Power is something which a lot of people seek. It gives them sense of superiority and security. No one wants to be in a weak situation or likes to be victimized. Sometimes the weak ones join strong ones to save themselves or in other cases all weak ones group together to form their new powerful identity. Same is the case with females joining male gangs and others forming their separate female gangs as they have more distinct positions in their own gangs.
Currently there is no specific definition of a gang. The term is extensively used for explaining the activities of peer groups that vary from young individuals who organize themselves to spend time on streets to the members of very organized structures of criminals. Furthermore, it is evident that too much use of this term can have damaging effects on teenagers who are involved in group-based offense. The reason behind is that labelling them as gang would encourage and glamorize their anti-social behavior and distract attention from the actual underlying problem of young people involved in such activities (Fitch).
Reasons Behind Joining Gangs
Morales (2015) reported that the most common reason behind females joining such kind of gangs is protection from other girls but it happened sometimes females have joined such groups to save themselves from their father’s physical or sexual abuse. Not all the times it is the fault of parents. Sometimes these girls become rebellion against their parents. They don’t want to follow the rules and regulations set by their families. They crave freedom and fun which is provided by these gangs. The gang finally replace their friends and families and they give them sense of belongingness. Usually the older female of the gang take the role of mother or advisor to help the younger ones. There are other factors which attract females towards street gangs. As Valdez (2007) pointed out that many young adolescents especially females are attracted to gangs just because their friends or boyfriends are part of it. They could not be called as gang members but they are definitely associated with them. Association with gangs has led females to criminal and delinquent behaviors like carrying drugs (55%), drugs selling (31%) and carrying weapons (27%).
Methodological Issues in Female Gangs Research: Role of Ethnicity
If we look into the literature one thing is quite obvious that studying female gangs was not given importance and it was neglected. This matter was not taken seriously and for long time researchers focused on conducting studies solely on male gangs. The few things which we found about female gangs in written were usually based on the material provided by social workers and journalists and on the statements made by male members of the gangs. Apart from few early studies, the researchers studying gangs did not take matters of female gangs seriously until in 1984 a book written on New York gangs by Campbell got published. Still now, the studies on female gangs are not that much reliable as there are lot of methodological problems with them (Moore and Hagedorn).
As methodological issues are identified in the most studies related to female gang members, Esbensen and Winfree (1998) revealed that incorrect estimation of participation of female gangsters is the result of two interconnected methodological issues i.e. method utilized to collect data and the age of the sample taken. They were of the opinion that such discrepancies had resulted in underestimation of female participation in gangs. They conducted a survey on 5,935 students of eight grade belonging to 42 different schools. The results showed that 38 percent of the sample comprise of female gang members that was greater than acknowledged by previous researchers. While investigating the level of delinquency in girls and boys related to gangs, they found that the girls in gangs are involved in same kind of offenses as the boys but the frequency is low. Whereas few previous researches assume that girls in gangs are just sex objects and they do not commit any kind of violent acts. Another important issue discussed by this study is racial and ethnic composition of gangs. The results confirmed the stereotype of disproportionate involvement of members of racial and ethnic minorities. But they identified that involvement of whites in gangs is greater in this study that is 25% which was underestimated in the previous studies. The problem is that researches have ignored the race/ethnicity issue from the past 30 years and minority population is usually oversampled. Moreover, it was found that gang members belonging to different ethnic groups reported higher delinquent behavior than the nongang members of their ethnic groups.
Female Role in Gangs
In their book The Female Offender: Girls, Women, and Crime, Chesney-Lind and Pasko (2004) discussed the role females play in male gangs. Through different studies they revealed that there is biasness in researchers studying female role in male gangs. They had usually reported statements from male gang members or incorporated their own viewpoints. They have typically regraded them as “maladjusted tomboys” or “sexual chattel” who are just an additional thing in male gangs. Yet other studies on female gang delinquency supported the notion that females have helping roles in male gangs. Conclusively such studies have portrayed girls as either the girlfriends of the males or part of their “little sister” subgroups of the main male gangs. Moreover, they indicated that the role played by the girls in male gangs is “to conceal and carry weapons for the boys, to provide sexual favors, and sometimes to fight against girls who were connected with enemy boys gangs” (Mann 45).
