I think one thing most people don’t realize about gang members is that they are very immature. They seek to be around people they can control by force because they have the power of the gang behind them and this makes them Little Big Man. Morally, they’re non-existent; but in terms of self-preservation, they’re weak individually and they therefore seek to dominate others through their gang membership because they can’t make any progress on their own.
Most of them didn’t graduate from HS or get a GED, they’re losers outside of their druggie circle, and this is one of the reasons they hang around high schools, because they can intimidate these kids easily.
One of my daughters went to a high school in New York where the gang bangers used to hang around outside looking for other black kids (who were not gang bangers) they could beat up on the way to the subway because these kids were actually trying to do something and improve their lives. NYPD finally assigned special officers to protect the decent kids on their way to the subway.
Gang bangers are insecure about themselves. Insecurity at its worst.