Abstract
The project deals with the problem of females’ participation in street gangs, more specifically, the reasons and the roles assumed by them in these criminal groups. Structure and classifications of street bands both in the USA and abroad have been given a particular focus of attention. The research is based on the opinions of key subject field experts, such as jurisprudents, psychologists, and sociologists recorded in psychology and legal journals, as well as topic-related newspaper and journal articles.
Key words: street gangs, women, mobsters, criminal, drugs, initiation
As strange as it may sound, women involvement in organized crime is not uncommon these days all over the world, be it in the capacity of ordinary soldiers or members associated with gang leaders. It is often that we learn about women’s being involved in gangs through media reports. Some insist they will hardly make it to the top tier of the criminal hierarchy; however, some have come to be the leaders of the fiercest of mobs, coming close to being Al Capones of the underworld, so to speak. There no age, gender, ethnic or racial limitations, with women representing both male and female gang groups partially or in their entirety. There are various reasons for them to join the ranks of organized crime mobs from males pressure to personal motives; however, once accepted, they go on to be engaged in the whole variety of underworld activities incomparable in their brutality at times.
According to Arbai (1999), most police departments and governmental agencies see no urgency in dealing with female participation in organized crime. Their underestimating the disturbing pace at which female delinquents enter into mobs or form those of their own is a serious miscalculation. Women were first reported to be the active members of a gang as far back as 1791 in Philadelphia; still, their aggression was at its lowest, if at all, when compared to their contemporaries. Mobs of today are a lot different in their brutality that unlike their precursors, with female gangsters observed injuring or killing adults or even children who happen to be innocent bystanders or victims caught in the middle of violent street shootout or pursuits. As per statistics, Long Angeles, the notoriously known gang capital, has 1,200 gang groups operating. Out of 100,000 members identified, approximately 7,000 were women, performing in some capacity. Overall, there is not much to be found in terms of statistics insofar as women are stereotypically not deemed as violent gang members (Arbai, 1999).
According to Cawley (2013), in the so-called Northern Triangle, Central America is the most dangerous region as relating to drug trafficking where a great number of femicides are to be recorded. The anti-record holder El Salvador had the highest ratio of women murders, of whom many are the gang unrelated relatives and parents of female gangsters while murder is more of an act of revenge than a mere coincidence. Murders are said to be for the most part due to them being involved in gang groups. As per research conducted in Honduras as many as 20% of women were identified as being involved in gangs, with 52% in MS13 and 45% in Barrio. Guatemala has seen twice as many female prisoners entering jails over the past 8 years as they had seen before 2005.
There are multiple reasons why women end up being members of gang groups, such as aspirations to receive financial opportunities for improving personal welfare, the desire to gain identity and status, the pressure of peers, protection, and family dysfunction. Heavy gang presence as well as relatives’ affiliation to these groups may both be instrumental in bringing women in. However nonsensical it may sound, women may opt for joining gangs out of boredom and the loss of interest in social life, looking for excitement, reveling parties and dating opportunities (Eghigian & Kirby 2006). More specifically, women to join street gangs tend to stem from violence- and unemployment-ridden precincts that are rejected by society as belonging to a low socio-economic stratum. Most of former female mobsters to come out as criminals confess to living under filthy, cramped conditions in shackle, as good as derelict graffiti airbrushed apartments, teeming with mice and cockroaches at the point of joining street gangs (Arbai, 1999).
Being born into such neighborhoods or ghettos as well as having to live on mediocre state subventions causes them to seek higher social standards elsewhere. Hopelessness, despair, galloping crime rate and poverty simply leave no room for any socially equitable alternative, portraying life prospects in dark colors, with parents not impressing children on achieving success through education. In order for them to climb economic ladder by getting themselves pulled out of the misery of such existence, young women look for illegal options. Female mobsters might well have been subject to physical harassment, emotional abandonment as well as having witnessed proscribed substance abuse in their families. Lacking for support and tutelage, women find it in criminal groups more or less, no matter how unhealthy (Arbai, 1999).
What they under-receive is love, which causes emotional crisis, what is more, they live in a very unhealthy family microclimate, having parents scream at them or apply physical force. Jodi Miller (n.d.) admitted that most female gangsters confessed to having been exposed to domestic violence and substance abuse in family that had brought them to street gangs (as cited in Arbai, 1999). Joe and Chesney-Lind (1995) and Lauderback (1992) suggested that women might and did become a part of a band since they are manhandled at home and seek proper protection (as cited in Miller, 1998). Sexually abused, they find security in the hands of the first best person who oftentimes happens to be a male criminal. Not only is their support short-lived, but they themselves soon become a problem, sexually assaulting or raping their female fellows-in-crime repeatedly, to be precisely, after which women become young mothers who are forced into being gang members, not being able to subsist on state welfare or provide for their child, being underpaid if employed. Some have nothing to do but remain engaged in illegal activities due to them having joined street bands in lieu of studying in colleges (Arbai, 1999). Eghigian and Kirby (2006) admitted that the worst point about women’s giving birth to children when in a gang is that children get indoctrinated into this mode of life.
