INNOVATION WITHIN STRUCTURAL LIMITATION
Offering a "substitute for what society fails to give," (Thrasher, 1927, p. 33) the urban gang attracts youth through the promise of alternatives and opportunity not found elsewhere. Once the gang is created, its behavior--activities and attitudes--generally reflect the failures and absence of opportunity found in the social and economic structures of American society. Alienation and restriction of gang members (and the entire communities in which they develop) from participation and success in middle-class society forces a search for alternative,
innovative means with which a sense of dignity, purpose, and accomplishment can be experienced. The gang behaves in many varied ways, from violent and illegal exploits to actions and beliefs considered middle-America conventional. Four categories of gang behavior emerge as significant in the understanding of the street gang phenomenon: recreation, violence, economic activity, and conventional activity. However, the gang chooses to behave, it does so in reaction and response to perceived levels of social and economic opportunity.
The image of a street gang as a social group, a peer group, is one rarely, if ever, portrayed by media sources to the public. While the gang's violent or illegal behaviors are greatly publicized, the majority of the gang members' time is spent simply hanging out, talking, socializing with, and supporting each other. Like other social groups, gangs serve to provide needed "intimacy, trust, and friendship" (Horowitz, 1983, p. 196) for the members. Through this support group develop the strong cohesion and dependency within gangs. As a "place to be someone," (p. 171) the gang provides stability, expression, and support otherwise largely unavailable in the members' urban slum environment.
The use of drugs is a common recreational activity for gangs. Experimentation and use runs throughout the neighborhoods, in ...