U.S. Department of JusticeOffice of Justice Programs
National Institute of Justice
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
CHANGING COURSE
Preventing Gang Membership
Chapter 9. How Can We Prevent
Girls From Joining Gangs?
NCJ 243473
How Can We Prevent Girls From Joining Gangs?
Meda Chesney-Lind
• Girls are in gangs, and in fairly large numbers; in the U.S., girls may constitute one-quarter to
one-third of all youth gang members.
• Although girls join gangs for many of the same reasons boys do, there are a few gender differences; for example, girls — particularly in abusive families — are more likely than boys to
regard a gang as a surrogate family.
• Most girls join mixed-sex gangs that are run by boys whose attitudes about girls, sexuality and
gender roles cause unique risks and harm to girls.
• Strategies and programs aimed at preventing youth from gang-joining must address issues
that are unique to girls and the contexts that can lead them to join a gang; such strategies and
programs include the need to prevent sexual abuse, strengthen family relationships, provide
them with safety in their neighborhoods, help them avoid substance abuse and abusive boyfriends, and improve their skills to delay early sexual activity and parenthood.
In Brief
The United States has seen a sharp increase in gang problems over the past decade. Gang membership is not an exclusively male phenomenon: According to the most recent national data, girls
comprise at least one-quarter of the youth in gangs — and one highly respected study found the
percentage among youth in a sample from Denver, for example, to be as high as 46 percent. Unfortunately, these facts are often obscured because those watching the gang problem — particularly law
enforcement — typically pay more attention to the behavior of boys than of girls. Another reason for
the relative “invisibility” of girls in gangs is that girls enter gangs — and exit from gang activity — at
earlier ages than boys.
Gangs can offer both boys and girls a sense of belonging and a perceived sense of fun, excitement
and protection. There are some gender differences, however. For boys, more than for girls, a gang
may be seen as a place to make money. Girls, by contrast, are more likely to join a gang because of
a perceived sense of safety and security that they cannot find at home. Although a gang may provide
girls — particularly those from abusive or troubled families — with a sense of a surrogate family, girls
in gangs actually face a greater risk of serious delinquency than their nongang counterparts, including gang-fighting, drug use and sales, and weapon-carrying. Gangs also expose girls to greater risk of
sexual victimization and violence from other gang members in their own or other rival gangs.
“Gender-informed” prevention efforts are critical to helping prevent girls from joining a gang.
Such efforts should focus on:
• Preventing sexual abuse.
• Improving family and peer relationships.
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CH A PT E R 9
• Helping girls avoid substance abuse and abusive boyfriends.
• Improving skills to delay early sexual activity and parenthood.
Of course, other efforts are likely to decrease the risk of gang-joining for both boys and girls,
such as improving the quality of public education, helping them stay in school, and providing
youth in economically marginalized communities with safety in their schools and in their neighborhoods. Without effective, gender-responsive prevention efforts, however, there is reason to
believe that we will continue to see significant numbers of girls as well as boys joining gangs.
A
fter years of decline, the gang problem
in the United States has re-emerged as a
challenge, with the number of jurisdictions
reporting gang problems increasing in the early
2000s and remaining elevated (see chapter 1).1
Despite the image of gangs as stereotypically
male, studies consistently show that girls are in
gangs, and they are there in substantial numbers.
Studies that ask youth themselves about their
gang membership tend to find that girls represent
between 20 percent and 46 percent of youth in
gangs.2, 3 For example, a national self-report study
conducted in 1997 found that girls comprised
one-third of youth who reported “belonging to a
gang.”4 On the other hand, police estimates of
the proportion of female members tend to be
low — often considerably less than 10 percent.1, 5
As Buddy Howell describes in chapter 1 of this
book, although boys tend to outnumber girls two
to one in gangs nationwide, these figures can
vary, depending on the method used to estimate
gang members. For example, researchers who
study gangs in the field tend to find larger numbers of girls than are revealed through surveys of
youth, which are often administered in school.6, 7
Variations in survey results are best explained by
the age of the sample being surveyed: Girls tend
to join gangs at a younger age and leave gangs
earlier than boys.8, 9 One study of youth ages
11-15 found that nearly half of the gang members were girls; however, another survey of an
older group (ages 13-19) found that only one-fifth
were girls.3 In the sample of young people drawn
to evaluate the Gang Resistance Education and
Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program, girls represented
38 percent of those reporting gang membership
in the eighth grade (13- to 15-year-olds).10, 11 This
means that, in addition to focusing on girls when
seeking to prevent youth from joining gangs, we
especially need to focus on the “tweens.”
