ABSTRACT
Introduction Youth street gangs started in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles in the early 1960s. Many of the gangs started as a means of self-protection and social action, providing activities and a sense of belonging and identity to the young people in the neighborhoods. However as time passed, the gangs became involved in crimes including murder, drug trafficking, and other criminal activities. The activities of the gang of the 1960s and 1970s were much different from the East End Kids of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. Gangs such as the Crips, the Bloods, the 18th Street Gang, and the Latin Kings soon gave the public a new image of what street gangs were all about. Some of the most notorious and dangerous criminals in the United States are part of one gang. It’s not the Bloods, it’s not the Crips, but a gang called MS-13 (Cosby, 2006).
