Describe the criminal activity of the female gang member and compare it to the male gang member

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Previous research has shown that found that in every offense category female gang members have a higher rate of delinquent offenses than non-gang females. Most studies of gangs show that gang membership tends to increase rates of delinquency after individuals join gangs and tend to decrease after they leave. Girls are involved in very few homicides and they differ significantly from those committed by boys. The research is also clear that male gang members commit far more crimes than their female counterparts. A study by Esbensen, Deschenes, and Winfree (1999) found that gang girls, while to significantly lesser degree in number of incidents, are very similar to gang boys in the types of illegal acts they commit. These researchers concluded that their findings did not support the idea that gang girls are only ancillary members or that they are excluded from the illegal and violent activities in which male gang members are exposed. "They are involved in assaults, robberies, gang fights, and drug sales at substantial rates" (Esbensen et al., 1999:48).
More recent studies show that gang-related delinquency among girls is related to the gender mix of the gangs. For example, Fleisher and Krienert (2004) found that having a large proportion of males in their gangs increases girls' participation in delinquency and violence (see also Miller and Brunson, 2000). Peterson, Miller, and Esbensen (2001) found that delinquency, particularly of a serious nature, was less likely within primarily female gangs than all male or mixed gender gangs. Also, girls in mostly male gangs had higher delinquency rates than boys who are in all-male gangs. Jody Miller's study (2001) of gangs in St. Louis and Columbus, Ohio found that girls in gangs did not participate in the most serious forms of gang crime mainly because the male members excluded them and because many of the girls did not want to be involved in activities they considered either dangerous or morally troubling. There is also the fact that there are gender differences in norms supportive of violence and delinquency (Joe and Chesney-Lind, 1995; Campbell, 1993). Also, compared to male gang members, girls in gangs are less likely to be engage in fighting and they are less likely to carry weapons (Morash, Park and Kim, 2010: location 5000; see also Joe and Chesney-Lind, 1995; Miller, 2001; Sampson, Morenoff and Raudenbush, 2005; Molnar at al., 2004).