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Why Do Girls Join Gangs?
Girls join gangs for many of the same reasons
as boys: a perceived sense of fun, respect,
protection and affirmation (see chapter 2).10, 11, 12
In a multistate study of gang youth, many ganginvolved girls (and boys) reported having friends
in gangs (41 percent of boys and 46 percent of
girls) or having a brother or sister in a gang (26
percent of boys and 32 percent of girls). About
half of both girls and boys reported joining gangs
for “protection.” However, boys in the study
were significantly more likely to join a gang for
money: 47 percent of boys compared with 38
percent of girls.10, 11 In another study, girls who
were gang members reported greater neighborhood disorder and crime, more family disadvantages and peer fighting, less parental attachment,
and more concerns about school safety than girls
who were not gang members.12
Researchers who have looked more closely at
the reasons youth give for gang-joining found that
girls tended to “tap an emotional or affective aspect of gang membership” more than boys did.11
This basically means that girls were more likely
than boys to agree that “my gang is like family to
me.” Gang girls were also more likely than gang
boys to report that they were lonely in school
and with friends, and that they felt isolated from
their families. Finally, girls in gangs had lower
self-esteem than did boys in gangs, who, the
researchers found, “actually appear to have quite
positive self-assessments.”10, 11 Girls who are in
gangs also have significantly lower self-esteem
than girls who are not in gangs.13
Researchers, particularly those who have performed ethnographic studies, also note that girls
are often around gangs in other roles — such as
CHAN GIN G COURSE
girlfriend, sister or daughter — that might put
them at risk, even if they are not full-fledged
gang members. In a Texas study, for example,
researchers found that, “regardless of their relationship to the gang, all the females were prone
to some degree of substance use, crime and
high-risk sexual behavior.”14
Although some youth have the perception that
being in a gang offers fun, excitement and protection, the reality is otherwise. For girls as well as
boys, gang membership increases delinquent behavior. Here are some self-reported risk behaviors
comparing young women who are not in a gang
to young women who are in a gang.2, 3, 13
Girls in
a gang
Girls not
in a gang
Carried concealed
weapon
79%
30%
Been in a gang fight
90%
9%
Attacked with a
weapon to cause
serious injury
69%
28%
Gang-Joining: Risk
Factors for Girls
To prevent girls from joining a gang, we need to
understand and address the particular risks that
girls confront in their families, schools and neighborhoods. Compared with their non-gang-joining
peers, girls who join gangs are more likely to:
• Have a history of sexual abuse and trauma.
• Live in a destructive or distraught family.
• Have problematic peer relationships.
• Abuse drugs.
• Live in dangerous neighborhoods and attend
unsafe schools.
Abuse and Trauma
To prevent girls from joining gangs, we need to
effectively address child maltreatment, particularly child sexual abuse. Girls join gangs, at least in
part, because they are suffering abuse at home,
their families are deeply troubled, and they are
searching for a “surrogate family.”15 Therefore,
early gang-membership prevention efforts should
focus on families most at risk of physical or
sexual child abuse or neglect.
Girls in gangs are far more likely than nongang
girls from the same neighborhoods to have been
sexually assaulted — 52 percent compared with
22 percent — with “most of the sexual victimization occur[ring] in the context of the family.”2, 3
Seventy-one percent of child sexual abuse victims
are girls, and most of this is family-related.16
Researchers have found that 60 percent of the
gang girls were victims of physical or sexual
abuse within the family.17
Girls in gangs have serious histories of sexual and
physical abuse. In one study, researchers found
that 62 percent of the girl gang members had
been sexually abused or assaulted in their lifetime; three-fourths of the girls (and more than half
of the boys) reported suffering lifetime physical
abuse.18 Gangs also continue to put their female
members at risk for sexual assault and abuse.14, 17
Three-quarters of girls in a 1999 study of gang
youth in Los Angeles reported that they had run
away from home, more than twice the proportion
of male gang members.19 Running away from
home — which has long been correlated with
sexual and physical abuse — leads to further
criminal involvements (like drug use and sales),
affiliating with other deviant peers, and further
victimization.20, 21
Because child abuse plays such a major role in
placing girls at risk for gang membership, programs that prevent this abuse have the potential
to reduce gang-joining by girls. There is strong
evidence, for example, that early childhood homevisitation programs reduce child maltreatment. In
these programs, parents and children (generally,
younger than age 2) are visited in their home by
nurses, social workers, paraprofessionals or community peers. The parents are given guidance
on parenting (such as how to care for and have
constructive interactions with young children)
and how to strengthen social supports, including
linking families with social services. One such
program in particular, Nurse-Family Partnerships,
has been shown to prevent sexual and physical
abuse of girls and to be effective in preventing
delinquency in youth born to high-risk mothers.22
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CH A PT E R 9
In 2005, the Task Force on Community Preventative Services — an independent volunteer body
of public health and prevention experts appointed
by the Director of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention — recommended early childhood
home-visitation programs for reducing child maltreatment among high-risk families:
Early childhood home visitation programs are
recommended to prevent child maltreatment
on the basis of strong evidence that these
programs are effective in reducing violence
against visited children. Programs delivered
by professional visitors (nurses or mental
health workers) seem more effective than
programs delivered by paraprofessionals,
although programs delivered by paraprofessionals for ≥2 years also appear to be effective in reducing child maltreatment. Home
visitation programs in our review were
offered to teenage parents; single mothers;
families of low socioeconomic status (SES);
families with very low birth-weight infants;
parents previously investigated for child maltreatment; and parents with alcohol, drug, or
mental health problems.”23
For more information on The Community Guide,
a resource that contains recommendations by the
Task Force, see http://www.thecommunityguide.
