[ilaksh]

I think it comes down to economics. Countries are not islands. Poor countries and poor neighborhoods create a situation where people legitimatize criminal gangs. Many men may see that as the only way to gain any power.

In a country with more money, more opportunities and a vietual police and military monopoly on force the situation is different. We have many, many prisons in America. But think about what it was like in the prohibition era. I would argue that the biggest difference was actually economic.

[edgyquant]

Not even just power, I grew up in a fairly poor neighborhood (in the US) and most of my friends were pretty poor. The guys who sold weed or harder drugs had a lot more money to spend than those who worked legitimate jobs as teenagers. When you’re given the option of working a job that doesn’t respect you and then going to college so you can make a few thousand a month seven years from now or selling drugs and getting that plus respect now it isn’t hard to see why people choose the latter. And that’s in the US in the developing world the choice is more be poor and maybe work in agriculture, take a chance and moving far away and maybe finding a decent job or getting into a gang where you can take care of your family now.