Near groups were characterized by diffuse role definition, limited cohesion, impermanence, minimal consensus of norms, and shifting membership expectations. In this article, the findings from the original research are reorganized in the general theoretical tradition of collective behavior, and specifically in terms of the concept of a social movement. This recasting of Yablonsky's observations provides additional insight into the conflict patterns of delinquency described elsewhere. When the violent adolescent gang is viewed as a social movement, its nature and the consequences for individual members and the community are based on its associational characteristics rather than on the psychic structure of its culture. This perspective more completely explains why adolescents in disorganized urban areas are easily coopted into the gang's collective violence. This approach suggests that the means of eliminating gang violence is to provide adolescents with a sense of structure and the belief that society has a future for them as adults. 39 notes