org/violence/home/homevisitation.html.
Destructive or Distraught Families
To prevent girls from joining a gang, it is important to strengthen family and peer relationships
and, when appropriate, enhance connections with
other adults who can serve as parent figures. This
is particularly true in communities with high rates
of crime and violence, where pressure to join a
gang can be intense.
Some girls in gangs feel isolated from their
families and they regard the gang as an alternative family. Also, some girls who join gangs
report highly problematic relationships with their
families, with both mothers and fathers. In fact,
girls in gangs are significantly more likely than
nongang girls to say they have less attachment
to their mothers, less interest in talking with their
mothers, and less parental monitoring.24 In one
California study of girls in the juvenile justice system who reported more than six types of emotional abuse, all but one were in a gang.25
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Thirty-two percent of girls (26 percent of boys)
say that one of the reasons they joined a gang
is because they had a brother or a sister in the
gang. This suggests that the families themselves
can contribute, for many girls, to the risk of gangjoining.10, 11
When developing strategies and programs to help
prevent girls from joining a gang, it is crucial to
consider important cultural contexts. Some girls
experience the strain of immigration in addition
to the pressures produced by poverty. (See the
sidebar “Girls, Gangs, and Cultural Context.”)
We also must address the need of some girls to
be protected from their families. A study conducted in Hawaii showed that some girls turned to
gangs in response to family violence, saying that
the gang provided instruction and experience in
fighting back physically and emotionally.18 Other
researchers have found that gangs can provide
girls with an escape from duties that are assigned
by their families, such as taking care of siblings
and housework.17, 26
Problematic Peer Relationships
Many girls join a gang because they have friends
in the gang. One study found that 46 percent of
girls (41 percent of boys) gave this as one of the
reasons they joined a gang.10, 11 However, most
girls who are in gangs are in mixed-sex gangs;
one researcher estimated that 88 percent of the
gang girls she studied were in gangs with boys
and young men.2, 3 Because mixed-sex gangs
tend to be male-dominated in both structure and
activities, girls may be at considerable risk not
only for greater delinquent behavior but also for
further sexual assault and domestic violence.6, 27, 28
Despite the fact that some girls look to a gang
as a surrogate family, the reality is that gangs
rarely offer the “protection” girls may be seeking. Not only does gang life increase the risk of
delinquency, some girls are “trained” into the
gang, meaning they are raped by multiple male
gang members as a form of “initiation.”14, 17 Male
gang members may also seriously endanger girls
by including them in very violent crimes, such
as drive-by shootings, or asking girls to serve as
“mules,” decoys or couriers in drug- or weaponcarrying; they are also used as bait in “setting
up” rival gang members.14, 28
CHAN GIN G COURSE
Girls, Gangs and Cultural Context
Cultural context is an important factor in understanding why some girls join a gang. For example,
Latina and Hispanic girls must negotiate the traditional gender-role ideologies of machismo and
marianismo. Machismo dictates that Latino boys
and men should be tough, sexually assertive, and
dominating; marianismo stresses that girls and
women should be submissive and passive in their
relationships with boys and men.29
Young Latinas often resent such constraints. In
one study of Latina and Portuguese mothers and
daughters in the late 1990s, researchers found
that some Latina girls chafed at controls imposed
on them, saying that their parents were “too
concerned” about their safety. They also reported
feeling constrained and frustrated as they saw
their mothers being bound by a culture that expected them to “do everything for everybody.” The
girls said that, if they complained about people
taking advantage of their mothers, their mothers
got angry.30
Many African-American girls must learn to cope
with both sexism and racism, to say nothing of
dangerous communities. Research has shown
that some African-American mothers teach their
daughters “race-related resistance strategies,”
like how not to fall prey to corrosive effects of the
white standard of American beauty.31 Black mothers may also ensure that their daughters learn two
cultural scripts: one for living in the white world
and another for living as an African-American.32
