Although there are many risk factors that may cause a kid to delve into the street life, there are only three major reasons that tip the scale from thinking about joining a gang, to joining a gang.

Those reasons are:

1. Brotherly Love – Due to lack of love at home, mostly from absentee parents, kids form a bond with their friends within the immediate vicinity of where they stay. If they live in an area whereas  gangs are prominent, and their friends are in a gang, or even thinking about joining one, it becomes easier to rationalize why they should join also.
2. Protection – Because they live in an area where gangs are prominent, they need to identify with a gang in order to be under protection when in the streets. Without being affiliated they run the risk of being caught on the streets alone and being jumped by gang members. This is why they join the gang that they’re friends are members of.
3. To Make Money – With absentee parents, and living in a high crime area where gangs are prevalent, there are usually fewer businesses that a teenager can work for. This leads to a lack in financial security, and when your friends are making money, and wearing the newest swag from selling drugs, a lot of inner city youth will only be a short conversation away from being able to get a pack and work a street corner like their buddies.

These three things are actually dependent on each other to solidify a kids involvement in a gang, because the friends that they are growing up with will be the ones that protect them when in danger, and they can all make money together. The real problem is that each of these things will draw a kid into the street life deeper and deeper, and they become the very reason that they need to be in the gang in the first place. So it becomes a self perpetuated circle of gang and street life. The street life feeds off of the street life!

Once you’re in, its hard to get out, and even though they know that it only ends with death or jail, it still seems better than having no money or friends, and not being able to go outside without being harassed.