According to the book Gangs, Graffiti and Violence’, Mexican gangs evolved from clubs formed by Los Angeles Mexican-American neighborhood schools and churches between 1910 and 1920 to meet the social needs of their youths. Because of racial discrimination, Mexican children were barred from white schools, theaters, and other leisure activities. Street gangs became a “hand-me-down tradition” where generations of Mexican-Americans children belonged to the same gang with members who were and are intensely loyal to their neighborhood.

In Understanding Street Gangs’, the authors describe this loyalty as so intense that if a gang member for some reason moves away from the original neighborhood, the affiliation with the original neighborhood is still maintained. This loyalty is centered on the basis of territory or turf rule. Gang members regard themselves and protecting their neighborhood from rival gangs and other outside intruders (e.g., government agencies). Additionally, as mentioned above, Hispanic gangs are described as “traditional”; i.e., many have been around for generations. A gang member’s father or grandfather may even have been in the same gang before him.

Other indicators of the phenomenon of Hispanic gang intense loyalty are described in Understanding Street Gangs’ in the conbook graffiti and tattooing practices. Graffiti is described “as an important part of Hispanic gang tradition.” Rather than being just scribbling on a wall, to the Hispanic gang it “proclaims to the world the status of the gang.” Likewise, traditional Hispanic gangs use body tattooing extensively as a mark of their pride in membership.

One theory applicable to Hispanic gangs could be the Critical/Radical School Theory. Marxist thinkers point out that throughout history Mexicans have been exploited by their own leaders and by U.S. capitalism. Marxists would argue that criminal street gangs are merely a result of our system’s racism and lack of social justice. Further, conflict theorists would point out that the white, male dominated U.S. justice system identifies gang members as criminals per se. Hispanic youth form these relationships as a result of social and economic inequality of an oppressive system.

On the other hand, why some Hispanic youths join street gangs might also be explained by Differential Association. In Understanding Street Gangs’, the authors point out that families with “gang lineage” provide a profile where even strong parents (who were once gang members themselves) learn deviant behavior and come to regard gang membership and normal and healthy. Thus, the behavior is defined positively and the youth is influenced to value gang membership.

Marxism and Differential Association theories, however, seem to be inadequate in explaining Hispanic gangs. Marxism has only limited usefulness in explaining street crime because it defines all crime as economically motivated - some crimes have nothing to do with economics. Differential Association on the other hand fails to explain why most children living in poverty and crime still do not form gangs. A better, more adaptable theory would be Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, which is discussed below in the conbook of African-American gangs.

African-American gangs are described in Gangs, Graffiti, and Violence as also originating in Los Angeles. Like the Mexican gangs they originally existed at social clubs and concentrated their activities in their own neighborhoods. From early gangs with only limited criminal activity there emerged a flurry of “territorial” groups beginning in 1955 until 1965. After about a four-year Vietnam war hiatus, in 1969 two street gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, became active in West Los Angeles and Compton.

In contrast to the intense neighborhood loyalty, turf consciousness, and multi-generational membership attributed to Hispanic gangs, the authors of Understanding Street Gangs’ describe Black street gangs as quite the opposite. Black street gangs tend to have fewer older members, and the gangs are not turf oriented. Unlike Hispanic gang members who move away from their barrio and still remain affiliated with their original gang, Black gang members will typically join a new gang when they move away.

The authors of Understanding Street Gangs’ also point out differences between Hispanic and Black gang behavior in terms of their graffiti and tattooing practices. Less ornate and “loaded with profanity and expressions of individual power,” Black graffiti contrasts to the “expressions of group or gang power found in Hispanic graffiti.” Also in contrast with Hispanics, black gang members are unenthusiastic about using tattoos to show gang membership. One reason, the authors point out, is that “these youths tend to be more individualistic and less inclined to identify themselves permanently with any one group.”

A theory that could explain why African-American youths join gangs is the “Lower Class Boy Lower Class Culture Theory.” In Gangs, Graffiti and Violence’ the authors discuss this phenomenon in the conbook of a significant difference between the Hispanics and Blacks. The African-American believes “that American society has not allowed him the same respect or the same standing that White males have been allowed.” Given the lack of family structure (single-mother families, no male role model influence), gangs provide an alternative role model of “manliness” from the street subculture.

Maslow’s Hierarchy or Needs provides a better explanation of why young black youths join gangs. Gangs provide a mechanism for socialization: “and being a member of a gang provides its members with a sense of power, belonging, unity, a special name, a certain type and style of clothing, and even a special language.”

In summary, Maslow’s theory seems to provide the most consistent and useful explanation of membership in both Hispanic and African-American gangs. In Understanding Street Gangs’, the authors point out that the theory “can effectively explain the behavior of street gangs.” As described previously, socialization needs a sense of belonging, a need for respect are met through gang membership. The more basic needs physiological, and security come into play as the child learns how to satisfy them through observing and learning the illegal behavior of others and seeks to belong to a “family unit, weak as it may be.”

(Author’s note: In this article I refer to several sociological theories of deviant behavior, which, if this were an article in a magazine, I would summarize in side bar. For the purposes of this presentation, however, and since I have illustrated each theory with examples of individual gang behavior, I rely on the reader’s intelligent interpretation of each theory.)