In adolescence, friends begin to have a greater influence over decision making than parents. As they go through adolescence, children form cliques, small groups of friends who share activities and confidences.  In mid-adolescence, kids strive for peer approval and try to impress their closest friends.  Adolescents who maintain delinquent friends are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior and drug abuse.
There are a number of theoretical views on the peer-delinquency linkage. According to the control theory approach, delinquents are as detached from their peers as they are from other elements of society. Delinquent friends cause law-abiding youth to get in trouble. Antisocial youth join up with like-minded friends; deviant peers sustain and amplify delinquent careers.
Gangs are groups of youth who engage in delinquent behaviors.  Members have self-recognition of their gang status and use special vocabulary, clothing, signs, colors, graffiti, and names. There is a commitment to criminal activity, although even the most criminal gang members spend the bulk of their time in noncriminal activities.
There are a number of views of gang formation. The anthropological view is that gangs appeal to adolescents longing for the tribal process that sustained their ancestors. Hand signs and graffiti have a tribal flavor. Sociologists have commonly viewed the destructive sociocultural forces in poor inner-city areas as the major cause of gang formation. Conditions of anomie/alienation encourage gang formation on both a cultural and individual level. Some believe that gangs serve as an outlet for disturbed youth who suffer a multitude of personal problems and deficits.
Some youth may make a rational choice to join a gang.

• Prepare to engage in discussion on the following questions:
  • What are some of the perceived benefits for youth who join gangs?
  • How might we, as a community, turn those perceived benefits around in order to discourage and combat gang membership?
  • Is there truly a feasible way to control gangs without changing social and financial opportunities for everyone?

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