Youth gangs have been part of New York City life for a long time. Youth gang raises crime and murder rates and drug dealing while it also decreases graduation rates in high school. Youth gangs and gangs in general are a big problem in New York. Living in New York gives a lot of opportunities for youth to fall under the influence of violent gangs. While there isn’t that one definite answer as to why youth join gangs, there are in fact multiple major reasons why kids would join gangs.  The average age of gang members starts out very young, as young as 17 year of age. In the essay “Youth Gangs” written by Mark Berkey-Gerard states that “.. Average age of gang members is 17, nearly half of all gang member range in age from 18 to 25.” At that young age a lot of kids worry about bullies and seek protection. One mistake they make is joining gangs for protection. Mark wrote about a 19 year old girl named Vargas, who is part of the Latin Queens. She stated one of the reason youth joins gangs is because “Our youth born together for protections and opportunity." While this may seem like a good solution for these kids, it often put youths at risk because the reality of joining a gang is more dangerous than protective. For instance, it was stated gang related homicides increased nearly 5 times from 1987 to 1994.  Power and respect also play a major role of why youth gangs and gangs in general are formed in the first place and why more people join gangs. These gangs are called “Turf gangs” which started as early as 1940’s, where gangs defended their areas with neighboring ethnic groups and new immigrants. In some neighborhoods where less police protection is offered, gangs formed to protect their neighborhood against other neighborhoods. Social classes have a lot to do with gangs as well. Mark’s essay said “Most gang member come from lower or working-class backgrounds looking for a way to gain power in the social order”. Y