Thug Culture Power

Driving Force Between Thug Culture

By
Relationship Advice Expert April Masini

My child has recently been talking about the "thug culture" at his school. I have no idea what this means, but he says they're trouble-making kids who start fights and bully other kids. What exactly is "thug culture" and where did it come from?

Sincerely,

Thug Clueless

Dear Thug Clueless,

Thug culture was coined when celebrity and fame became celebrated more than virtue. The driving force behind thug culture is power. Power at any cost. Most thugs obtain their power illegally and immorally. The power gets celebrated and worshiped and the means to the power are excused.

Sadly, this thug culture has replaced the family structure. When kids and teens have no family structure that works -- whether because of divorce, multiple divorces, parents who never married, absent parents, health, drug, or financial problems that cripple the family -- they turn elsewhere for support. They usually look for support where it is closest. Sometimes that support comes from a cult. Sometimes it comes from a gang. Sometimes it comes from gang culture or thug culture, where lawlessness is celebrated and an alternative form of family is generated, and that family in this case is thug culture.

April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.

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