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).

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k supervision in their family environment (Curry & Decker, 1998, p. 124). Many young boys in urban environments grow up with little or no direction, and the need for socialization and order in their lives is often found on the streets. Curry & Decker (1998) argue that children naturally seek order and regulation and gangs have come to fulfill these needs for a growing number of youths (Curry & Decker, 1998, p. 124). Consequently, as the status of the family has declined, gangs have emerged and in many instances provided an alternative form of organization for the lives of young people (Rogers, 1991, p. 21). Rogers notes that the longevity and structure provided to adolescent boys by gang membership is unique among institutions from which children traditionally sought guidance. In particular, Rogers argues that gangs today are strong and thriving institutions in a part of the world where every other institution, including family, school and church, has crumbled (Rogers, 1991, p. 21). Consequently, he argues that it is hardly surprising that children who are poor, poorly-educated and typically raised by a single parent (of whom many are unemployed, alcoholic, drug-addicted or some mixture of the three) now flock to gangs (Rogers, 19

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