Gangs, Female

Increase in Female Gangs

More females have joined gangs in the United States in the past decade. Criminologists have usually categorized the members of these gangs into three types based largely on Walter Miller's 1975 threefold typology. The first and most common type include young women who affiliate with a male gang because of a relationship (sister, cousin, or girlfriend) to one or more members of the male gang rather than a primary desire to be a gang member. These women are not “official” gang members; their involvement with the gang results from a relationship, and the duration of their gang affiliation often lasts as long as the relationship. Sometimes they adopt a feminized name of the male gang, such as Latin Queens.

The second category includes female members of mixed-gender gangs. Such young women often go through initiations and rituals to join the gang, that is, they are “rolled-in,” “jumped-in,” or “sexed-in” and become official gang members. They may participate in illegal gang activities similar to those of males, but overall, they play a lesser role in gang-related activities.

A final type of gang involvement is membership in an all-female independent gang that is not subordinate to any male gang. This is the least common of the three types. Members of the female independent gang may “hang out” with male gang members and participate in both illegal and legal activities with them, but these young men are not part of their gang.

A Study of Female Gangs

This research, which occurred from 1998 through 2001 in San Antonio, Texas, involved an experimental group of 150 Mexican American female adolescent gang members or affiliates, between the ages of 14 and 18, who were compared with a control group of 150 Mexican American adolescent females not involved with gangs.

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