Change in Urban Street Gangs Post 1970s
Coughlin and Venkatish (2003) while discussing change in urban street gang after 1970 reported that the radical change in sociology occurred in that era due to different movements in gender and cultural studies, social history and economics. They revealed that during mid 1980s gangs were depicted by media and law enforcements agencies as being mainly involved in drug trafficking than other illegal things like extortion and prostitution. But researchers found contradictory evidence that drug trafficking is secondary interest of street gangs. Their primary interest lies with identity making, safeguarding neighborhood territory and enjoyment. Researchers have studied Latino gangs in Los Angeles and Chicago and suggested that street gangs involved in drug transportation could not be able to maintain high levels of organization so it was not right to compare them with large corporations or businesses. Another drastic change that occurs in researches after 1970s is studying female gangs separately from male gangs. Researchers have initiated analyzing the experiences and approach of females in gangs directly. Female gangs are being studied by using same categories which were used to study male gangs like violent behavior, recruitment in gangs, leaving gangs, age factor, penal response, enforcement etc. and then comparison was made. The answer to different questions like girls behavior in female gangs is same as the males have in their gangs? What are the reasons behind females joining gangs? They are less violent or more? How the male gangs having female members differ from pure male gangs? While searching the answers of these questions, studies have produced findings that are not consistent. It was found that female gangs like male gangs differ a lot from one gang to the next and these differences also exist across cities and time period. Yet there is agreement by all researchers that female gangs exist and proportion of them given by most studies was around 30%.
Gender Differences in Violent Acts
The female gang violence is the most disputable issue in the present research but there is consensus on one thing that although females are involved in violent acts but frequency is less than males and the severity of crime is also less than their male counterparts. The studies have also investigated the reasons behind joining gangs by females. The most common factors found to be were “identity crises, family dynamics, economic survival, community networks, and social class pressures” (as cited in Coughlin and Venkatish).
Relationship between Social Structure of America and Social Structure of Gangs
The trend towards construction of gangs has its roots in social structure of any society. Sanchez-Jankowski (2003) investigated the relationship between social structure that exist in American society and social structure of gangs. They reported that American society has inculcated in their citizens that they are provided with lot of opportunities but they have to depend on themselves. So the state would not be involved in the lives of people even for the provision of common good. This has produced belief in the society that state is not responsible and helpful to their citizens as it would destroy the spirit which drives human beings to survive adversity and overcome hardships. This notion about inequality by the state is the reason behind evolving gangs as lower class learned that they need to be creative and resourceful to improve their lives. The gangs have started participating in underground economic activities like drugs and other things. No matter we call them deviant from normal economic culture, the truth is that they have adopted the ideology of dominating social and economic culture. As a result the state has increased the number of security personnel to control the ongoing economic activities of different gangs. The gangs in turn also reacted and more young people started joining gangs. So the policy of imprisonment of gang members resulted in gangs with much stronger organizational structure than breaking their strength.
Gang Desistance
The researchers are becoming more and more interested in studying youth gangs from the past two decades. With the growing research in this area another factor which is gaining attention is gang desistance. A study exploring motivation behind leaving gangs found that disillusionment is the basic motivation behind males and females gang members belonging to different ethnic groups (Carson, Peterson and Esbensen). A study based on role exit theory and feminist criminology explored the gender differences in accelerating and consequences of gang detachment in the gang members of Los Angeles and other areas. The results showed that there were few differences between males and females in the gang detachment process. Females reported they were still concerned about threats their families were facing while males reported that they are still being harassed by police even after leaving the gang. Furthermore, study revealed that group processes are responsible for shaping the experiences of disengagement from the gang than gender (O’Neal, Decker, Moule and Pyrooz).
Effect of Parenthood on Gang Members
The effect of parenthood on gang leaving is not well researched area. To explore this factor Mcgloin and Decker (2017) conducted a longitudinal study on 163 females and 446 males belonging to street gangs. The results revealed clear gender difference as females claim of gang membership reduced after motherhood and there is also reduction in the rate of violent behaviors. However, fatherhood had temporarily positive effects on membership of gangs and rate of offending and it was found only in those fathers who were residing with their children. Moreover, it was found that beneficial effect of child bearing occurs mostly when the gang members are becoming parents for the first time. Overall the study concluded that parenthood turned out to be turning point in the lives of particular group of gang members. So this study support the fact that child bearing or caretaking results in reduced violent behaviors in females and they become more nurturing.
