Causes Of Youth's Involvement In Gangs

From stressful environments to influences and abuse will lead a child to gang life in their youth and adult years. Some children are motivated to become part of a gang for the sense of connection or perhaps to define a sense of who they are. Others are motivated by peer pressure, feeling the need to seek protection for themselves and/or their family, because a family member is also a gang member, or to make money. There are many other risk factors that may contribute to youth’s involvement in gangs: growing up in an area of heavy gang activity, gang involvement within the family, history of violence in the home, to little adult supervision, unstructured free time, and lack of positive role models. A life of gangs means death or the possibility of a prison sentence.

1852 in North San Francisco the world’s most notorious prison was built, where the most violent and infamous criminals both live and work, where over 600 male inmates await their death row sentence. Inmates implied prison is what you make of it, some inmates choose to stay busy with work and programs where others choose to keep busy within the prison gangs, a more violent life. A life that is full of isolation, segregation, racism and violence. Safety is a huge factor among these walls as violence occurs regularly and at any time. Prison politics often lead to violence between rival gangs. Inmates do as they are told by their higher power, gang leader known as “shot callers”. Making weapons out of various objects in order to plan attacks. Officers conduct searches of cells and the common areas in order to prevent these altercations however, they are not always successful. In 1982 San Quentin had the largest riot between the Whites and the Hispanics, 42 inmates were