Sometimes the love that teenagers get from gangs is greater than the love that they receive from their own families.

“We’re like a family. We do sh-t together, we get money together. I’m going to bang for my dogs and they are going to bang for me,” said Gerard.

But I wasn’t satisfied with just one opinion. So I went to Joseph and asked him if he considered the Latin Kings to be like a family. He said, “Well, they are not like my family, they are my family.”

Taz said if she joined the Bloods, she would “get the satisfaction of having another family.”

With these three quotes, I put three and three together. Joseph, Gerard and Taz are all...