Responding to Female Gang Involvement (From Female Gangs in America: Essays on Girls, Gangs and Gender, P 133-153, 1999, Meda Chesney-Lind and John M. Hagedorn, eds. -- See NCJ-184395)

• NCJ Number: 184401
• Author(s): G. David Curry
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 21 pages
• Sale Source: Lake View Press
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This chapter examines responses to female gang involvement from research, social service, and criminal justice sectors.

Abstract

The article attempts to provide a representation of the level and nature of the responses and what can be determined about the changing nature of female gang involvement based on information from these three sectors. Two principles guided the examination: (1) Response is an integral part of the development of gang problems at the community and national levels; and (2) The response process must be perceived as including the development and dissemination of perceived knowledge to and from other sectors of the response process. The article uses a dialectical approach to seek understanding of female gang involvement. It stresses ways that identifying contradictions at both the idealistic and material levels can facilitate an enhanced understanding of a nexus of behaviors. A national survey disclosed that the strategies most commonly used by practitioners to deal with female gang involvement were suppression and social intervention. However, these same practitioners considered the most effective strategies to be community organization and creating life opportunities for those youth for whom gangs are the only alternative.