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According to the National Youth Gang Survey Analysis that measured the extent of gang problems, there were at least 30,000 gangs and 800,000 gang members active across the USA in 2007. And up from 731,500 and 750,000 in 2002 and 2004. Not to mention the fact that by 1999, Hispanics accounted 47% of all gang members, while Blacks were 34% and Whites 13%.

1.2 Subcultural practices of gangs

When talking about gangs, its inevitable to mention the fact that they have their own styles and rituals. As both Mexican and African American gangs are concerned, they have given symbolic meanings to their style and rituals. For instance, Mexican American gangs historically paved the way for many subcultural trends of contemporary African American gang members like low-riding or smoking 'the chronic'. Also the prison Pendleton shirt served as a trend for the streets, as the 'prisonization of street life'.

Both groups formed subcultural trends that include the hand-thrown set signals and graffiti marking territory. They even brought a new style on fashion, using colored neck bandanas and sports caps in order to signify set affiliation. These trends best fit the youth subcultures in UK by the late 1960s.

The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), founded in Birmingham in 1964, firstly emerged the rise of subcultural studies in the UK. Stuart Hall, Ken Gelder, Dick Hebdige and others explored the ways in which urban youth adapt and use rituals as symbolic responses to societal issues like poor wages, unemployment or educational inequality.

Best to fit in this climate of urban decay were the 'Crips' due to the fact that they gave structuralist meanings to their own styles and rituals. As gang sociologist Malcom Klein explored, yearning for identity is a powerful incentive for joining an African American gang. Gang nicknames replace birth names, creating new possibilities for individual identity, as part of identification with the larger gang unit.

Cultural historian Robin G. Kelley explores Malcom X's contribution in the subculture of black working class youth during the WWII as detailed in The Autobiography of Malcom X (Haley, 1965). Keley's domains of interest were fashion, music and dance and according to him, partaking in this subculture helped Malcolm X and other youths to establish identities that resisted the hegemonic culture of the era with its racism and white nationalism. In Kelley's opinion, black youth constructed their own subcultural image as a direct response to common social issues of the era.

Furthermore, the development of the gang subculture needs to be considered in the wider economic, political and social setting of America, California and Los Angeles. Gang's experiences along with its traditions, customs and styles serves as cultural form and entertainment. For instance, the neck-scarf and Pendleton shirt became items of fashion outside the ghettos in the 1980s. This was considered by Hebdige as 'currency for exchange'. The gang's subcultural responses to the social issues of the era rapidly became material for rap music本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。