ang life often provides financial support as well. Teens who would normally be making fifty to sixty dollars a week at a part time job can rake in as much as a thousand dollars per week by stealing or selling drugs in a gang setting. In fact, many gang members claim to join and stay in gangs for financial reasons(Spergel 94). The attraction to gang life is obvious when looked at from that standpoint.The final attraction to gang life is simply the physical aspect. Gangs provide the safety in numbers sense of security for many youths who are forced to reside in what is in reality a war zone. Consequently, joining a gang may result from a rational calculation to achieve personal security, particularly, by males new to a particular community, school, or prison(Spergel 92). Many feel a sense of security when joining a gang. Nevertheless there is the ever-present threat of death from a wall of bullets in this lifestyle.There are, of course, some that feel these reasons are not the main contributing factors to gang enrollment. The main detractors of this theory will point to the emergence of gangs in affluent areas. These areas contain children who may not come from broken homes and may not have problems with money or being bullied. However, dysfunctional families are present in all areas of society. Moreover, if one or two children are of dysfunctional families, there influence will spread throughout a social setting of other children. Some feel that gangs result simply out of an inordinately large number of children crowded into a limited areaspontaneous play groups are forming everywhere - gangs in embryo(Spergel 71). While the overcrowding of youths in a limited area may play a role in the formation of gangs, the main contributing factors to the creation of gang activity are the fulfillment of psychological (family), financial, and physical needs. Perhaps the most significant draw to the gang arena of life is the psychological ...
