What are gangs and how are they formed?
Street gangs are loosely organized groups of people who interact together to the exclusion of those not belonging to the gang. The gang has a name (usually after a town or street, Musician, movie, song etc…), a leader,and certain developed signs such as certain clothing and jewelry. They often claim territory over an area with graffiti and fighting. The primary age group for a gang member is 14-20. However there are children as young as 7 years old in gangs. Gangs vary tremendously in composition and activities. Irving Spergel (1989) suggests the following working definition: “juvenile and young adults associating together for serious, especially violent, criminal behavior with special concerns for ‘turf’.” Turf can signify the control of a physical territory, a criminal enterprise, or both. (Some excerps below taken from NAGIA) Defense of turf can lead to extreme violence. As Captain Raymond Gott of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office says, simply “wearing the wrong color in a certain
