Street gangs have exploded in popularity worldwide. Tattoos, baggy pants, tagging, gangsta style clothes this unspoken threat is always just around the corner in most of the world's major cities. In search of a sense of identity and belonging that their world has denied them, young people are pushed into gangs by a witchs brew of violence, guns, drugs, racism, poverty, families under pressure, and ever-widening slums. Gangs exposes the roots of the problem, from the bidonvilles of France to the favelas of Brazil. It offers a startling analysis of the complicity of the adult world, as well as hard-hitting reforms that might just undermine the appeal of gang life. Most of all, it shows that we fail to understand gangs at our peril.
