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Why Women Join Gangs

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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 …show more content…

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

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The overall distrust of women is deep-rooted in the majority of the male gang members. Most likely caused by the abandonment issues these youth encountered at an early age when their mothers came to the U.S. seeking work. While the homeboys do not

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Utilizing research findings and realistic experiences, Shakur, Howell, and Griffiths disprove myths about gangs, justify the reasons for young people being recruited because of their desire to be understood by others similar to them, and girls integrating themselves into the groups from their relationships with members. Howell and Griffiths managed to explain the principles behind gangs and their members' lifestyles, while Shakur provided real gangster experiences as supporting evidence for the research findings. Theories to gangs may be existent, but without proper research leading to the findings, or experiences from subjects who lived the lifestyle, beliefs about the organizations merely become empty

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Young people give various reasons for joining gangs. Among the most common reasons are: to belong to a group, protection, earn money, excitement, to be with friends, and it's even a family tradition"(Escondido Police Department). Amongst the various reasons that lead youth

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According to CNN, “Criminal gang membership increased as much as 40 percent in the United States during the past three years, according to an FBI report released Friday. An estimated 1.4 million people are active in more than 33,000 street, prison and outlaw motorcycle gangs across the country, the report states.” Todd Strasser writes the book, If I Grow Up, the book shows the perspective of a kid that lives in the projects. DeShawn, a kid that lives in the projects of Chicago wanted to stay out of gangs, stay in school, and to support his family. But, the conditions got too bad for him, so he had to join a gang.

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In chapter 19 of Membership in Youth Gangs and involvement in Serious and violent offending, Terence P. Thornberry examines the correlation between youth gang membership and their participation in serious crimes. Throughout the reading, Thornberry highlight’s what he believes to be the three most important findings in his research. First, our author provides research exhibiting just how youth gang members are responsible for a majority of serious and violent crimes committed by the general youth. According to the reading, prior studies have determined that gang members are significantly more involved in serious delinquency than non-gang members. For example, Fagan (1990) study of a general adolescent sample revealed that only 23 percent of the participants of the study where a part of a gang, but accounted for 67 percent of felony assaults, 66 percent of minor assaults and 66 percent of robberies.

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This research was to point out three main ideas, drugs, gang relationships and violence. Drugs have been sold and used in gangs for years now. Gang relationships aren't much different from regular relationships only thing different is their is rules and boundary you can't cross. Gang members have always used violence as a way to solve problems.

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In the United States, every year there are around 2,000 gang-related homicides and in the realistic fiction novel, The Outsiders, by S.E Hinton, it explores the issues of gang violence, and teenagers in gangs. Around 40% of all members in gangs are teenagers, who are getting involved in some dangerous things very early in life. In the novel The Outsiders, the “Greasers” which is a gang of all teenagers, fight other gangs and commit serious crimes such as murder. We as a society need to pinpoint why teenagers join gangs and stop them beforehand. We also need to help people get out of gangs if they are already in one.

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Also ”gangs offer protection and governance in places where established institutions fail, and that it makes sense for prisoners to join them,” (Skarbek). This is the main reason people join gangs they are forced to in order to insure their safety. The reason the leaders of the gang allow people to join and keep the safe is explained here ”Gangs can trade far more effectively than lone inmates. Prisoners listen when they threaten violence; members can ease trade from the outside after their release. Consumers, in this case buyers of drugs, benefit too.

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References Egley, A., & Howell, J. C. (2012). Highlights of the 2010 National Youth Gang Survey. Retrieved from: https://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/237542.pdf Sanders, R., & Moore, S. (n.d.). Mandatory Waiver for Juvenile Gang Members in Tennessee. Retrieved from: http://www.belmont.edu/burs/pdf/Social%20Work-%20Sanders%20and%20Moore.pdf Searles, K. (2017).

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Females join cliques or gangs for the similar reason most males do and there are multiple factors and circumstances that have existed throughout their lives. For example, most females see peer pressure, protection, financial chance, identity, and family dysfunction. In the year the 1980s and 90, in the United States, there has been an increase in the national growth of both gangs, which was reported in a renewed academic study of gangs. Of late, the female gang involvement has been ignored or stereotyped, and nowadays it attracts many researchers. There are women scholars who have been in the forefront in the struggle to bring out the relationship or involvement of female in criminology.

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In the 1990s, gang violence was on the rise, where it was dominantly founded in youths. Anderson, Dyson, and Lee (1996) argued that when a group of African American youths join together and commits delinquent acts and crime, they already categorized as gangs to the American public. This affect and many other affects is what creates an increase in gang violence. Those other factors are socioeconomic status, history, race, gendered, and geographic background. They play a huge role on the creation and formation of gangs.

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This paper draws on existing sociological research in identifying a number of theories used in explaining the formation of gangs. The theories discussed are social structure theories, social conflict theory, and social process theories all of which highlight elements of strain in different forms as they relates to gang formation. According to Merton, (as cited in Schneider & Tilly, 2004) structural theories significantly emphasize the role of social and economic structures as the causes of delinquent behavior and tend to treat criminal behavior as the result of the undesirable and dysfunctional structures (P. 3.).

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Introduction Juvenile delinquency due to gang relation has increased drastically. Many people fail to realize that gangs have a considerable influence on the decisions juveniles are making. Adolescents are easily influenced by the members of the gangs and manipulated to commit certain crimes. As juveniles they are not mentally and emotionally mature to make such critical decisions, which in turn allow gang members to manipulate and control the youth they recruit. Juveniles become a part of gangs for several reasons, including, gaining protection, governmental, and social issues.

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