Girls join gangs, Bilchik explains, because of "higher levels of normlessness" in her family, and she may have been the victim of incest or rape (older male siblings or an adult male in the household).
Gangs provide a way of "solving social adjustment problems," Bilchik writes. Going through adolescence brings with it "trials and tribulations," and being in a gang gives a young man a sense that he is dealing with those problems but not having to do it alone. In some situations, youth "are intensively recruited or coerced into gangs"; they seemingly "have no choice." There are some youths who are literally born into gangs; the father is in a gang, and hence, they will be too. But the most...
"Youth Gangs: An Overview." Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention. U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved 21 Nov. 2006 at http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/167249.pdf.
