Detrimental Effects of Female Gang Membership on Health

Introduction to Gangs and Female Membership

In sociological terms, gangs typically refers to groups of juveniles. Gangs are seen as a form of establishing social order that offers an alternative source of status. The term "gang" typically evokes violence, drug use and dealing, and crime.

When a new member joins a gang, he or she must usually go through an initiation. Initiations do not usually involve elaborate ceremonies or formalities, but the initiate must endure certain rites. The most common is "jumping in" — a beating administered by all existing gang members. Gangs that accept female members sometimes rape them as their initiation instead of a jumping in. Following the initiation, the new gang member must participate in a mission. This can be anything from stealing a car to engaging in a firefight with a rival gang. Some gangs do not consider anyone a full member until they have shot or killed someone. Getting a tattoo with gang symbols may also be part of the initiation process.

Daily gang life is generally not very exciting. Gang members sleep late, sit around the neighborhood, drink and do drugs, and possibly gather at a meeting place in the evening, such as a pool hall or roller rink. They may work a street corner selling drugs or commit petty crimes like vandalism or theft. The notion of respect drives gang life almost completely, and for many gang members, gaining respect means committing violent crimes. While violent activity is relatively rare compared to their other activities, gangs do assault, shoot, and kill people for money, territory, pride, or revenge.

According to "Gang Facts and Statistics," the estimated total number of gang members in 2009 was one million. Of that number, 6% to 10% were female. In the United States, approximately 14,000 girls are held in correctional or residential facilities, with the majority having some kind of gang affiliation. Several issues contribute to or influence female gang membership. Nearly one in three girls in gangs has been in special education. In addition, they are often from low-income backgrounds and have been sexually victimized and/or exposed to violence. Their low income status, lack of education, and victimization are further complicated in most cases by family dysfunction.

Gangs are studied because they represent a serious social concern — one that stems from traditionally masculine acts of vandalism, violence, and other serious threats committed by gang members. It was long believed that women did not participate in these activities; therefore, early researchers were not interested in the delinquency of female gang members (Murrish). Despite seven decades of research on male gangs and crime, there has been no parallel trend in research on girls' involvement in gang activity.

Official data from law enforcement sources suggest that girls comprise between 8% and 11% of youth in gangs. However, a number of recent studies that survey gang youth suggest that females make up 20% to 46% of gang members (Murrish). Law enforcement data tend to underestimate the extent of female gang membership for several reasons, including a lack of a common definition of "gang member" and the consistent underreporting of female participation in gangs. The higher numbers recorded in self-report surveys may also reflect the younger ages of survey respondents compared to the youth who appear on police rosters: females tend to drop out of gang life earlier than males, often because of pregnancy (Murrish). Although the percentage of girls involved in delinquency and crime has increased significantly over the past two decades, it remains well below the level of boys' involvement, and the nature of the activity differs significantly (Murrish).

Each of these deficiencies in the traditional gang literature points to the single most important reason for studying girls in gangs: girls and boys are different. Although they may share many of the same experiences, they act, react, and interact in different ways. Exploring the differences between males and females — in their reasons for joining gangs, their methods of entry, their activities within the gang, their paths out of the gang, and community responses to gang participation — is therefore a key factor in understanding the phenomenon.

Why Girls Join Gangs

The factors that influence delinquent development differ for males and females in some contexts but not others (Murrish). Most often, it appears that girls join gangs because they are seeking a familial peer group and emotionally fulfilling relationships with other members. Boys, on the other hand, are more drawn to the action associated with gang affiliation (Murrish). For this reason, girls express a higher level of attachment to the gang because they come to it looking for that kind of connection. The reasons for any juvenile joining a gang are complex and personal. Though most females join gangs for friendship and self-affirmation, recent research has begun to shed light on the economic and family pressures that motivate many young women to join. Many of the impulses that propel youth into gangs are social and understandable — the need for safety, security, and a sense of purpose and belonging.

Problems at home or within the family are one primary reason youth join gangs. One aspect of female gang life does not appear to be changing: the gang serves as a refuge for girls who have been abused at home. For many, the gang serves as an alternate family. Problems such as weak supervision, family violence, lack of attachment to parents, and drug and alcohol abuse by family members have been identified as factors that contribute to the likelihood that girls will join gangs (Murrish). Young women begin spending more time away from home as a result of the dangers and difficulties there, and seek to meet their social and emotional needs elsewhere. In some families, parents are working several jobs to make ends meet, and supervision is absent. Older gang members take on the role of parental figures in many young people's lives. To some, the gang becomes a closer family than their biological family because it is present every day.

A second reason cited by both male and female gang members for joining is to escape from poverty. Gang research has traditionally assumed that delinquency among marginalized young men is an understandable, if not normal, response to their circumstances. Throughout the twentieth century, poverty and economic marginality were associated with the emergence of gangs. In the late 1980s and 1990s, hundreds of thousands of factory jobs disappeared, making conditions even worse in inner cities (Murrish). It is not surprising that gangs proliferated across the nation during that period. An informal economy flourished, consisting predominantly of drug dealing. Economically successful gangs — both male and female — became significant community institutions, offering resources and protection to members (Murrish). Because they are products of distressed neighborhoods, gangs emerge to meet many of the needs that established institutions such as schools, families, and communities fail to address.

