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Youth gangsters have grown to become a common sight and a festering issue in the Western province of Sri Lanka,
especially in the Colombo district. This issues is excessively prevalent among the poverty stricken and ill-educated
communities in the city. Thus, the behavioral patterns of gangs and related matters have been subjected for researches
conducted by varied researchers throughout the world. It has been identified that there are distinctive variables associated
with the lives of gangsters, out of which their family background, socio-economic settings, social stratification factors,
addictions and. social adaptation etc. have become key factors. In an in-depth inquest of those studies, it clearly reveal
that a sub culture is emerged in forming gangs in line with socio-economic, cultural and religious backgrounds prevailing
in different countries. Merely to understand or combat this apparently incontrollable, growing and unbearable phenomenon,
authorities and academics must ask: What are the root causes? Who invites them to the streets? What sustains them on
the streets?
In addressing the above, this paper has been developed to understand the factors that attract youth onto the streets and
the factors that playa pivotal part in sustaining them on the streets, giving specific emphasis to youth gangs operating in
Colombo and suburbs. In supplementing, the research focused on areas to ascertain the negative impact youthgangs
have on the lives of general public in the specified area.
The Research focused on 493 identified youth gang members belonging to 75 gangs within 14 GN divisions in Colombo
ity, within the age group of 18 - 32 years. All the said gangs and the gang members were identified within the study
area through a snowball technique using available contacts and via the data gathered using formal research methods.