Other research has found that because many
African-American girls grow up in very violent
neighborhoods, their women may also teach their
daughters to “physically defend themselves”
Some girls in gangs also have problematic
relationships with other girls. Girls in mixed-sex
gangs often fight with other girls because of jealousy over boys.26, 33 And, because girls in gangs
generally identify more with males than with
females, they may:
• Tend to ignore male violence toward girls.34
• Blame other girls for male infidelity.35
because they do not want them to become “a
statistic.”36
In fact, conflicts between African-American
mothers and their daughters might well escalate precisely because the girls learn resistance
strategies from their mothers. As Dr. Nikki Jones,
from the University of California at Santa Barbara,
has noted in her book, Between Good and Ghetto:
African American Girls and Inner City Violence,
published in 2010, African-American mothers
defended their attempts to curtail their daughters’
“freedom” by pointing to the “often hostile and
dangerous environments” that their teens lived
in as well as the fact that “they were also less
likely to be given a break when they err than white
teens.”36
Female African-American gang members differ
from Latina and Hispanic gang members in one
very interesting way: how they feel about their
futures, especially heterosexual marriage.
Seventy-five percent of African-American girls —
and only 43 percent of the Latinas — agreed with
the statement, “The way men are today, I’d rather
raise my kids myself.” Similarly, when asked about
the statement, “All a woman needs to straighten
out her life is to find a good man,” 29 percent of
Latinas — and none of the African-American girls
— agreed.37
Prevention efforts must be shaped by the cultures
in which they operate; they must be cognizant of
the dynamics between girls and their mothers, in
particular, because research shows that, although
these relationships are important, they are likely
to be strained with respect to girls who are at the
greatest risk.24
• Use their sex appeal to “set up” rival gang
members.14, 17
• Set up other girls for sexual assault.14, 34
All this can lead to a system of sexual inequality
that encourages male violence and contributes
to girls seeing themselves through the eyes of
males. Because relationships are so important to
girls — and because girls say that they are drawn
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CH A PT E R 9
to gangs for a sense of belonging — it is important that prevention programs focus on promoting a girl’s access to positive peer groups — like
culturally appropriate, school-based empowerment programs — while giving them the skills to
critically challenge destructive cultural themes.38
Prevention strategies that work with potential bystanders or witnesses to sexual violence or dating
violence also have the potential to change norms
and behaviors by addressing bystander behavior
before, during and after violence occurs.39
Substance Abuse
One of the top reasons that both girls and boys
give for joining gangs is “for fun,” and ethnographic research suggests that this “fun” often
includes drug use and abuse. To prevent girls
from joining gangs, we need to prevent substance abuse. Gang membership is clearly associated with increased substance abuse and the
sale of drugs. Comparing girls in gangs with their
nongang peers in the same community:2, 3
Girls in
a gang
Girls not
in a gang
Smoked marijuana
98%
52%
Sold marijuana
58%
11%
Sold crack cocaine
56%
7%
A study of risks associated with gang involvement among Mexican-American girls found that
a cultural view of them as “hoodrats” — girls
who are regarded as sexually available to gang
members — put girls at unique risk.14 Male gang
members reported two kinds of parties: those
with family members and “good girls” (girlfriends
and relatives), where drugs and alcohol were
present but use was moderate; and those attended by gang members and hoodrats at which
there was heavy alcohol and drug use, and the
primary purpose was to get loaded and high.14 For
girls, such a “party” can sometimes include gang
rape, which is often justified by the fact that the
girls were high or because no one “knew her”
and she was drunk.14, 17 One study found that, in
some mixed-sex gangs with older men, girls are
given drugs, which produces the odd anomaly
that more girls than boys were exposed to more
expensive drugs like methamphetamines.40
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It is important to keep in mind that substance
abuse can also be a response to trauma, including abuse at home, and, for some runaway girls,
this can be magnified by the trauma of street
life — all of which can be a risk for gang-joining.
