While the creation of Aboriginal youth gangs builds a foundation in research, it is also important to understand factors leading Aboriginal youth to join gangs. It is …show more content…
The most common definition of a youth gang involves self-formed group of young teens imbedded within a structured organization. The group is distinctly recognizable by those in their community, tend to have a name, and have a negative association with crime (Klein 1971). The group adheres to a strict agenda and often partakes in criminal behavior to reach a set of goals outlined within the guidelines (Thrasher 1927). Additionally, as determined, youth gang activity is contingent on an individual’s socio-economic status, race, and neighborhood (Klein 1971). However, given that such factors are never standard across all communities, it becomes difficult to place every individual into a standardized definition of gang members. Yet this is the definition used to define a large array of gangs varying in age, race, socio-economic status, and location. Additionally, many of these definitions do not take into consideration social histories of minority youth (Mathews