According to http://www.csun.edu/~hcchs006/14.html which studied Latino street gangs, people join gangs because it provides a sense of family and group membeship by "furnishing friends and camaraderie to unloved and often unwanted youngsters". It provides there members with status, affiliation, belonging as well as provides "the necessay audience for deeds of bravado and for positioning and strutting". As well most of these gang members joined with the idea "if you cant beat em--join em" or because they were sick of having no money.
Latino street gangs are not an example of social stratification (hierarchical relationships between different groups as though they were arranged in layers or stara) . They are not like highly structured military formation, they do not hold regular meetings, and "the individuals who call the shots are not part of a chain of command".
When researching, the questionnaire that was done on each person interviewed was done in a naturalistic conversation and in a natural environment where friends and family would drop by and confirm the data given through conversation. AS well the researchers assured that they would engage in "chit chat" after the questionnaire to observe their behaviors, and spoke like they did, switching between English and Spanish if they did, or speaking only in English if thats how the participant spoke.
picture:http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://s.bebo.com/app-image/7924721556/5411656627/PROFILE/i.quizzaz.com/img/q/u/08/05/16/Latin_Kings2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://secure.bebo.com/Profile.jsp%3FMemberId%3D119364597&usg=__HG8u-tnPH-UMJAB_fRa2LDJDifo=&h=264&w=355&sz=19&hl=en&start=5&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=JpYwIsAHTvmZSM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlatino%2Bstreet%2Bgangs%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26tbs%3Disch:1
I always thought that there was always some sort of status present in any type of gang. I like how the researchers were so 'chit-chatty' with them. :P
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!