REVIEW OF AN ARTICLE

Why American boys join street gangs?

by Stanley S. Taylor 19/08/13
California State University, USA

The main theme of this article is to draw up a rationale as to why the

American youth tends to join gangs. To make it possible, the author,
Stanley S. Taylor, used several tools to analyse gang members behaviour
and social disorders. This journal article could be intended for social
programs managers or societal specialists. The final objective of the study
is to be able to offer solutions to a significant social issue.
To begin with, Taylor states that if street gangs benefit from such an
important development, it is commonly due to the fact that they constitute
a way out from the adolescent identity crisis that facilitate gang
recruitment. Also, once a member is recruited, he immediately becomes a
recruiter for the gang and assists in the socialization of new members,
which over time perpetuates the ongoing development of street gangs
stressed Eriskon in Stages in the Ritualization (1950).
According to the study of Erikson, we could be able to state some of the
principal reasons for a young person to join a gang. It is frequently due to
gaining respect, making money and the opportunity for delinquency
and violence as a release of frustrations. However, other deeper
psychosocial themes could be observed related to their home life. For
instance, the anxiety from family problems caused by fatherlessness might
find an end in joining street gangs.
One of the most important key for the reading of this article is the
understanding of the word gang. Unfortunately, a consistent definition of
this term is lacking. To overcome it, Taylor chose to expose several
definitions from other journals. As a matter of fact, we can quote Sharp et
al. (2006) suggesting that gangs are a group of three or more that has
engaged in delinquent activities and has at least one structural feature,
that is, a name, a leader and Webster et al. (2006) stating a more vague
definition, that street gangs offer skills, the opportunity for crime, and a
means to access illegal markets such as narcotics.

The subject of this study has been covered using face-to-face interviews
with seven (relatives of) former or actual gang members. They were
African American males and Latino gang members in Los Angeles County
claims Stanley S. Taylor. Each interview lasted between one and four hours
and the respondents were asked either closed or open questions. Once the

study was over, Taylor writes that each answer has been compared with
the others, in order to underline generalizations or, at the contrary,
nuances regarding to the street gangs perception.
The main finding of the study seems to be that preadolescence and
adolescence is reflective with reference to earlier child development
during the years prior to gang recruitment. This piece of information
might be useful in order to support social interventions against gangs. In
addition, it appears to be that the younger gang member are recruited,
the less they tend to cooperate with the authorities. Another statement
from the study of Taylor is that family situation may be a reason to join
gangs. For instance, Eddy stated that much of his extended family were
gang members and that he knew at some point he would be a gang
member, which is likely social conditioning. Moreover, the results of the
study state that in each respondents life, it was rather clear that the
potential for oppositional defiance and conduct disorder was increased
during the entry into the school and neighbourhood environment. The
lack of parents supervision caused by traumatic issues (father in jail,
drug-addicted mother ) provided enough instability of home life to
contribute aggressive behaviour.
To put it in a nutshell, the author recalls the argument that because the
family is the matrix of the developing child more emphasis should be
placed on psychosocial development in early phases of the boys life.
Taylor ends up his article by putting forward the statement that
collaboration between parents, schools, professional social workers, and
community agencies is vital for identification and child early intervention
which means that social programs in the future should focus on children
living in a high-risk of deviant conduct situation to prevent from favouring
the expansion of street gangs.

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