Compare and contrast male and female gang members

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Gangs and gang membership remain, on the whole, predominantly male, but the number of gang-involved females has increased over the years (Delaney 2006; Esbensen 2000; Howell 2007).

Early constructs of female gang membership treated girls as primarily satellites or auxiliary members of male gangs, whose participation in gang activities was minimal and whose function was often restricted to serving in a sexual role or as a weapon carrier for male gang members (Delaney 2006; Moore and Hagedorn 2001; Thrasher 1927).

More recent research, however, has found the nature of female gang involvement to be more complex, and although many females do exist on the periphery of male gangs as auxiliary members, many others belong to autonomous female gangs or exist as full-fledged members of gender-integrated gangs (Moore and Hagedorn 2001).

The most common age at which girls enter gangs is 11 or 12, with the prime age of initiation occurring between ages 13 and 14, but Eghigian and Kirby (2006, 48) note, "It is not unheard of for girls to slide into gang involvement as early as age 8 . Those who enter at this age and up to 10 years of age often have relatives who are gang members or have experienced a strong gang presence in their neighborhoods.".