The Truth About Gangs: Why People Join & What They Provide #shorts

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Is there actually anything good about gangs? The people that don't have a family suddenly find a family in the gang.

[00:00:06]The gang is the family that they never had.

[00:00:09]The gang's the fam- the family the gang provides them with comradeship, meaning, um uh it provides them with a with an income, especially nowadays.

[00:00:22]Um it provides you with status, um a sense of personal pride, all the things that that that that um that a um a an abusive or non-existent family didn't provide will provide you when you get out uh when you if you in in the gang and and the good the book that was written by Glennis Denahy and me called The Girls in the Gang was actually about that, but it was about women in gangs. And uh that's what we found uh she she did a study of women in gangs and then they all came from terrible environments. Yeah. And they were abused as children, sexually abused and physically abused and so on. And that was just normal for them.

[00:01:09]And that leads to a pretty uh a woman a person who can have serious personality problems when they grow up.

[00:01:19]All those reasons that you just gave for people joining gangs, they they all sound very very good. But is there actually anything good about gangs?

[00:01:28]Well, it provides uh uh it fulfills a need for some people.

[00:01:35]Um uh And um I know uh I know a few a few gangsters who aren't involved in crime.

[00:01:49]Um not everyone who's a gangster isn't isn't involved in crime. And so from that point of view it it fulfills a need to provide com- It's just like the joining the police or joining the army.

[00:02:01]Mhm. It provides you with a group, a reference group, um which fulfills a psychological need that all humans have.

[00:02:11]That is a sense of belonging and a team to identify with.

[00:02:17]So, from that point of view, I think gangs do provide a good thing for some people.