matter.
6
According to Dishion’s and his colleagues’ research, they have found that delinquents adolescents often have delinquent friends, and
they reinforce each other’s delinquent behavior.
7
Other research has indicated that nonsmoking adolescents who become friends with
smoking adolescents are more likely to start smoking themselves.
8
By the same token, having friends who are into school, sports, or religion is
likely to have a positive influence on the adolescent.
3. Adolescent Groups
During our adolescent years, we probably were a member of both formal and informal groups. Examples of formal groups include the
basket ball team or drill team, The Scouts, the student council and so on. A more informal group could be a group of peers, such as clique.
The group functions are to satisfy adolescents’ personal needs, reward them, provide information, raise their self-esteem, and give
them a identity. Adolescents might join a group because they think that group membership will be enjoyable and exciting and satisfy their need
for affiliation and companionship. They might join a group because they will have the opportunity to receive rewards, either material or
psychological.
9
C. Gangs
1. Definition
Gang is frequently associated with groups in socially disorganized or deteriorated inner-city neighborhoods; it was applied to juveniles
who engaged in a variety of delinquencies ranging from truancy, street
6
B.B. Brown, Adolescent Relationships with Peers New York: Wiley, 2004, pp. 54-56
7
Dishion, T.J. et. al. Antisocial Boys and Their Friends in early Adolescence: Relationship Characteristics, quality, and Interact ional Process Journal of Child development, 1995, pp.
139-151.
8
K. Urberg, Locus of Peer Influence: Social Crowd and Best Friend Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1992, pp. 439-450.
9
John W. Santrock, Adolescence ………………………., pp. 364-365.
10
brawls, and beer running to race riots, robberies, and other serious crimes.
10
The image of gangs increasingly focused on large groups of urban boys engaged primarily in violent conflict, fighting each other in
battles, or rumbles. The gang, from this perspective, suggests a slightly broader definition: “The gang is a friendship group of adolescents who
share common interest, with a more or less clearly defined territory, in which most of the members live. They are committed to defending
one another, the territory, and the gang name in the status-setting fights that occur in school and on the streets.”
11
Police, politicians, and many criminologists began to emphasize the organization and illegal activities of Gangs. According to Walter
Miller, a youth gang is a self-forming of peers, bound together by mutual interests, with identifiable leadership, well-develop lines of
authority, and other organizational features, who act in any occasion to achieve a specific purpose or purposes which generally include the
conduct of illegal activity and control over a particular territory, facility, or type of enterprise.
12
2. Joining Gangs and Getting out of Gangs
Some youths grow up in families in which older brothers, sisters, fathers, or possibly even grandfathers were or are gang members, and
thus their entry into gang life is essentially just a part of adolescent socialization. From a very young age, it is expected that they will
eventually become gang members. Most youths who join gangs are influenced or encouraged by forces external to the family.
10
Frederic Thrasher, the Gang: A Study of 1.313 Gangs in Chicago, Chicago: university of Chicago Press, 1962, Second Edition, p. 3
11
Joan Moore, “Gangs and the Underclass: A comparative Perspective,” in People and Folks: Gangs, Crime and the Underclass in a rustbelt City, 2
nd
Edition Chicago: Lake View Press, 1998, p. 5.
12
Walter Miller, “Gangs, Groups, and Serious Youth Crime”, in Critical Issues in Juvenile Delinquency Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 2001, Third Edition, p. 45.
11
Martin Jankowski has identified six reasons for joining a gang. They include material incentives gang membership increases the
likelihood of making money; recreation gangs provide entertainment and a chance to meet girls; refuge or camouflage
the gang offers anonymity; physical protection gangs provide personal protection from predatory elements, including other
gangs, in high-crime neighborhoods; a time to resist the gang provides opportunities to resist living lives similar to their parents;
commitment to community gang membership provide the opportunity to demonstrate a form of local patriotism and
dedication to protecting the neighborhood.
13
Making money also appears to be related to gaining the social “respect” that having
money produces. Whether a youth first joins a gang to gain respect or to make money, the two often quickly become intertwined with
each other.
14
Motivations of joining gangs vary by sex. Boys may join a gang for getting excitement, having an own territory, being protected, having
community, earning money, and possessing a sense of belonging. Not like boys, girls, on the other hand, may join a gang because their family
members or friends were member of gang. Besides that, they want someone to protect them and want to get good reputation, being popular
among others.
15
Not only when entering a gang do youths get tension, but also leaving the gang may be risky and dangerous, especially for them who
know the gang’s secret. Leaving the gangs bring the youths into risky
13
Martin Jankowski, Island in the Street: Gangs American Urban Society Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991, pp. 40-47.
14
Martin Jankowski, “Gangs and Social Change,” theoretical Criminology, 7
th
Edition Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, pp. 191-216.
15
Cheryl Maxson, Monica Whitlock, “Joining the Gang: Gender Differences in Risk Factors for Gang Membership,” in Gangs in America III Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage, 2002, p.
32.
12
situations: first, the police or court may still treat them as a gang member. And second, rival gangs are probably not aware whether tey
quit the gang or not.
16
3. Characteristics of Gangs
