Gender Stereotypes In Gangs

Over the course of history female gangs have been largely overlooked from the focus of gang studies and research, the main focus has been how males are influenced and influence the world through gang membership. Anne Campbell argued this in her piece The Girls in the Gang, stating that it started with Frederic Thrasher’s work that merely focused on delinquent boys, even noting that the research conducted on female gangs has been largely done by male researchers (Venkatesh, 1998). However, the reality is that, girls have become more and more active in gangs since the 1980’s (Molidor, 1996). Furthermore, female gang participation has been increasing in recent times with the rate of female gang membership at ten percent (Cyr and Decker, 2003). However, self-report surveys tell a different story with the rate of females in gangs at twenty-two
First off victimization starts out when they first join the gang as becoming a member requires either being jumped in, which is getting beaten up, or sexed in, which is having sex with multiple male gang members to accomplish membership, and lastly some have a boyfriend in the gang and become involved that way. However, it is clear to see how victimization in the gang starts out early and can be especially brutal for females as their gender again effects how they are treated in comparison to their male counterparts. “Specifically, 11.6% of females report being forced to have sex against their will during their lifetime…” (Gover, Jennings, Twksbury, 2009, pg. 108). That is just the ones who reported their victimization, let’s not forget the dark figure of crime on the unknown amount of crimes that go unreported every year. This is especially evident as you would never see a potential male gang member get sexed in, this further reveals the double standards that even in today’s times females in gangs are subjected