Essay on The Psychology of a Female Gang

The dynamics of a female gang member’s lifestyle differs from that of a male gang member. When discussing gangs, one should keep in mind that these groups of individuals are at times a well-organized group with specific positions and rankings. The female’s role in most gangs consists of assisting in and completing violent criminal activities, such as fighting, organization, and love. Due to the public displayed image of predominately male gang members; female gang members are used for luring male victims into traps through their sexuality.

Anderson posits that this is a major reason why they join gangs; they want to earn their “manhood” or at least learn what it means to be a man. This leads to them getting a twisted idea of what it is to be a true man (Anderson 14-16). Another issue that Anderson discusses is the growing intensity of girls becoming more violent in reaction to different types of threats to respect such as rumors and gossip. While Anderson does say girls are less prone to killing others based on these issues, there is still a rise in fighting amongst those in the areas these gangs run rampant (Anderson 16-18). Finally, Anderson ends his article with a final component in which gang members try to earn a reputation for being “bad” as they call it. This comes down to the willingness to perform risky behaviors, and how little they fear death as a result of their activities (Anderson 18-19). Anderson terms this kind of culture to be an oppositional culture (Anderson 20).

Although it has been well known that males tend to make up the majority of gang members, an increasing number of female gangs have been showing up; Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Manitoba are just a few of the provinces where female gangs are popping up (Statistics Canada, 2008). Often the study of the female youth gang rate is neglected within research and the correlation between the gangs and social economic facts are forgot about (As cited in Jacob, 2006). Gangs and Girls: Understanding Juvenile Prostitution by Michel Dorais and Patrice Corriveau discusses how “gangs often use girls as accomplices

Many people recognize that gangs have been around for what seems like forever. What they don't realize is that the numbers are increasing to amazing proportions, there were 28,000 youth gangs with 780,200 members in the United States (in 2000) and 20% to 46% of those members are female (Evans). And what is even more shocking is, in Chicago alone there are 16,000 to 20,000 female gang members (Eghigian). These girls start out as ?groupies?, become members, and sometimes even leaders of all-girl gangs because of troubles in the home, a need for money, for the social scene, or just because it is all they know.

Within the last decades, gangs have become one of the fastest growing issues in the United States. When most people define gangs, females are not part of the definition. Most government officials and researchers do not see females a contributor to the fasting growth of gangs in the United States when in fact, the number of females associated with gangs is constantly increasing. Female gang membership in the United States is estimated to be between 10 and 35 percent of the gang population, with some studies showing the numbers to be as high as 20 to 46 percent of the gang population (De La Rue & Espelage, 2014). Female gang membership is a problem that most people ignore, most of the material written about females in gangs is incomplete and

Two sociological theories that may be used to analyze the lives of the girls presented in the documentary, Gangsta Girls, are the differential association theory and the labeling theory. Edwin Sutherland came up with the differential association theory sometime in the late 1930s. His hypothesis proposes that we learn to be deviant through or associations with deviant peers. Essentially, this theory is self-explanatory as it suggests that basically peer pressure can enable you to perform acts that are considered deviant in nature. This factor of peer pressure is what acts as a catalyst for you to exhibit deviant behavior. An example of this could be your friend telling you to cut class with them. Since they’ve done it before, you may feel more

Many of the research that has been done on gang membership have been concentrated on the male population. The minimal work that has been done on female gang membership is reference to the young women has secondary roles or as sex objects in the gangs. However, women roles in gangs are changing in a steadily pace in which female gang member are committing more serious criminal crime and delinquency. The delinquency has been linked towards both serious and minor forms criminal activity. The delinquent behavior for gang members has been established by many factors in particularly in the neighborhoods one lives in. The neighborhood that female gang members live in has a differently impact and development toward them rather than compared with male

At this time, it is impossible to believe that youth gangs and juvenile violence is a myth. There is no denying that there are gangs and they are brought about by many of America's youth who wants a quick fix in life. There are plenty of studies to back this up. Results from a national survey of law enforcement jurisdiction showed that there are almost a million gang members in the United States alone. Within that ‘million’, there were 46,000 people involved in gang accidents that spurred violent crime in the country. Due to our general information about gang formation, it is common to blame their development on poverty and other social problems. You must start by looking at the availability of drugs and weapons in the community.

Gangs go way back in time, and have been around for longer than most of us know. Even Newspapers during the economic collapse in the 1800s reports juveniles harassing and assaulting residents of the city. (Grennan, Britz, Rush, & Barker, 2000). Since gangs have been around, there have always been theoretical explanations of the social problems that goes hand and hand with gangs. A false representation of gangs that I have heard many students talk about it the

Ethnicity is associated when determining which gang is beneficial to them. An individual typically links with their own race. Gender also plays a role, males are more likely to join a gang rather than a female. One's self-esteem plays a valuable influence followed by traumatic events that could have taken place in their life. Adolescents that are linked to gangs have behavioral connections to pro-sociality, hyperactivity, fearlessness, and non-covenantal attitudes.

Yes, I do think that the Labeling Theory, which is also called the Social Reaction Theory can be used in creating prevention/intervention gang program towards females. The Labeling Theory is a social process approach which states that some people are labeled to as “criminal” by entities such as the court system and its authorities, and law enforcement. Those who are labeled are often categorized as being criminals, troublemakers, and are most often rejected by society because they have not conformed and obeyed the norms of societies “conventional rules,” and that people such as female gang members become criminals when significant members of society label them and they accept those labels and use them to form their own personal identity. The labeling theory is often associated with juveniles and juvenile delinquency; it is also a life-long

In order for us to understand the nature and extent of girl’s gang, we must first consider where our notions and rising interest of girl gangs comes from. This is because, before the 1960’s, majority of mainstream gang research associated youth gangs with the male experiences, failing to throw some light on female gang experiences. This was as a result of

Female participation in gang activities acquired greatest attention due to its “ sensational nature of the media 's portrayal of 'girl gangsters ' (...). During the period of 1990 and of the new millennium” (need or not?)

In the past, there were only a few studies about female gangs as the number of female gangs was not significant.However, a survey researching on the membership structure and the distribution of the local gangs states that there were only 6% of the gangsters were female in 2001 but according to two Youth Outreaching Teams of federation four years later, the number of female gang members has been doubled to around 15%. This growth worths paying attendtions to because this lead to a social problem involves of interaction between both external factors which includes family, school and the society and internal factors which contains self esteem and sex role.

There is a common agreement within the world that deals with men and women being very different. Along with the many physical characteristics that are distinct, it is also known that men and women think differently as well and may have different reasons for their actions. Mary Harris is a researcher and the author of “Cholas, Mexican-American Girls, and Gangs”, within her research she has conducted various interviews with females in gangs. From her research she has came to the conclusion that for girls, “Gang member’s behavior is determined by social structures and group culture by defining the perspective and attitude of the girl gang” (Harris 301). In other words, Harris is explaining that peer groups, such as gangs, to females tend to have a powerful influence on them by having certain rules, values, and disciplinary actions. As these females further become members they tend to create cooperativeness which then leads them into a feeling of doing anything for the gang and its members. “For these girls, violence is conforming behavior shaped by the normative standards of the subculture” (Harris 301). Throughout Harris’ interviews she was able to identify that youth deviance in females is created through the constant conforming behavior that is upheld by the members. The conforming of norms within the gang such as being more violent is very common. The reasons for youth deviance for females in a gang is because of wanting more territory, be in control, and to gain power and