What leads people to gangs? A gang is a group of people who work in the streets by selling drugs, killing, and home invasions. People who join gangs have suffered in their past. They want a way out of the life they’re living in, so they join a gang to get money.

Poverty also leads them the wrong way because they get tired of being poor and they do anything to get money. I see gangs as a way out when you don’t have no one to support you and you failed in school. Teenagers who suffer in their past or right now are more likely to join a gang depending on what the problem was that they went through. For example, If your mom/dad left you when you were small you grow up with a lot of hate. You see your mom/dad struggling and very depressed in need of money, so the only option is to find a way to get money. Instead of a job they think the only solution is to join a gang.
 

Racism causes gangs because it’s like bullying. A teenager gets insulted because of his race or how he’s dressed, then he starts hating and wanting to kill all the people who hurt him physically and mentally. He feels alone and desperate . He knows there isn’t nothing he can do, so he decides to join a gang. In that gang everyone understands how he feels and what he thinks. He feels safe and starts to see the other gang members as a family he never had.

My girl cousin is a gang member who went through hell and chose to stay there. When she was in highschool she had good grades, but chose to stop trying and always got suspended for fights and being aggressive towards teachers. She acted aggressive also towards her parents, and no one new what was going on in her head. As she got older we started to see she was bringing gang members to my aunts house. We new she was involved in gangs and their was nothing we could do to help her. She went to jail when she was about 20 years old for punching her mom and got caught with drugs. Then when she was about 26, she got caught taking drugs to her boyfriend in jail. Since then we haven’t heard anything about her and we don’t know if we ever will again.

   
    “I know people in gangs; I could have went down that route.”

Don’t join gangs because you want to be cool. Remember if you join a gang there is no way to leave the gang . The only way to get out of the gang is death. There’s other ways to get money, and if you’re going through hard times, talk to someone who understands you instead of joining a gang.