Joining gangs and being a part of violent acts can get you in a lot of trouble in school, at home, or even with the police. Every day, kids of ages as low as 12 years old hang out around gangs. These gangs don't solve mysteries together or hang out in the recess yard, these gangs like to hurt people for fun.  

Figure 1

What Would Your Parents Think?

The last thing your mom or dad would ever want to see from you is you joining a gang. Your parents would do anything to try and change your mind and they would feel like they did a really bad job at raising you because you would rather have fun by doing bad things rather than have fun being with your friends and family. They also wouldn't want to see you causing problems with other people by being physically mean (Figure 1). Not only would they have to worry about you, but they would have to worry about your younger brothers or sisters, too. Younger siblings often look up to and follow in similar footsteps as their older siblings. So as a result of you joining a gang, your younger brother and/or sisters would too. 

Figure 2

Being in a gang at a young age is scary. Every day you're surrounded by people that only want the worst from you. I'll give you an example. Imagine you and your friends are walking down the street to go to the store for some snacks and you pass innocent Little Jimmy (Figure 2), who only has ice cream on his mind. Your friends start making jokes about him then start walking up to him to start trouble. Little Jimmy had no idea that any of this would happen. He was just thinking about ice cream! Would you step in and try to put a stop to it? Or would you rather join and bully him for "fun"? If you were to join in with your friends, that means that you have done something horrible and you would only start to do it more and more. If you instead told your friends to stop being mean to Little Jimmy, then you would want to be kind to people and maybe even have a new friend because of it. Having a life in a gang is like this, but way worse. It is every day, all day, to anyone.


However, you can do things in your life to prevent yourself from being a bad person! Get good grades in school, be kind to everyone you meet, and have friends that like the same things as you. If you notice your friends starting to do bad things, don't join in just because they want you to. It is okay to say no to people if you know that they are doing the wrong thing. Walk away from violence whenever you see it and try to make good out of it. You wouldn't want to end up like the people that bully kids like Little Jimmy every day, would you?




References

Warner, S. (2016) Digital Spy. Retrieved from https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a813372/recess-possibly-coming-back-weve-had-a-lot-of-ideas-about-it/


Stock Photo. Cartoon boy playing a scooter. Retrieved from https://www.123rf.com/photo_80384077_cartoon-boy-playing-a-scooter.html