Start in the 1st grade, kids are eager to learn! Want to be part of the big learning experience, doing well relative to all the other kids.

Then they have a problem grasping something that the others don’t.

The more not understanding they run into the more they fall behind. Others start making fun of them etc. At some point, which is sooner for some and later for others, they give up on that subject. The disassociation with society have begun.

Compile enough failed subjects and the person feels they cannot be part of and contribute to society. At that point you have a criminal in the making. His only alternative is to try to operate outside our society. They start making their own society.

Having failed school they are not very good at creating a sane society. Of course with the disassociation from society it is now them vs us.

I have recovered gang members with a simple approach, based on the above, which is complete when they realize they can contribute to society and win at it.

It usually starts with education because without it, as you say, it is almost impossible for them to win. The sad thing, on top of it all, is that punishment does not work. Our full prisons are evidence of that. Not even death sentences stop people. What does work is a reward system where you earn your privileges.

Anyway, I read your article and had to acknowledge what you said.