Every organization of any sort, including gangs, must either recruit or train new members over time; otherwise, it will cease to exist.
The senior, more established individuals in the group, will have to figure out the most effective methods to bring in many new faces into the inner circle to keep the organization alive and thriving.
The more members a gang can retain, the higher chances the gang has to achieve its purposes, no matter what they might be.
Some gangs use seduction and outright deception to lure new members, while others resort to coercion or other dubious, sometimes forceful techniques.
Most street and prison gangs are fugitive from justice because they are associated with criminal activities such as drug and weapon trafficking, prostitution, kidnapping, etc.
Existing members would often flaunt the amount of money they make from illegal businesses as a way to attract outsiders to join in.
But potential members do not merely become members just by asking for it; they must engage in an “initiation” ritual, which can be gruesome, bloody, and deadly in many cases. A different gang uses a different initiation. Some of the well-known rituals are as follows.
10 /10 Cannibalism
They were founded in 2011. A criminal organization based in Mexico known as Knights Templar Cartel is now believed to be a defunct organization following its leader’s death in September 2017.
However, the remnants of the cartel are still operating to a lesser extent. The cartel was involved in all sorts of illegal activities, including but not limited to murder, robbery, drug trafficking, racketeering, and extortion.
According to some testimonies, new members of the cartel must be willing to engage in a cannibalism act in which they were forced to eat children’s hearts as part of the initiation ritual.
9 /10 Getting Squared-In
With tens of thousands of members all across the United States alone, The Crips gang is one of the most dangerous and elusive criminal organizations in the country.
Crips have a cruel, violent reputation and are known to be involved in various illegal acts such as murder, robbery, and theft, among others.
The initiation method for any new member is an example of how brutal the gang’s behaviors are. In an online video “Inside a Gang Initiation with the Silent Murder Crips,” one recruit identified merely as “JT” had to get squared-in by several members and took a brutal beating.