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Girlfriends, Gun-Holders, and Ghetto-Rats? Moving Beyond Narrow Views of Girls in Gangs

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Delinquent Girls

Abstract

What is the role of girls in gangs? Are girls “real” gang members? As with many questions, it depends upon whom you ask. The director of a multi-agency gang task force in southern New Mexico talked at length with me in 1996 about gangs and gang members in the area, but when I asked him about females’ involvement, he replied, “Oh, there aren’t any female gang members.” His answer surprised me, as a recent survey that our Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program evaluation team conducted in Las Cruces middle schools showed that 40% of self-reported gang members in that sample were female (Esbensen and Peterson Lynskey 2001). Law enforcement data over time consistently report that females make up less than 10% of gang members (see, e.g., Curry et al. 1994; National Youth Gang Center 2007). Similarly, several (though certainly not all) male gang members interviewed in Miller and Brunson’s (2000) study voiced their opinions that whereas girls hung around the gang, they were not to be considered gang members: “There ain’t no girls in our gang. Like the girls we talk to, they’ll try to say they from our ‘hood, but…they ain’t from our gang” (p. 431).

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Acknowledgments

Some of the research reported in this chapter was supported by two grants from the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice: Award #94-IJ-CX-0058 and Award #2006-JV-FX-0011. The research conducted under the latter grant was made possible, in part, by the support and participation of seven school districts, including the School District of Philadelphia. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this manuscript are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice or of the seven participating school districts.

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  1. School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA

    Dana Peterson

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  1. Dana Peterson
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Correspondence to Dana Peterson .

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  1. RTI International, Cornwallis Drive 3040, Research Triangle Park, 27709, North Carolina, USA

    Shari Miller

  2. Oregon Social Learning Center, Shelton McMurphey Blvd 10, Eugene, 97401, Oregon, USA

    Leslie D. Leve

  3. , Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 84112, Utah, USA

    Patricia K. Kerig

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Peterson, D. (2012). Girlfriends, Gun-Holders, and Ghetto-Rats? Moving Beyond Narrow Views of Girls in Gangs. In: Miller, S., Leve, L., Kerig, P. (eds) Delinquent Girls. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0415-6_5

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