NCJ Number
170009
Journal
Gang Beat Volume: 9 Issue: 2/3 Dated: (Winter/Spring 1998) Pages: complete issue
Date Published
1998
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This paper provides an overview of the participation of girls in California gangs, including their numbers, status, and behavior.
Abstract
Although girls compose 10 to 30 percent of a gang's membership, there is little information about them. Most girls still function in roles auxiliary to male gang members, but girls are beginning to form their own gangs or cliques and join in male gang criminal activity. Female participation in gangs varies in every culture; however, the reasons for gang participation remain constant. Family violence, including child abuse and neglect, is the common thread running through female gang membership and female violence. Girls range in status in gangs from peripheral to hardcore members, and they have identifiers similar to male gang members, but with the addition of earrings and hair accessories that bear gang colors. The most common way for a girl to be initiated into a gang is to be "courted in" or "jumped in" (physically beaten) for a specified period of time to prove her commitment to the gang. Committing a crime is another method of initiation. Females are active in all types of gang-related crimes, ranging from vandalism to homicide. The intensity and sophistication of their involvement is increasing at an alarming rate. Females have become very involved in victim-witness intimidation, because they are able to go undetected. Female gang members attend court proceedings to obtain intelligence on cases.