Troubled Girls Find Acceptance In Gangs*
October 8, 1998
By Alex WinderWhere only first names appear, the names have been changed to protect the identities of the sources.
Dana, a sophomore, looks up from her Spanish book and turns to look around the room. She is petite, with a cute face and a bright smile. There is not much that distinguishes her from any of the other teenage girls in the class. But on the backpack stowed under her desk, the word "CRIP" is scrawled across the front pocket.
Closing the gender gap
Dana is one of a nationally growing population of female gangsters. In a 1994 nationwide study by the US Justice System, statistics shows that girls accounted for 25 percent of all juvenile arrests and 14 percent of all juvenile violent crime index arrests in 1994, increases of 40 percent and 11 percent, respectively, from 1985. Also, although the study classified delinquent crime among girls as "generally nonviolent in nature," arrest rates for violent crime index offenses by girls increased 125 percent from 1985 through 1994, while the same rate for boys increased by a comparatively smaller 67 percent. The study suggests that the female rates increased primarily as a cause of an inflation in the number of arrests for robbery and aggravated assault.
Dana has been involved with gangs ever since seventh grade, when she was introduced to a gang by friends. "I would go steal cars. One time I broke into a house. We used to go smoke weed and cigarettes," Dana remembers. "At the time I was only thirteen."
The life of gangsters, including female gangsters, is a daily ordeal. Carl, a 17-year-old junior at Blair has been involved with gangs since he was ten years old. He says that most female gang members behave recklessly on a daily basis. "They steal, [have sex], and just get into trouble a lot. They steal a lot of cars. Most of them sell drugs," Carl says.
Carl says that the role of girls in gangs is pretty much the same as that held by males. However, he says that girls end up causing more trouble for themselves, offering as his only explanation, "that's the way girls are."
Girls face different consequences from living the gang lifestyle, including unwanted pregnancy, the threat of rape, and an even greater risk of sexually transmitted disease. Dana knows that being in a gang is dangerous, regardless of gender. She has found herself in risky, even life threatening, situations. "[My gang] was having some problems with a rival gang and some girls were threatening me. They said they wanted to kill me," Dana recalls earnestly.
A family affair
According to Carl, the number of female gangsters has recently decreased in the area around Blair. He credits this decline to pregnancies, which force many female gangsters to give up their gang lifestyle in order to give birth and raise their children.
However, a Connecticut Clearinghouse Fact Sheet on youth gangs states that "girls are increasingly involved in gangs [and some] are also raising their children in a gang environment."
Exposure as young children to violence, drug abuse and alcohol abuse is one factor which may influence the choice of adolescents to join gangs. Jody Miller, who studied female gang members in Columbus, Ohio, noticed that, almost exclusively, "girls who identified themselves as gang members came from homes where domestic violence and substance abuse were common."
Dr. Mary Appenzeller, an employee at the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy and Diagnostic Evaluation Center in Bethesda, believes that the motivation for joining a gang often starts in the home. "Teenage girls feel the need to belong, the need to feel secure, and in many cases their family does not provide this sense of acceptance. Girls turn to gangs as a kind of family, to satisfy their need to belong and feel accepted," she says. "[Gangs] do provide a sense of security, but often it is a false security."
Dana feels that she was drawn to gangs in part because of her family.
In Dana's case, her older sister was the leader of the gang Dana joined. "That was part of [my motivation for becoming involved in gangs]. Definitely," Dana says, "It was cool. Everyone had each other's back. They respect you a lot when you are in a gang, and my sister was the leader, so I was accepted very easily."
Getting out
Appenzeller says that, when a girl joins a gang, "her role models are other gang members, and not responsible adults," and although these girls may have poor adult role models at home, the gang members they may idolize are equally poor role models. Often they are led down a path of violence, drug abuse, and casual sex, ending up pregnant or in court before they have graduated from high school.
Dana realizes that she cannot continue her gang lifestyle without consequences. She feels that she was shocked into reality when she was caught stealing a car. "[Getting caught] helped me to see that what I was doing was wrong. Spending the night in jail forced me to see the truth," she says.
Dana hopes to graduate from high school and go to college, leaving her gang days behind her. "I've been gang banging for about two and a half years now," Dana says. "I'm just sick and tired of it."
However, leaving a gang is not nearly as easy as joining one. Not only must you be "jumped" out, a ritual which involves being physically beaten, but leaving a gang can often mean leaving an entire network of friends. "Some [gang members] don't want to talk to you. They call you a traitor," Dana says, reflecting on the difficulty of leaving a gang.
Despite the hardships of abandoning something as consuming as life in a gang, failure to do so can end tragically, even in death. In turn, the rewards, as found by Miller, include a higher rate of high school graduation and increased self esteem.
*From Silver Chips, the student newspaper of Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Springs, Maryland.