Prevention efforts should also focus on helping
youth avoid or cope with depression and trauma
so that girls are not joining gangs for protection
and using drugs to self-medicate. One study
found that female juvenile offenders were three
times more likely than girls who were not in the
system to show clinical symptoms of anxiety and
depression.41 The links between post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) and drug use are certainly
more pronounced in girls than in boys. In another
study, 40 percent of substance-abusing girls were
experiencing PTSD compared with 12 percent of
boys.42
Urban Women Against Substance Abuse is an
example of an effective program that uses many
of the girl-oriented gang-membership prevention
elements discussed above. Initially focused
on reducing substance abuse among AfricanAmerican girls, the program explores attitudes
and consequences of substance abuse and
teaches alternative stress-reduction techniques.
It also strengthens mother-daughter communication and relationships through interventions
for the girls, parallel curricula for mothers and
monthly mother-daughter sharing sessions. The
program also includes home visits, recreation
and cultural activities. Short-term effects showed
increased school attendance, healthy substanceuse attitudes, increased control over sexual
expression (sexual self-efficacy) and improved
mother-daughter communication. Longer-term
follow-up study revealed that the girls in the
program maintained the same level of healthy
substance-use attitudes, while girls in the control
group experienced increased substance use and
deterioration in substance-use attitudes.43
Dangerous Neighborhoods
and Unsafe Schools
To prevent girls from joining gangs, we must take
very seriously the deteriorated state of neighborhoods and communities. We know, for example,
that in some communities, the ability to fight,
even for girls, is considered desirable and, at a
minimum, youth are encouraged to know how
to negotiate neighborhoods saturated with gang
CHAN GIN G COURSE
members and gang activity.36 Remember that the
reason mostly frequently cited by girls for why
they join gangs is to seek protection in these conditions.10, 11 A key to effective prevention, then,
is to address the contexts that give rise to gang
membership among girls and impede the success
of prevention strategies.
In a hostile San Francisco Bay street environment, girl gang members explained that they
were violent with each other in an attempt to look
tough and protect themselves. As low-income
girls of color and given the constraints of their
location — on the streets dominated by powerful
males — fighting brought these girls status and
honor and made it possible for them to confirm
they were “decent” and “nobody’s fool.”44
In fact, from Maine to inner-city Philadelphia to
a Michigan deindustrialized town, some families
tacitly support violence as means for girls’ selfprotection and so that people will not disrespect
them and they can “hold their own.”45, 46, 47, 48 For
girls who are violent in response to their environment, it is critical that strategies and programs for
gang-membership prevention address the environment. It simply is not enough only to teach
girls to “cope” or “control their anger” without
providing them a safe place.
Preventing truancy and school dropout is key to
addressing gang-joining for both girls and boys. In
fact, attending inadequate and dangerous schools
is a common theme among girls who are involved
(or suspected of being involved) in a gang.49 Girls
in gangs are far more likely than nongang girls to
say that they feel unsafe at school, to report gang
fights and racial conflict at school, and to be less
committed to their academic work.13
Many young African-American girls report that
their teachers routinely ethnically stereotype
them, punishing them for being “loud” and “insufficiently feminine.” Latinas report that they are
ignored and assumed to be headed for dropping
out and early motherhood.49, 50
Ethnographies of public schools that serve impoverished communities powerfully document
precisely how these issues arise in the schooling
of girls at risk for gang membership.50, 51 During
elementary school, young African-American girls
are often praised by their teachers for their “social maturity,” while their white counterparts are
encouraged to work on academic skills. By high
school, however, the assertiveness of AfricanAmerican girls is often seen as something that
must be “squelched” for the sake of order in the
classroom. For example, in her seminal work,
School Girls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, and
the Confidence Gap, Peggy Orenstein argues
that, while African-American girls reach out to
their teachers more than white girls (or boys of
any race), they are “most frequently rebuffed,
they actually receive far less attention,” and end
up “pressed into disengaged silence.”51
Orenstein also argues that sexual harassment
of girls “has an accepted, codified venue in
gangs” and that teachers routinely ignore boys’
sexual and physical bullying of girls (regardless
of their ethnicity), leaving girls to have to fend
for themselves, which creates an atmosphere in
these marginalized schools of “equal opportunity
abusiveness.”51
Finally, the links between educational failure and
gang membership are clear: Low-achieving students reported greater awareness of gangs, were
more often asked to join gangs, reported more
friends in gangs and, most importantly, were
more likely to say they are in a gang.52 Therefore,
