"Scouted"

As I headed into work on the 242 bus this morning, I overheard two school children talking to each other about their friends. One of the boys said that a friend had just been "scouted", in other words, recruited into a gang. My ears pricked up immediately. It saddens me that some young men - by accident or design - become gang members and then, invariably, find themselves involved in a whole lot of trouble. Am I right in thinking that some are forced into it by peer pressure, while others just want to 'belong' to something and enjoy a sense of power, support and respect that, otherwise, they would never experience? It is not, and never has been, part of my own world, so I'm not best placed to comment. I was just unsettled by the comment...