Teenagers & Gangs!

Gangs, gangs, gangs. Are in every city, state, and country. According to the Department of Justice's National Gang Threat Assessment, there are at least 21,500 gangs and more than 731,000 active gang members. Gangs are less prevalent in rural areas, in major cities, gang violence is responsible for roughly half of all homicides. Gangs are also becoming more savvy, using computers and other technology to commit their crimes.
There is teens who are not officially in the gang but they hang around with the gang members, and yet there is times when a cop captures a teenager and asks them if they are involved in a gang or related to a gang. The teens will response that, no they are not. Many teens are mistaken to be gang members because of there actions and ways to dress, when they are not. it was estimated that 49% of gang members were Hispanic, 37% were black, 8% white, 5% Asian and 1% are another ethnicity, also that gang membership is not as prevalent among youth as some fear. Between 1 and 2 percent of children ages 10 to 17 were gang members, although the percentage spikes when only "at-risk" youth are counted. Those that did join gangs didn't stay long, with the majority remaining in the gang for less than a year.
In fact there is so many reason why a teenager, or an adult is wanting to be in and part of a gang. If a young teen has a older sibling involved in a gang it is more likely for the younger to want to follow the step of the older and become a gang member as well.
Reasons why teens join gangs are:
•Peer Pressure
•Poverty
•Boredom
•Despair Street gangs are not safe, they involve a lot of violence and drugs. Once someone joins a gang there introduced to the bad life. A life that can destroy their own without them even seeing it. Gangs have been going on for a very long time but as they keep going the more smarter and faster in committing crimes there getting. There is really no stop to this kids join them to seem more tougher and stronger. They tend to want to seek more attention, its not something fun or cool as most see it. Its something life changing.