to prevent girls from joining gangs, we must address the failure of public schools to pay attention to girls and address girls’ problems. Schools
tend to shortchange girls compared with boys:
For example, girls are less frequently called on by
teachers, they are encouraged to be dependent,
their assertiveness is punished, and they are
shunted into subjects and majors that are less
financially remunerative.53, 54 For many girls at risk
of gang-joining, however, such failure is amplified
by racism. Some schools ignore or discriminate
against girls — particularly girls of color — and focus on obedience, order and control instead of on
creativity and developing challenging intellectual
and social environments.50, 51, 52
In totality, research on the quality of schooling
available to girls in gang-saturated neighborhoods
argues for school-based initiatives that support
girls’ resilience and promote their attachment to
school. For example, the increase of girls’
participation in sports over the past few decades
as a result of Title IX — and the growing body
of research suggesting good outcomes for girls
engaged in sports — is an important example of
how such programming empowers girls.55, 56
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CH A PT E R 9
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: FEMALE INTERVENTION TEAM
} INTE R V I EW WI TH M AR IAN D ANIE L
Marian Daniel is the founder of the Female
Intervention Team (FIT), which operates
within the traditional probation structure of
the Maryland Department of Juvenile Justice.
FIT offers a good example of how to go
beyond the superficial adaption of an existing
program when truly trying to address the
unique needs of girls.
Ms. Daniel recently retired as Maryland’s
Director of Girls Services for Maryland’s
Department of Juvenile Services; however,
she still works with FIT, which, in addition to
providing services for girls in Baltimore, offers
training on gender-responsive programming
in other Maryland jurisdictions. Although
FIT might be considered more of an “intervention” than a classic gang-membership
prevention program, it is highlighted here
to illustrate some of the core principles of
gender-responsive programming. FIT focuses
on girls’ unique challenges (including family
trauma) and it builds on their need for positive relationships. The program also uses
“natural” girl allies and resources, and does
so with a clever use of existing resources. In
this interview, Ms. Daniel reflects on the two
decades that FIT has been in existence.
I know you have some strong opinions
about how we, as a nation, have
historically worked with girls.
For years, people assumed that all you had
to do to make a program designed for boys
work for girls was to paint the walls pink and
take out the urinals. Even in my facility, they
painted the girls’ walls pink in a boys’ institution and said, “So, okay, now we have a girls
program.”
Can you describe some of
the FIT programs?
We have family counseling for teens, their
parents and, in some groups, grandparents.
Most groups are designed for 8- to 15-yearold girls. Counselors strive to provide a
nurturing but firm environment. We also offer
tutoring. We recruit guest speakers from the
community to share their stories, showing
clients that females like them can overcome
abuse and other difficult life circumstances.
Our Rite of Passage program gives older
teens a positive introduction to womanhood
and opportunities for community service.
Tell me about the girls in FIT.
The typical girl in FIT is a 16-year-old AfricanAmerican from a single-parent family. A large
percentage have a sexually transmitted infection and other chronic problems. Nearly one
in five is pregnant. Their most typical offense
Policy Implications
Girls who are at risk for gang involvement have
histories of abuse, strained family relationships
(particularly with their mothers), and troubled
relationships with their peers (particularly boys);
they attend unsafe schools and live in dangerous
neighborhoods. Despite this reality, media
portrayals of girls in gangs often show a glowering girl, peering over the barrel of a gun and looking very much like her male counterpart.57 This
tends to fuel a climate where the victims of poverty, racism and sexism can be blamed for their
own problems — and this, in turn, can be used
to “justify” society’s inattention to the genuine
underlying problems of marginalized girls.
128
was simple assault. Some were in a gang,
and that presented a special challenge, since
the gang mentality is a challenge. Virtually all
came from impoverished neighborhoods, and
they were in danger of going further into the
juvenile justice system. But I knew, drawing
on my experience as a probation officer, that
the girls needed someone to listen, really
listen to them.
Is it true that FIT began with no money?
Yes — and I think it’s important to understand
that sometimes it’s not all about money or
saying, “We can’t afford to do it.” It’s about
changing the way that we do business. We
had so many girls and so many different
probation officers — and nobody really understood the complexity of the few girls they
had in their caseloads. I believed that if we
had just one group of workers, we could train
them to identify issues early. I hoped that, by
working intensely with the girls, they wouldn’t
go so deeply into the system. I knew we could
do this with the probation officers we had —
but how? How could we clear our probation
officers of the boys in their caseloads? Being
a probation officer myself, I knew many
probation officers felt that working with girls
was far more difficult than working with boys.
