Why Women Join Gangs

There is no denying that today, gang involvement is still very present and still a huge social concern in out society. Now a days, being in a gang is seen to be cool and is a way to earn respect form peers and one of the toughest and most dangerous decision that an individual has to make as a young adult is if they want to join a gang or not. One of the biggest topics when it comes to gangs is gender. We often hear about males joining gangs but we don’t always hear of females being involved in gangs let alone being gang members. When we think about the word “gang member” we typically picture a masculine male that commits a variety of serious and petty crimes. We don’t picture a female as being masculine and we definitely don’t picture a female when we think about the word “gang member.” If we were asked to visualize a female in a gang we usually stereotype them as being sex objects or tomboys. Even though we don’t usually think

According to the U.S Department of Justice (2001), the reasons that young adults join gangs can be either complex or for personal reasons. In their most recent study, it was found that just like male gang members, females join gangs because of economic problems and because of gang-family involvement and the pressure that comes from that family dynamic (pg. 2). According to Deschenes and Esbebsen (1999, pg. 63), traditionally, it is more common for males to be involved in gang and gang activity versus females. This is because this is the norm in our society and it is the stereotype when it comes to males