NCJ Number
167333
Date Published
1997
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Fear produced by various threats from fellow gang members keeps many juveniles from escaping involvement in gang-related crime and violence.
Abstract
It is frightening for a young gang member to make an overt attempt to leave a gang. In many gangs such youths must endure a ritual, called being "violated" or "jumped out," in which they are severely beaten by members of the gang they are leaving. Also, youths who drop out of gang life become vulnerable to attack by former rivals as well as to continued harassment by members of their own former gang. The fear occasioned by these various threats keeps many juveniles from escaping involvement in gang-related crime and violence. The safest way out of a gang, short of fleeing the State, is to "fade away" very carefully. This is more plausible for members 19 and older, who have "paid their dues" and can now use jobs, wives, or children as excuses for not hanging out with the gang members. Most young gang members, however, have no excuse to diminish their gang involvement. Even many loyal gang members admit that their ranks would be thinned if quitting was not so dangerous. In Wichita (Kansas), Project Freedom constructed a network dubbed the "underground railroad" to funnel gang members and their families to safety in cases where all else fails. Six former gang members and two families have been shuttled to safety through a patchwork of churches both in and out of the State. The relocations are coordinated with the police, who check for outstanding warrants. Although many aspects of this program are impractical, so are most of the other options available to a young gang banger who wants out of a gang.