Those are the main reasons that motivate women to join gangs; still important are the functions that they perform while in such bands. Cawley (2013) suggested that women affiliated with Central American gangs groups called “maras” perform dualistic role of being exploited by male gangsters or being seriously relied on by their male associates. Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) street bands were handpicked for research to determine the role played women, which is said to be “disempowered, but crucial”. They undertake to do male tasks and assume male characteristics that imply perpetration, endurance of violence, wearing men’s clothes as well as performing female roles of cooking and caring for male, children, and the sick. Since female are perceived as being less suspicious in authorities’ estimation, they get tasked with acting as drug mules or those transporting illicit substances by previously swallowing them and concealing in their stomach cavity, smuggling substances into jails, conducting reconnaissance to uncover intelligence on hostile criminal groups as well as carrying arms in public areas (Cawley, 2013).
Experts believe women to be the underappreciated asset in possession of male gang groups for whom they do the dirtiest of high-risk work. To put a simple example, Guatemalan authorities’ reports have women working as assassins and thieves. Take Mexico and its 400% increase in the number of women indicted on charges of drug trafficking in the timeframe between 2007 and 2010, which means women seem to have been working for drug cartels for quite a while now. More importantly than that, they are thought to be moving upwards in the criminal hierarchy, taking over important positions in the Gulf Cartel, including those of assassins as well as managerial or administrative offices (Cawley, 2013). With women’s gangs role evolving exponentially there no saying it will be that easily to wean them from crime-related activities at least at this point in time while others have hard times trying to quit.
Eghigian and Kirby (2006) asserted there were 4 major membership categories, per which functions were distributed. These categories include auxiliary members of male mobs, female members of unisex gangs, members of all-women mobs, and female leaders in unisex gangs. Chicago-based gangs mostly have women as auxiliary members of their criminal groups while some manage to achieve a measure of autonomy within a gang as well as influence to be exerted on other female affiliates. The weakest female representatives see to it that no rival infiltrates into the band or trespasses on its territory as well as performing drug or weapon courier functions, tempting rivals into ambushes and providing alibis. As they gain credibility, women may be trusted with laundering money for the “family”. Not only building a liaison between the imprisoned and gang members on the streets, but also smuggling drugs and contraband items into correctional facilities is yet another important female mission.
According to Eghigian and Kirby (2006), women may undertake for holding and transporting weapon besides the above-mentioned drugs, infiltrating into law enforcement agencies or clerk’s offices apart from hostile to gather intelligence needed on hostile gangsters, crime eyewitnesses. Women are well-known for working in law firms to establish ties with those incarcerated, working for companies, doing temp work in order to gather information on accounts and credit cards holders for committing white-collar frauds. Moore and Hagedorn (2001) claimed that, as per statistics of gang-related charges in Chicago over the period between 1993 and 1996, women came to be engaged in such violent activities as homicides, simple batteries, mobs actions as well as such drug crimes as cocaine, crack and other proscribed substances possession, to say nothing of prostitution, property, weaponry-related crimes. As may well be deduced from the above, women major in all types of delinquencies and felonies, without lagging behind their male counterparts in this respect.
Women may go as far as to frame up opposing rivals for murder and support such violent and highly illicit activities as robberies, burglaries, car thefts, carjackings, selling drugs, or drive-by shootings. Purchasing weaponry and concealing money are also widespread activities, involving female gangsters (Eghigian & Kirby, 2006). Baker (2012) gave an interesting insight into female gang roles. The low-level secretarias major in procuring burnout phone numbers to make calls between gangsters until they are blocked by operators. There also are female facilitators, dating a family member and specializing in conveying messages to inmates or providing mail communication. They are sometimes tasked with clearing all the bank accounts to disable police investigations and their tracing money routes and amounts. With secretarias not available, they may establish communication phone lines. Senoras are the girlfriends or wives of Mexican gangsters who are of particular importance to the gang since they undertake to provide highly delicate information if need be (Baker, 2012).
