Victimization is a large portion of why females join gangs, as stated above. According to Lisa De La Rue and Dorothy Espelage’s research of 148 females in 7th to 12th grade, over 35% had been kicked out of their house at some point, 11% reported physical abuse in the past month, 15.5% reported sexual abuse in the past, and 47.3% had ran away from their home at some point. It is no surprise either that 53.7% reported to have a gang-involved family member (De La Rue, Espelage, 2014). Problems in the home have reportedly been a major reason females join gangs as the gang life offers an escape. Often times they are forced from their homes or leave the home due to abuse, and the gang provides a source of protection and comfort. Mary G. Harris’s research involved interviewing twenty-one present and former female gang members. The girls studied were Mexican-American gang girls in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California (Harris, 1994). During the interview process, the girls provided responses including “… a common destiny, a sense of belonging and identity, a need for group support and cohesiveness, and a need for revenge…” as to why they chose to join a gang (Harris, 1994, pg. 293). Her research …show more content…
The first, and most common, is mixed-gender gangs that allow female gang participation in the predominately male-run gang. The females may be part of the group and participate in gang activities such as fighting and drug sales, but they all understand that the males have the final say in everything. There may be female gangs that are separate from the male gang, but still report to and follow the orders of the primary male gang. The second is the independent gang, in which females run the gang and are not considered a subgroup or attached to any male gang (Hunt et al.,