Pandillas juveniles; una realidad social

Abstract

This document is the final report of an investigation carried out between the second semester of 2019 and the first semester of 2020. The general objective was to understand the experiences that are part of the process of linking to gangs by some young people from the Tierra Blanca neighborhood, located on the hillside of Siloé in the city of Santiago de Cali, in connection with the construction of their lifestyles. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four people (three men and one woman); the condition to be selected was that they had been part of some youth gang in the aforementioned neighborhood. One of the main findings of the research was that involvement and belonging in these groups generates particular lifestyles for young people, which generates differences compared to other people in the same sector and age range, generating processes of collective identity, but increasing their segregation and social stigmatization; in this way, gang members find it very difficult to adopt other ways of life, being almost permanently excluded from the community and city where they live (in this case Cali).