Gang violence, crime, and its affects on the community
             A street gang is a group or association of three or more persons who may have a common identifying sign, symbol or name, and who individually or collectively engage in, or have engaged in, criminal activity, or as a juvenile commits an act that if committed by an adult would be a criminal act.
             Stanley "Tookie" Willams was the co-founder of the "Crypts". It all started off when he was 16 years old. Stanley founded the "Crypts" when a neighborhood street gang was causing disorder in the neighborhood. He did it to protect himself and his friends from danger. The gang spread fast and is now in forty-two states on America and in at least one other continent. Stanley was convicted of four murders, and then sent to prison.
             "Stanley is determined to make amends for having been a co-founder of the Crypts. He intends to try in every way he can to guide those youngsters who have imitated him away from the road that led him to death row where he faces State execution. Don't join a gang, You won't find what you're looking for. All you will find is trouble, pain and sadness. I know. I did." (Stanley Williams, 1996, p.1)
             As Stanley faces execution he tries to apologize for his actions, and forever starting the gang.
             Gangs, because of their sinister, hurtful, evil and misappropriated values and behaviors have a threatening and intimidating affect on communities.
             The reasons behind the violence of gangs are many, some are obvious, others hard to figure out.
             "to recruit new members and get rid of undesirables, to exercise revenge or seek redress for perceived wrongs to the gangs, to enhance perceptions of the gang's power and invincibility, to gain respect and to serve as counterpoint or check on what some might call moral restraints or a moral concience" (Arthur, Richard, 1992, p.3)
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