Childhood rejection and gang involvement in Hakeem's criminal trajectory

¶ … Hakeem's life was unstable from the very beginning. The unfriendly attitude of his father and lack of attention and affection from his mother created a sense of insecurity and ignorance in him. In the beginning, he might have felt sorry for his parent's attitude but with the span of time as he grew older and his need for affection attention started to increase, he started having a feeling of anger for his parents. To satisfy his need for attention and affection, he started interacting with other members of the community, which resulted in his involvement with a criminal gang. Being rejected from his home and having a sense of anger against the society, he felt safe and respected among the gang members, which encouraged him to remain loyal to the gang. As he joined the gang in an immature age, he lacked enough skills and ability to judge as to what is right or wrong and therefore he was soon participating in serious crimes with the gang. Being rejected by his family, the gang served for him as an alternative to his home.

As he showed considerable potential of committing crimes, he was highly respected by the gang members, which in turn satisfied his desire to feel respected and important. As a result of this, he was convinced that violent crimes are the most feasible thing for him to earn a living. Although he tried to adopt a normal lifestyle in later period and found some legitimate job but his violent behavior, developed as a reaction to his parent's ignorance, did not allowed him to continue his job for long.