A gang consists of a group of friends who hang out together. However, in some cases, a gang may include a group of mates who commit a crime. People, mostly the youths join these gangs for different reasons, majorly for making money from criminal activities. There is a need to try and control these gangs in society. This leads us to the question, can groups be controlled without changing the economic opportunity structure in the community?
The answer to the above question is a NO as joining of gangs is common among poor youths. Youths join these gangs to involve themselves in criminal activities. It is essential to try and change the economic opportunity structure in society in order to fight these gangs. This will help to offer youths with job opportunities and keep them busy. The youths in the community with nothing to do and nowhere to go are just out there preparing for criminal activities. Using the police to fight them has proven futile as these gangs still go on to exist in society as long as youths still live in poverty.
In as much as youths choose to involve themselves in gang activities, there exist alternatives that they may take to avoid these gangs. One option to avoid joining groups is by individuals getting themselves busy in schools. Children as young as 16 years of age have been reported to drop out of school and involve themselves in street gangs. Another alternative is by joining youth project groups in society as they try to collectively fight their way out of joblessness and poverty by making money through those projects.
Therefore, it is essential to try and change the economic opportunity structure in society to try and eradicate poverty among youths. There also exist alternatives to gangs in the community that youths can involve themselves in to evade gang groups.
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