In California alone there are an estimated 175,000-to 200,000-gang members. In a 2001 survey of police departments 91% said there was gang activity in one or more schools in their area. Many people don’t understand the magnitude, make up, or psychology of the gang mentality.

There have been many definitions of the term “gang” over time, one definition of the term is, a group is considered a gang if it has a formal organizational structure, identifiable leadership, identifiable territory, and recurrent interaction, and is engaged in serious or violent criminal behavior (combating street gangs 1). The average gang is composed of males, ages 12 to 21. Although research on gang ethnicity is sketchy at best, one survey of gangs in large cities indicated that approximately 48% of all gang members are African-American, 43% Hispanic, 5% Asian, and 5% white (combating street gangs 2).

Today when we think of gangs we think of the Bloods and Crips, which orig

inated in California in the late 60’s. All gangs have an identifiable six levels of membership. The first level is a wanna-be. Wanna-be’s aren’t actual members yet, though they wear the gang colors, use the gangs graffiti and signs, and associate with known gang members. The next level is the fringe. The fringe is able to function outside of the gang and lacks direction. Cliques, which are associate, fringe, and wanna-be gang members who hang around one or more hardcore gang members, are the next level. The fourth level of membership is the associate. An associate has made a personal commitment to the gang culture. Level five is the hardcore member. Hardcore gangsters are the older, more violent members and they make up about 10% of gang membership. The last and most important part of membership is the leader. The leaders of a gang determine how much criminal activity the gang will be involved in, and over sees the gang activities (Gangs 101 1-2).

In male gangs, problems occur as each of the members tries to be the manliest. This often leads to all members participating in trying to out do all the other members. Most of the time this will then lead to each member trying to commit a bigger and more violent crime or more crimes than the others. With all members participating in this sort of activity, it makes for a never-ending unorganized violence spree. In gangs with more intelligent members, these feelings end up making each member want to be the star when the groups commit a crime. This makes the gang more organized and improves the morale of members, which in turn makes them more dangerous and very hard

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