NCJ Number
184395
Editor(s)
Meda Chesney-Lind,
John M. Hagedorn
Date Published
1999
Length
361 pages
Annotation
This is a collection of essays about girls and gang membership.
Abstract
The book includes essays that chronicle the earliest research on girls, gender, and gangs, including a retrospective paper on African American girls in Chicago gangs of the 1960s. Some papers explore the degree to which gangs are sites for “doing gender,” while also revisiting the emancipation versus victimization theories. Some essays also explore the role of economic marginalization in girls’ membership in gangs, the family life of girls in gangs and ethnic and geographic variations in girls’ experience of gang membership. Several papers consider girls and violence inside gang life and the media construction of girl gang membership as part of the larger backlash against girls and women. Several essays debate the impact of economic restructuring on female gangs and the stability of gender roles in the information age. The book considers the ways in which girls’ lives, troubles, and gang membership are inextricably connected. The focus on girls and gang membership also illuminates important similarities and differences between female and male gangs, thereby contributing to an understanding of the role of gender and gangs in the lives of young people in America’s racial, political, and economic margins. Tables, figure, notes, references, index