According to Baker (2012), women would not be considered an important part of gang culture until 1970s. Eghigian and Kirby (2006) believed that if women did happen to run a coed gang, with both men and women in, they tended to rather exert influence over female part of the criminal structure. Rarely do they come to be involved in decision-making, their words carrying enough wisdom to convince male counterparts. In the event of getting incarcerated a male boos may surrender his power to a female co-leader who should have an immense credibility and hard-earned respect, long-term history of affiliation as well as bonds with the former. There are all-female gang groups, enjoying a measure of autonomy in Los Angeles; however, they are hardly classified, much less treated as street gangs, though moving in that direction towards receiving a much coveted status.
Boycotting male authoritarianism may result in their assuming far superior role than they previously had. Apart from well-structured bands, there are party crews, defined by anarchy, the habit of partying, and the lack of rituals, hierarchy, and allegiance. They are often involved in drug dealing not without crossing the path of the well-organized reputed street gangs that waste no time in retaliating and forcing them into paying a street tax for selling substances or forfeiting their lives. Groupies are non-members with high membership aspirations and gangster illusions who think of themselves as being such. They stick to street bands, though being uninitiated, and may get themselves involved in low-profile crimes, while enjoying autonomy (Eghigian & Kirby, 2006).
According to Cawley (2013), inequality is allegedly in place in the course of initiation custom when two options are left for women to choose to receive a beat-down or be on intimate terms with a number of male associates for a certain spell of time. This is a must-undergo custom with the exception of those who date gang members, being accepted automatically; however what they will likely have to do is tolerate infidelity while should a woman reciprocate it, she should be eliminated immediately thereafter. Eghigian and Kirby (2006) claimed there were 4 ways of initiating outsiders into a gang that were said to be either optional or dictated. Tagging a person as “violated” or “jumped in” may refer to the already mentioned way of physical initiation in order for a woman to prove herself loyal, capable of enduring pain and committed to the mob. The mission implies committing a criminal act, such as shooting while driving or surviving after being left in the middle of a hostile territory. “Sexed in” alludes to the mentioned low profile mode of initiation that is least expected among mobsters. “Walked in” or “blessed in” is applicable to female second or third-generation would-be gangsters who have an imposing criminal pedigree or lineage or those to have won an utmost respect and credibility in a neighborhood (Eghigian and Kirby, 2006).
Far from being difficult for a quitting woman to stay untouched, parting ways with a gang may be punishable by death. The decision to leave may be due to women’s wanting to bring a child into a crime-free world. They are not able to dispose of gang identity any more than they can avoid being manhandled by their former fellows. Nor will women have zero problems reintegrating back into society, facing serious ostracism or excommunication possibility, in other words, they have to get used to living stigmatized with a lily on their shoulder, the brand of disgrace just like the 17-th century French thieves used to for committing offenses (Cawley, 2013).
Conclusions
Women’ affiliation with street gangs is rather a widespread phenomenon these days. There are a whole variety of reason for women to join gangs from personal family conflicts and maltreatment to the desire of making a name for themselves or while away their time. When in a gang women perform multiple tasks. Though they have risen enough over the years in the eyes of their male counterparts to be trusted high-risk assassination or management duties, they still enjoy rather a mediocre status within a group. However, if truth be told, they may sometimes come to take over a leading positions in an all-female or unisex gang to exert influence not only on women, but also on their male fellows-in-crime. Quitting is not an easy task that may come with a child being born since there usually comes a retaliation or harassment of those deciding to part their ways with former gang mates. Nor is reintegration into society an easy task for the former female gang members.
References
Arbai, S. (1999, July 26). Females and street gangs: the causes, consequences, and solutions. Edge. Ethics of Development in a Global Environment. Retrieved from: http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/gangcolor/femalegang.htm
Baker, K. (2012, December 24). Women can lead gangs, too. Jezebel. Retrieved from: http://jezebel.com/5971057/women-can-lead-gangs-too
Cawley, M. (2013, September 05). The Mara women: gender roles in Cent Am street gangs. In Sight Crime. Retrieved from: http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/centam-street-gangs-reject-rely-on-women-study
Eghigian, M. & Kirby, K. (2006, October 05). Girls in gangs: on the rise in America. Aca.org. Retrieved from: http://www.aca.org/fileupload/177/prasannak/Eghigian-Kirby-21.pdf
Miller, J. (1998, November). Gender and victimization risk among young women in gangs. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 35(4). 429-453. Retrieved from: http://www.streetgangs.com/academic/miller_genervivt.pdf
Moore J. & Hagedorn, J. (2001, March). Female gangs: a focus on research. Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Retrieved from: http://www.west.asu.edu/ckatz/gangclass/Section_1/female.pdf
