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Youth Gangs are commonly thought of as a self formed association of peers having the following characteristics: a gang name and recognizable symbol, territory, regular meetings and collective actions to carry out illegal activities. Youth gangs are very popular throughout teenage groups; they believe that there is no one to support them and to love them at home so they turn to their friends for protection. Many teenagers feel that they are unwanted or not accepted by family and peers and also turn to alcohol, drugs and violence to solve their problems. There is a lot of serious problems that most people haven’t really realized about gangs. They are kids who try to escape and really don’t know what they are doing. Many of gang members believe that drugs, violence, and alcohol is their only way to go, but they are wrong, most of these kids just really don’t have any place to go, some don’t really know how to get out of this until they are stuck in something so deep that they cannot get out of and this can lead to murder of themselves, even murder of someone they really love. "Gang youth were significantly more involved with marijuana and cocaine drug sales in more serious and violent crimes than non gang adolescents". Many of these young kids are starting to take drugs at a very young age and really don’t know what they are getting themselves into, also these kids don’t really know how to get help and they really don't go looking for it. They believe that staying in the gang is their only way out. Also they might be scared that if they do end up leaving their gang something might happen to them, so therefore it is very dangerous for one to enter as well as to leave a gang. "In the 1960's and 1970's, gangs fought over pride or turf in half to hand conflict, sometimes using zip guns (homemade, single shot pistols)". Many gangs fight over their area, some may try to take over and if they are not allowed then they will start fighting and everything will end up in tragedy. Some people may get killed, stabbed and some injured very badly. Some gang members understand that gang life involves grief and suffering.
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