It is the behaviors of youth in gangs that are viewed by the broader community as disruptive and harmful — to the gang members themselves as well as to the surrounding community. Ironically, the sense of solidarity achieved from sharing everyday life with similarly situated people has the unintended effect of drawing many youth into behaviors that ultimately create new problems for them (Murrish). The reasons most frequently cited in the literature for joining a gang include abuse and family problems at home, poverty, boredom, and family or community connections to gang members. Independently, these factors do not necessarily lead to gang membership; it is their combination that increases the probability (Murrish).

Health Consequences of Female Gang Involvement

A study published in Pediatrics revealed startling and detrimental health effects of female gang membership. The study involved 522 non-incarcerated African-American females between the ages of 14 and 18, with an average age of 16 (Wingood et al.). Interviews were conducted by African-American medical and public health students from December 1996 to April 1999. The proportion of females who reported a history of gang involvement was 14.8%. Overall, 29% of the females tested positive for sexually transmitted infections or diseases (Wingood et al.). Health-compromising behaviors included risky sexual activity, drug and alcohol abuse, and exposure to violence.

The authors of the study note that this population is understudied and that future research would benefit from longitudinal research designs. The sample was also limited to African-American female adolescents, meaning the findings may not be generalizable to other racial or ethnic groups, males, or adolescents living in larger urban environments. Additionally, the study did not examine factors associated with gang involvement such as the length of time participants were in gangs, whether they were involved in male or female-only gangs, or the type of gang (e.g., street or drug gangs). Examining broader social contextual factors associated with gang involvement may be crucial for developing prevention programs designed to deter female gang membership (Wingood et al.).

A significant finding from this study is the association between gang involvement and sexually transmitted diseases: adolescents with a history of gang involvement were 3.5 times more likely to test positive for a sexually transmitted disease. Those adolescents also suffered increased incidences of depression and low self-esteem (Wingood et al.). The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement indicating that pediatricians can play a critical role in assisting gang-involved adolescents — by making referrals to community violence prevention programs, advocating for recreational, therapeutic, and occupational programs, and coordinating national policy with a serious focus on preventing the root causes of gang involvement (Wingood et al.).

Another study published in Feminist Criminology focused on incarcerated females, which limited its generalizability. However, the study found a high rate of victimization among the females examined and documented the cycle of violence that creates risk factors for female delinquency (Belknap and Holsinger). With 24% of subjects claiming gang membership, the role of violence in the home was significant. Of the females in the study, 20.9% had experienced at least one pregnancy, and 8.9% had been pregnant twice. Keeping in mind that these are adolescents, 5.7% reported being pregnant three or more times (Belknap and Holsinger). Of the girls who reported a pregnancy, more than one quarter (27.8%) reported a miscarriage and approximately one twentieth (5.7%) reported having an abortion. The violence present in their lives, coupled with early sexual activity, indicates major risk factors for future criminal behavior in girls (Belknap and Holsinger). Sadly, the devaluation of the lives of both juvenile delinquents and non-delinquent abused children from economically disadvantaged homes appears to have become the status quo in the United States.

A third study, published in Criminal Justice and Behavior, examined 234 female delinquents held in a girls' facility with a minimum court-ordered commitment of 12 weeks and a maximum stay of approximately 6 months (St. Lawrence et al.). The ages ranged from 13 to 17 years, with an average of 15.1. The sample was 84% African-American, 13% Caucasian, and 1% Asian-American or Native American. Surprisingly, while there was a high rate of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, none of the participants were HIV-seropositive (St. Lawrence et al.). However, given the incidence of pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, these girls face a high potential risk for HIV infection and had, at least to the time of the study, avoided that serious consequence (St. Lawrence et al.).

With respect to program delivery, the researchers noted there may be a window of opportunity during the period that youth offenders are incarcerated — yet it may also be preferable to wait until after release, when participants will have real-world opportunities to apply new knowledge and skills as they are learned. Delivering interventions within correctional facilities has the advantages of minimizing attrition, maintaining attendance, delivering greater intervention dosage, and controlling for both assessments and delivery. The disadvantages are twofold: incarcerated girls will not have real-world opportunities to practice newly acquired skills between sessions, and questions remain about whether content learned during incarceration will transfer effectively to their daily lives after they return home (St. Lawrence et al.).

Works Cited

Belknap, Joanne, and Kristi Holsinger. "The Gendered Nature of Risk Factors for Delinquency." Feminist Criminology 1.48 (2006). Print.

Murrish, Helen. "Youth Gang Membership: Gender Difference and Gang Participation." La Follette School of Public Affairs (2001). Web. 15 July 2010.

St. Lawrence, Janet S., Edward C. Snodgrass, Angela Robertson, and Connie Baird-Thomas. "Minimizing the Risk of Pregnancy, Sexually Transmitted Disease and HIV among Incarcerated Adolescent Girls." Criminal Justice and Behavior 35.1500 (2008). Print.

Wingood, Gina, Ralph DiClemente Jr., Rick Crosby, Kathy Harrington, Susan L. Davies, and Edward W. Hook III. "Gang Involvement and the Health of African-American Females." Pediatrics: Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics 110 (2002). Print.