Feminist Perspective and Gang Membership
From so many years one debate which is always going on is the approach of feminism in describing violent behavior of females in gangs. Monica Pa (2002) in her article “Towards a Feminist Theory of Violence” discussed the problem of increasing violence among females from the feminist perspective. She reported that feminists have misconception of violence as depiction of power and they view it as display of dominance and control. They always try to justify their acts through different explanations which are biased and inclined towards women innocence. Sometimes it is regarded as reaction to offense and victimization. Feminism has limited itself just to explain lack of power, fear of power and ways of gaining power by women and it has failed to criticize or explain violent display of power.
Criminologists view a great discrepancy between crimes that men and women commit which is generally referred as the “gender gap in crime.” Feminist scholars have always insisted that gender should be included in the research related to criminology. A study conducted by Bell (2009) argued that traditional theories are not enough to explain differences between males and females in crime. It is necessary to consider the feminist perspective of offending that supports the incorporation of victimization of females and the role social organization of gender plays in involvement of females in crime. The results of this study indicated that females who are Hispanics are most probably to be the member of gangs than males who are Hispanics. On the other hand, females who belong to first-generation of immigrants to the US are significantly less involved in joining gangs than their male counterparts. This showed that there is more parental control on girls when they are introduced to different culture. While exploring the risk factors associated with joining the gap, the results showed that there is much similarity between males and females. Factors related to relationship between parent and child, neighborhood disadvantage, school safety and being exposed to aggressive peers affected adolescent boys and girls probability of participation in gangs.
Some researchers are of the view that feminists have underestimated the offensive acts of females. As Carrington (2013) argued against the feminist theory of violence by presenting two views. According to one view the rising violence in girls in countries like Canada, Australia, United States and United Kingdom might be just an artifact of new type of criminalization, policing and social restrictions over young girls. The other view states that the young girls have literally become violent as there is increase in their participation in gangs and activities related to drugs and cyber-cultural activities that are rewarding violence shown by girls. This study argued that no single explanation, cause or theory could explain the rise in the rate of female violence. Most of the simple explanations spreading in popular cultures are propelled by ideology of anti-feminism. He stated that feminist criminology has escaped the problematic issue of female violence by portraying females mostly as victims of violence and very infrequently as perpetrators.
Relationship between Social Movements and Gang Culture
Gangs are usually seen as negative thing from social perspective and their role is always discussed as destructive. But recently some researchers pointed out that apart from negative consequences of joining gangs, there are some gangs which are raising voice for the suppressed or victimized groups of the community. Mostly the social movements run by these gangs are in favor of neglected ethnic groups and they are playing an important role in bringing change in the society. The same issue is addressed by Hagedorn (2017) and he reported that history of many gangs like Chicago gangs revealed that they are also involved in certain positive activities inside the schools and played an active role in social movements. He highlighted the detrimental effects of some educational policies and supported the importance of gangs in the success of social movements. Currently “The Black Lives Matter” movement has the potential of inclusion of gangs in social movements in a positive way. He stressed that strategies should be made to take advantage of these gangs and direct their energies towards productive things instead of trying to completely finish them.
Conclusion
In the light of literature we have discussed it can be said that there is not a single reason behind females joining gangs. From individual to social factors, all are playing their role in motivating female towards gang membership. The strategies to prevent female gang memberships should not only be targeted towards individual risk factors but it should also include risk factors related to family, schools, community and most importantly peer group. Now the question arise is what could be done to prevent youth especially females from joining gangs. Howell (2010) asserted that young people can be protected from joining gangs by strengthening family structure and schools, enhancing supervision from community, training parents and teachers so that they could be able to manage troublesome youth and finally teaching students interpersonal skills so that instead of being aggressive or violent over trivial matters, they learn to find solution in more productive way. While dealing with gang involvement it is necessary to consider that one strategy or intervention plan is not enough for everyone. The need is to systematically assess the problematic behavior that any local young people are displaying and then develop effective action plan accordingly.
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