Why Girls Join Gangs
A frequently asked question regarding girls in gangs is, “Why would a girl want to join a gang?” Research indicates shared motivations, regardless of gender, for joining gangs (Bjerregaard & Cochran, 2012). Four main reasons that are somewhat overlapping have been identified in research. The primary reason is that gangs provide a sense of belonging (A. Campbell, 1999a; Deschenes & Esbensen, 1999; Fishman, 1999; Joe & Chesney-Lind, 1995; Lauderback et al., 1992; Messerschmidt, 1999; J. Miller, 2001; J. W. Moore, 1999). This overlaps with the second reason, that gangs provide respite from the harsh environments in the neighborhoods, families, and/or schools of many members (Fishman, 1999; L. A. Hughes et al., 2019; Messerschmidt, 1999; J. Miller, 2001). Third, gangs offer safety and protection (A. Campbell, 1999; Fishman, 1999; L. A. Hughes et al., 2019; Messerschmidt, 1999; J. Miller, 2001). Finally, gangs can provide status (Fishman, 1999; Lauderback et al., 1992). Related to belonging and status, a study of largely Latinx youth gangs in Los Angeles indicated a link between Latinx pride and gang membership: Over 90% of the youths reported pride in their Latinx culture (Felkenes & Becker, 1995).
Regardless of gender, living in a neighborhood where gangs are prevalent, is likely one of, if not the, biggest risk factor for gang involvement (Gilman et al., 2014; J. W. Moore, 1991). For example, Joe and Chesney-Lind’s (1999) study of Hawaiian gang members found that for both girls and boys, the gang provides a “social outlet and tonic” for growing up in communities “racked by poverty, racism, and rapid population growth” and lives fraught with boredom due to limited recreational outlets (p. 229). In addition, for both sexes, gang membership provides a sense of family for those youths whose parents are forced (due to the economy) to work numerous hours, or worse, for those youths whose home lives are abusive (p. 229). Similarly, J. W. Moore’s (1999) study of gang members and their families in East Los Angeles reported that, although gang membership serves as a “family” for both genders, given that women gang members are more likely than their male counterparts to report incest histories, more troubled families, living with a chronically sick relative, living with a relative who died, living with a relative who was a heroin addict, and living with a relative who was arrested, gang membership may represent a different peer group outlet and be more of a refuge from family for young women than for young men gang members. Another Los Angeles Latinx gang study also noted that girls reported lower satisfaction/happiness levels regarding their families (Felkenes & Becker, 1995).
How Boys in Gangs Treat Girls in Gangs
Notably, J. W. Moore’s (1991, p. 57) extensive, decades-long gang research reported that despite a strong gendered double standard, there is a significant range in how men and boy gang members treat girl and women gang members. J. Miller and Brunson’s (2000) interviews with gang members in St. Louis found that most members described their gangs as including both (traditionally defined) genders, although like the other co-offending research findings, this is more common among women: 81% of young women reported their gangs had both members and 29% of young men reported their gangs were single-gender. Some of this discrepancy, however, may be due to some of the young men not considering some of the young women who consider themselves “members” as members. Regardless, the all-male gangs tended to view gangs as a masculine endeavor whereas men in the mixed-gender gangs emphasized the masculine while also mentioning the gang’s social endeavors. Moreover, gender segregation in the mixed-gender gangs was most pronounced when it was time to “‘get down to business’: girls did their own thing, and boys did theirs” (p. 434). In J. Miller and Brunson’s study, sexism within the mixed-gender gangs included the girls seeing the boys as equal members, but the boys viewing the girls as lesser members. Possibly, this is because although the young women worried about being jumped and beaten, the young men faced more lethal violence than did the young women (p. 442).
Girl gang members are aware of the male gang members’ sexualizing and conventional notions of them, and the girl gang members monitor other girls both in and out of their gang in terms of appearances and conduct that can be sexualized (L. A. Hughes et al., 2019; Laidler & Hunt, 2001; J. Miller & Brunson, 2000). A. Campbell’s (1999b) analysis of Puerto Rican female gang members in New York City described their frustration with the public perception of them as “whores,” or “ho’s.” Thus, the gang girls “exerted a good deal of social control over one another’s sexual behavior,” where “serial monogamy was the norm and sexual promiscuity was frowned upon” (p. 113). At the same time, they were quite aware of and frustrated with the double standard where males’ infidelity in intimate relationships was accepted and even expected. One study reported that because gang girls are often angered by their own mothers’ use of drugs and violence and inability to realize their mothering roles, and in order to gain their own sense of respectability, they both adopt and reject some of the conventional gender roles.
Bargaining With Patriarchy
Some feminist gang scholars have situated girls in gangs as “bargaining with the patriarchy” (L. A. Hughes et al., 2019; J. Miller, 2001), a concept borrowed from Kandiyoti (1988) that explains marginalized women and girls’ negotiations with a sexist culture and how accepting parts of it is both rewarding and negating. Girls’ gang membership has been situated in “bargaining with the patriarchy” whereby the young women “accept and help perpetuate the marginal position of girls in the gang in exchange for social benefits of gang members, such as protection and respectability in the streets” (L. A. Hughes et al., 2019, p. 4). Notably, L. A. Hughes and colleagues’ (2019) recent analysis of historic 1959 to 1962 Chicago girl gang data did not find girl gang members striving to be “one of the guys” and attributed this to the girls feeling less empowered to try to “pursue equal footing with the boys” given the time (p. 20). Perhaps nowhere is this “bargaining with the patriarchy” more intense than among women in El Salvadoran gangs, with their “precarious” agency:
The ways in which the link between women, transgression and violence is usually addressed, by associating passivity or limited agency with femininity in contexts of vulnerability and harm … the complexity of approaching these … tensions and paradoxes that their violent action entails, since their incorporation into a group such as Salvadoran gangs—which seeks homologation in/of identity through the exercise of violence—means that agency can only be produced from their subjection and simultaneous deviation from the (male) frame of production of the gang-member-prototype. (Santacruz Giralt, 2019, p. 1)
Girls’ length of membership in gangs is shorter than that of boys (Panfil & Peterson, 2015; Pyrooz et al., 2013), which could be further evidence of their independence and agency. Not surprisingly, some (but not all) girls leave gangs due to pregnancy or becoming mothers (Fleisher & Krienert, 2004; Moloney, Hunt, Joe-Laidler, & MacKenzie, 2011; J. W. Moore, 1991). Research on boys/men in gangs as fathers is almost nonexistent.
Summary
This chapter reviewed the extant research on the contexts of women and girls’ offending for many specific offenses. Although there are many gender similarities in the contexts of offending, there are also many gender differences. It was beyond the scope to cover all offenses, but clear patterns emerged regarding the significance of how race, sexual identity, class, and some other variables such as mental health, intersect with gender in offending. Moreover, this chapter documents the impact of societal sexism, particularly gendered roles, and gender-based abuse, regarding women and girls’ offending.