Adolescent Boys, Family Life & Gangs
Youth gangs are usually defined as groups of young people who frequently engage in illegal activity on a group basis (Rogers, 1991, p. 20). Generally, 90 to 95 percent of gang members are males, many of them adolescent males (Curry & Decker, 1998, p. 97). Gangs are usually territorial in nature, identifying with a particular neighborhood and protecting their "turf" from encroachment by other gangs. Better organized gangs often control economically motivated crime such as burglary, extortion or drug-trafficking at the neighborhood level. They may also sell "protection" from criminal activity to legitimate merchants (Rogers, 1991, p. 20). Generally, youth gangs exploded in the 1980s in what one researcher called "an historic American urban social problem" (Rogers, 1991, p. 20).
Research indicates that street gangs exist in 94 percent of all U.S. cities with populations greater than 100,000. The scope and the nature of the problem vary widely from city to city. However, it has been estimated that anywhere between 50,000 to 100,000 children and youths are gang members in the city of Los Angeles and that there are between 600 and 950 different gangs in California alone (See Rogers, 1991, p. 20; Hixon, 1999, p. 2121). Another study performed in Chicago showed that 5 percent of all elementary school children there were affiliated with street gangs, as were 35 percent of high school dropouts (Hixon, 1999, p. 2121).
Sociologist William Julius Wilson (1987) has documented the decline of the American family, particularly among poor African American residents of large cities (Curry & Decker, 1998, p. 124). He has linked this decline to the growth of the urban underclass, a group that experiences profound levels of concentrated poverty and social isolation. Nationally, 20 percent of all children in the United States live in families at or below the established federal poverty level (Coplon, 1985, p....