R Gangs

Gangs suddenly are emerging in waves of violence that have jolted communities well beyond the gangs' traditional big-city bases. The surgence of gangs whose names became symbols, such as the Crips, the Bloods, the Mexican Mafia, the Gangster Disciples, the Vice Lords, and others, are helping to lift homicide rates in our cities.

A justice department review a few years ago found that 42% of the 2,182 cities that responded to the 2002 National Youth Gang Survey reported that gang activity was "getting worse" up from 27% the previous year. In the same survey 87% of U.S. cities with populations of at least 100,000 reported problems with gangs.

over 100,000 gangs run the streets of our American cities]

With these astonishing statistics in today's society, there is a need for more information to the public that will help us to identify if our youth are involved with gangs. If we don't understand why our youth are joining gangs, or how to cope with the youth who are already involved with gangs, then we as a society are not taking the initiative to help solve the gang problems. R-Gangs is a book designed to help you, the reader, to identify and understand as a parent or educator a youth who may want to join a gang or who is already in a gang.