d robbed if they do not join a gang. Of course they can probably get the same treatment from rivals when in a gang. The gang also provides some money for these children who quite often need to feed their families. The reason kids think that the gang will keep them safe is from propoganda from the gangs. Gang members will say that no one will get hurt and make a public show of revenge if a member is hurt or killed. People in low rent areas are most often being repressed due to poverty and most importantly, race. This often results in an attitude that motivates the person to base his/her life on doing what the system that oppresses them doesn't want. Although this accomplishes little it is a big factor in gang enrollment. So, as you have seen gangs are a product of the environment we have created for ourselves. Some of these factors include: oppression, the media, greed, violence and other gangs. There seems to be no way to end the problem of gangs without totally restructuring the modern economy and value system. Since the chance of this happening is minimal, we must learn to cope with gangs and try to keep their following to a minimum. Unfortunately there is no real organized force to help fight gangs. Of course the police are supposed to do this but this situation quite often deals with racial issues also and the police forces regularly display their increasing inability to deal fairly with these issues. What we need are more people to form organizations like the "Guardian Angels" a gang-like group that makes life very tough for street gangs that are breaking laws. ---BibliographyMargot Webb, Coping with Street Gangs. Rosen Publishing Group, New York, 1990.William Foote Whyte, Street Corner Society. University of Chicago, Chicago, 1955.Peter Carroll, South-Central. Hoyte and Williams, L. A., 1987.---Footnotes1 Marshall B. Clinard, Sociology of Deviant Behavior. University of Wisconsin, Wiscons...
