Wanted: Lost Boys To Join Gangs
Wanted: Looking for adventure? Limited educational skills required. No experience needed. In-house training provided. Good renumeration and peaks. No retirement package. If you are between 12 and 18 years of age, apply to join our family and become part of our neighbourhood gang.
Sir James Matthew Barrie, the Scottish novelist and playwright’s famous 1904-play Peter Pan The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, is set in Neverland, an imaginary place where Lost Boys find a home, share adventures and they never grow old. This romanticized fiction sugarcoats the harsh realities of Lost Boys turning to gangs to find their identity, acceptance and a misguided meaning to their lives. Like Barrie’s ‘Lost Boys’ who “fell out of their prams when their nannies were not looking” most gang members have been abandoned, abused and neglected by their parents, ostracized by society and recruited into an anti-society – the gangs. Others have parents who tried their best under difficult circumstances, but the lucrative possibilities, opportunity for recognition and plain peer pressure proved too much to resist.
Several psychologists, including Sigmund Freud, Margaret Mahler, John Bowlby, Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson developed theories around the different life phases any individual progresses through from birth to adulthood to death. The theory of 1970-Pulitzer Prize winner Erik Erikson is well-suited to illustrate the developmental map of a prospective gang member.
Erikson identified the following life stages:
Hope: 0 –1½: Basic Trust versus Mistrust: Forming basic trust or mistrust not only depends on the nurturing relationship with the mother, but also on a consistent, stable and safe environment. When the child’s physical and emotional needs are met, the child learns to trust the environment and they trust others will support them.
Children who are neglected, abused or abandoned and who grow up in an unpredictable environment learn to mistrust. The world is an unsafe place and their default setting is negativity and despair.
Will: 1½ - 3 years: Autonomy versus shame: This is the time when children become mobile and gain control over their own muscles. They become independent and want to do things by themselves. They need freedom to explore their environments. If they are shamed, teased or humiliated in their attempts, they develop a deep-seated self-doubt. Shame and doubt occur when the child feels incompetent in their ability to complete tasks and survive. Will is achieved with success of this stage. Children successful in this stage will have self-control without a loss of self-esteem. Yet those who fail will develop a deep-seated inferiority complex and always doubt their own abilities. They are never good enough.
Purpose: 3 -5 years: Initiative versus guilt: Children show initiative to interact with peers. They begin to make independent decisions. If their parents, or caretakers communicate they are a burden to others, they develop guilt feelings. They feel guilty for existing. This is exacerbated when their natural curiosity about the world is ridiculed or neglected.
Competence: 6 – 11 years (latency): Industry vs. inferiority: Children compare their self-worth to others. Peer influence starts to kick in. The child can recognize major disparities in their own personal abilities relative to other children. Children with learning disabilities, physical deformities, growth hormone deficiencies, autism spectrum, ADHD are extremely sensitive to being different. Feeling they do not measure up to peers can cause major inferiority complexes which are often compensated for by violence or withdrawal and emotional shutdown.
Fidelity: 12 – 18 years: Identity vs. role confusion: Children are set to form their ego identity. Their personal beliefs, morals, values and goals are explored, but they are still heavily under the captive influence of the peer group. Belonging to the group can override individual desire or their moral compass. They are preoccupied with their appearance, hero / influencer worshipping and ideology. They need a group identity. They are societally orientated and begin to seek their place in a family, career and adult life.
They seek a sense of belonging. If they have been neglected by their family, lack self-esteem and confidence, have a general mistrust in conventional society and see no hope for future employment, they opt for joining the gang and a lucrative criminal career, which also provides an outlet for their aggression and thrill-seeking typical adolescent behaviour. Aggression against fellow members is not tolerated and severely punished, strengthening the ‘brotherhood’, but aggression against rivals is sanctioned. Within a gang, these youngsters are not judged for not fitting in a conventional society, they are rewarded for it. Their appearance, tattoos, secret language and strict hierarchy tell them exactly where they belong and how they can advance their position for more recognition.
But the deck of cards predicting gang membership is not limited to developmental phases. Socio-economic circumstances play a role. Traditionally poor economic, less-advantaged, crime-ridden communities produce more gangs. However, it must be stated there are children within these communities who do not opt for gang membership and become productive members of societies despite their origins. Likewise, some children of privileged societies also choose gang membership above legitimate careers.
Latest research indicates prenatal trauma such as alcoholic and drug dependent mothers; abusive, alcoholic, drug dependent and absent fathers, epigenetics, biological markers and neurological damage are all factors to consider why Lost Boys become gang members.
