The "causative" factors are school problems, family problems, and the lack of employment opportunities. Failure of immigrant Chinese youth to bond with the values of family, school, and community, together with the isolation and disorganization of the Chinese communities, alienate these youths from their communities and the larger society. Free from both internal and external control, adolescents easily drift into delinquency. Critical "intervening" factors, however, are affiliation with an internalization of Triad (Chinese criminal societies) norms and values. If a group of Chinese delinquents is not exposed to these subcultural norms and values, the group will not develop into the type of street gang that has flourished in American Chinatowns.