On the surface, Straight Edge gang members and the lifestyle tenets they prescribe to appear to be quite positive.
No drinking, no drugs, no smoking - not even promiscuous sex for some.What more could a mother want?
But police say parents shouldn't be lulled into a what they call a false sense of security if their kids align themselves with this popular group.
That's because investigators say many Straight Edgers have been known to be just as violent and negative as any street gang out there doing drive-bys or trafficking drugs.
"The concern we have is kids getting their first exposure to this are looking up to the long-timers who go out and commit themselves to extremism and violence," said Salt Lake County Sheriff's detective Don Hutson.
"The drug-free stuff is fine, but what's down the road for them is what we care about," he said. "If they weren't doing things that interest us, we wouldn't care. But that's not the case."
One area law-enforcement officials care about is the level of animal-rights activism the "gang of suburban terrorists" has been linked to.
"A lot of the recent terrorism attacks against mink ranchers and fur businesses can be traced to the `hard-liners' of Straight Edge," said Brent Larson, a Salt Lake Police detective and a member of the Salt Lake Area Gang Project.
Along with Salt Lake County Sheriff's detective Brett Magleby, Larson and Hutson spoke to a packed room at the seventh annual Utah Gang Conference in Salt Lake City Thursday.
Magleby explained that the Straight Edge movement evolved from the early '80s when minors attending New York hard-core punk rock shows were marked with a large black "X" on the back of their hands to signify the were not to be served alcohol.
The marking stuck, so now members identify themselves with the thick, broad black marker stripes, proudly proclaiming their beliefs. They also throw the gang's sign, by crossing arms in front of their chests, symbolizing an "X."
"The drug-free philosophy migrated quickly West and is deeply ingrained here in Utah," said Hutson, who went undercover for several months to gather information on the gang. "We deal with them on a daily basis."
Schools are the most popular recruiting places, the detectives said. They identified the Kearns area as a base for much of the gang's population.
When it comes to soliciting members, Straight Edgers are non-discriminatory when it comes to race.
Which confuses some investigators.
"We see a lot of hate propaganda, and many hard-liners end up heading off toward the white supremacist movement," said Larsen. "That doesn't make sense. But not a lot of what they do does."
So how do police respond to parents who call asking what's so wrong with a group of kids hanging out that don't get drunk and do drugs?
"It goes back to the guilt by association theory," Hutson said. "If you're with them, you're a part of them.
"And we've found that you can't be a part of Straight Edge without being associated with the militant, violent factions of the movement, no matter how small or large the actual number of those extremists may be," Hutson said.