Girls were often seen as a burden within the
typical caseload.
Such inattention to girls’ needs comes at a cost.
The trends we are currently seeing — of girls’
increasing involvement in the criminal justice
system — suggest that we are failing to prevent
girls from joining gangs. In recent years, the rates
of arrest, detention and incarceration of girls —
particularly for violent offenses — have skyrocketed. For example:
• In the mid-1970s, only 15 percent of juveniles
arrested were female; four decades later, it is
nearly one-third.58, 59
• Between 1996 and 2005, there was an 18
percent increase in court-ordered residential
placement of girls for assault.60
CHAN GIN G COURSE
How did you approach that challenge?
Girls were seen as so much of a burden that
the FIT program director offered staff not
working in the FIT unit the “opportunity” to
transfer one girl’s case for every 10 boys’
cases they accepted. We put up an ad,
almost as a joke: ‘Wanted, 10 boys for 1 girl.’
We didn’t think they would be willing to take
that many — and we thought we’d need to
bargain — but, instead, within three weeks,
the caseloads were shifted, and I had created a female-only caseload for my band of
volunteers.
How did you address the lack
of services for girls?
We didn’t have a lot of money for training, but
I knew that there were a lot of girl-serving
organizations in Baltimore, so I reached out to
them. Everybody was willing to lend a hand.
One of my first successes was to get training from the Maryland Infant and Toddlers
Program, which helped the staff understand
the unique needs of pregnant and parenting
teens. I also reached out to African-American
organizations in the city. FIT and the Urban
League staff conducted a series of information sessions covering choices, resolving
conflicts, and getting along in the home and
community for girls who came to the office
for weekly group meetings at no cost to the
state. These proved to be so popular that girls
started bringing along their friends. I also
knew that folks at Johns Hopkins [University]
might be interested in working with my girls,
so I reached out to them and got family planning services for a year at no cost to the girls
or their families.
How has FIT evolved over the years?
After receiving a technical assistance grant
from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office
of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, FIT added specific components to
address the girls’ educational challenges.
We assessed whether girls were being
properly supported by the educational system
and also provided tutoring assistance. The
program continued to address the girls’ health
problems but also strengthened its treatment
resources. We did a lot of the counseling,
but, as probation officers, we did not take on
issues outside of our expertise. We brought
in trauma specialists or sent the girls to those
services. Finally, we reached out to the Girl
Scouts, and the troop that was started is
among the most popular groups at FIT.
You talk about breaking the cycle
that often “pits a girl against a judge”
— what do you mean by that?
FIT workers have helped to break the cycle
that often pits a girl against the judge and
results in her detention for failure to abide
by the judge’s disposition — which, in turn,
often lands girls in detention. As a result of
this shift in the way of doing probation, in the
two years following its establishment, FIT saw
a 50-percent reduction in the number of girls
committed to the state’s secure facility. The
following year, the decline was 95 percent,
according to an in-house evaluation of the
program.
What changes have you noticed
over the years with respect to
the girls FIT works with?
The girls we now see are bringing new challenges. There is the terrible problem of urban
poverty, and these girls have been exposed
to high levels of violence and abuse. I think
all we have to do is look at the environments
they come from — it’s what they see. Our
children, our young people, have seen more
than I’ve seen in my 68 years of life. At the
heart of their problems, though, is family
dysfunction, so the real work is to help that
family system heal, if possible. We also need
broader societal concern about the high levels of violence in low-income communities.
As probation officers for the girls, FIT’s case
managers make formal recommendations to
the judge regarding the girl’s dispositions.
• Between 1997 and 2006, there was a 12.8
percent decrease in boys’ incarcerations (in
both detention and residential facilities) compared with only a 3.7 percent decrease
in girls’ incarcerations.61
One study showed that, overall, girls were incarcerated for less serious offenses than boys.
About half (46 percent) of girls who were committed for a “person” offense were committed
for simple assault — compared with 22 percent
of boys.4 Many of these are arguments between
girls and their parents or are minor schoolyard
arguments.62, 63 Marian Daniel, the founder of FIT
(see the sidebar “In The Spotlight: Female Intervention Team”), says that these can be situations
where the girl gets into a “push/pull” and is arrested for assault. “That’s not to simplify things,”
Daniel said, “but some of these fights have no
business coming into juvenile court.”
