VICTIMS

OPPORTUNITY

Not all children who join gangs are victims of the cycle. Many children are given a choice. A gang intelligence officer who works for the Department of Youth Services said:

​

"We try to break the cycle by showing family engagement opportunities for counseling and also try to get them away from that lifestyle by doing things with them that they’ve never had. They’ve never had a family so we try to take them to parks and do certain recreational activities away from gang members away from being on the streets and away from drugs and guns and all of the violence that they’re used to on a daily basis. We do barbecues at the facilities for the families. We do a lot to try and intervene and try to break the cycle of the gang lifestyle.

​

 We’ll even place them in different communities, away from Springfield away from where they know. So that they’re forced to make other friends and acquaintances. It's just a repetitive cycle. Because their uncles are in it, their dads are in it, their older brothers are in it so it's just easier to follow in their footsteps. And that's what they want. They want a sense of family and belonging.

​

A lot of them are from low-income families, low-income communities. They don’t have food. They have hammy-down clothes, and then they see these other people with brand new everything, nice cars, girls, drugs, whatever they want, and a sense of family. So it's hard to break that cycle. I’ve seen pictures of babies at Burger King wearing the little King hat, wearing all black and gold, or babies wrapped in a red bandana as soon as they’re born. Why would you want that for your kids. But they do. They don't know anything else" (Officer Ribeiro).