All of this suggests that early and comprehensive
gang-membership prevention efforts are needed
to address the underlying gang-joining risks for
girls — and we need such efforts to be part of
a broader strategy to prevent girls’ delinquency.
Such work will be challenging, however, given
years of inattention to girls’ programming and
the consequent lack of robust, gender-informed
program models.43 We urgently need strategies
to help the girls who are at the greatest risk for
gang-joining, particularly those who may turn to
129
CH A PT E R 9
a gang for “protection” or a sense of belonging.
The success of programs like Urban Women
Against Substance Abuse and FIT demonstrate
that we can take preventive action that is genderresponsive and culturally appropriate. Frankly,
without such programs, there is no reason to
believe that the trends regarding the involvement
of girls in the criminal justice system will abate.
Certainly, such work will be challenging, particularly in the current economic climate, where
proposals to spend money are very carefully
scrutinized. This is precisely why Marian Daniel’s
words are so relevant: Sometimes, it’s not all
about adding new money. As Daniel’s experience
showed, targeting girls in efforts to prevent gangjoining does not have to mean spending more
money — it can just mean that we change the
way we do business.
Conclusion
Despite the image of gangs as overwhelmingly
male, between one-quarter and one-third of
gang members are female. Therefore, gangmembership prevention efforts must focus on
girls as well as boys.
Despite the fact that girls join gangs for many of
the same reasons boys do (fun, respect, protection), there are crucial gender differences in
terms of gang-joining and of the consequences
of gang membership. Most girls end up in gangs
that are male-focused and male-dominated, and
there is scant evidence that they provide girls
with either the physical or emotional safety they
seek. Rather, these girls are more likely to be
involved in criminal activities than are girls from
their neighborhoods who are not in gangs,
and they are also at substantial risk for further
victimization.
Strategies and programs for gang-membership
prevention must be gender-informed. This can be
done by preventing child abuse through working
with high-risk parents. Strategies and programs
should also seek to reknit frayed connections
between girls and their families. We must implement effective, culturally informed, school-based
prevention programs, particularly those that assist
girls in achieving academic success, especially
in schools in gang-infested neighborhoods.
Combined with programming that works on issues that girls share with boys, these additional
gender-informed prevention efforts can offer
powerful tools to help girls avoid gang membership and overcome the many challenges in their
environments.
About the Author
Meda Chesney-Lind
Meda Chesney-Lind teaches Women’s Studies at the University of Hawaii. Dr. Chesney-Lind is
nationally recognized for her work on women and crime, and her testimony before Congress
was crucial in building national support of gender-responsive programming for girls in the
juvenile justice system. Her most recent book on girls’ use of violence, Fighting for Girls (coedited with Nikki Jones), won an award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency
for “focusing America’s attention on the complex problems of the criminal and juvenile justice
systems.”
130
CHAN GIN G COURSE
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133
Gang Violence
Weekly Assignment
Psy 703—Prof. DeGue
Worth 0-5 points
This week’s assignment is related to gang violence (chapter 11).
Based on Chapter 11 and the CDC/NIJ book Preventing Gang Membership, please choose one of the
following questions based on your interests and write a brief summary of some key ideas that address
that question. Choose the appropriate chapter from the Preventing Gang Membership book related to
the question you choose. You can download the chapters for free from here or by clicking the links on
the questions below.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Attraction of Gangs: How Can We Reduce It?
What Is the Role of Public Health in Gang-Membership Prevention?
What Is the Role of Police in Preventing Gang Membership?
How Should We Identify and Intervene With Youth at Risk of Joining Gangs?
What Should Be Done in the Family to Prevent Gang Membership?
What Can Schools Do to Help Prevent Gang-Joining?
What Should Be Done in the Community to Prevent Gang-Joining?
How Can We Prevent Girls From Joining Gangs?
Race and Ethnicity: What Are Their Roles in Gang Membership?
GENERAL GUIDANCE FOR WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS:
Remember that these weekly assignments are expected to be well-written, thoughtful,
supported by examples or citations (when appropriate/needed), and of the same quality as any
written assignment that you would turn in on paper in a face-to-face class. Writing quality will
be taken into account in grades for these assignments (but not for general discussion posts). In
terms of length, responses should generally be the equivalent of approximately 1-2 pages of
double-spaced text for a written assignment (unless otherwise specified—sometimes weekly
assignments will take different forms or have multiple parts; some will be posted on the
discussion board and others will be submitted for grading).
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